I have to be honest, I was completely lost when people started talking about feelings and such during last class. I just didn’t know what people were trying to say, and maybe that’s why we needed a different word other than “feeling.” I still don’t know if we came up with one that satisfied the situation.
I can see how directors took the novel and adapted it into a movie; each film had its own method of doing so. But I don’t know if the first two films captured the original plot of the novel. “The Glass Key” (film) was more of a love story than anything else, but the novel was about a detective-like man solving the murder of Taylor Henry. The movie hardy focused on the murder at all. You see the relationship between Ed and Paul, Ed and Nick, Ed and Jeff, Ed and Janet, Paul and Janet somewhat. But what about Taylor Henry and everyone else? The film wraps everything to a close when Ed suddenly goes to Janet’s house and solves the case, which was barely examined at all elsewhere. The only thing about this film that was even remotely similar to the novel is most of the characters, but there are even problems with that – Ned=Ed, Shad O’Rory=Nick Varna. Maybe I’m coming down so hard on this film simply because it took on the same name of the book, but couldn’t truthfully carry that title through to the credits. I feel the people who were involved in making this film had other plans which they would invoke throughout it. For instance, a homosexual love story between Jeff and Ed.
As for “Yojimbo” I see the film as using aspects from the novel, but making a film about something else. Sanjura came into the town messed everyone up a little, then killed them all, and left, knowing he had cleaned the place up. Ned was never trying to clean anything up! He only wanted to get ahead in life, and that can be seen with him getting Paul to pull some strings to make him a detective just so he could get his gambling money back. Sanjura could care less about money, and the closest resemblance between the two of them is that they were good at playing all the sides. Even then Sanjura played everyone a whole lot more than Ned did in the novel.
Now “Miller’s Crossing,” even though I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, wasn’t a great adaptation of the novel either. I can see how the film is more “conscious” of itself, pulling in factors and points that draw a comparison between the film and book. I understand that adaptations don’t always follow the written works they come from. (Look at “The Scarlet Letter,” an extremely loose adaptation of its novel. It has a great cast, but there are so many odd and horrible things about it that I can’t even explain them.) There is definitely more of a gangster feel to this film than the “The Glass Key” (film), and that is one factor which brings the film closer to the novel. But even though Bernie is supposed to be (I think) Taylor Henry, the film is far different from the novel, because one of the underlying factors that kept the book going was the Henry murder and trying to figure out who did it. Bernie was not murdered in the beginning and he wasn’t killed in the woods, so he doesn’t fit Taylor’s role.
I guess this is just my own feelings on adaptations not being true to their predecessors. I also must say that the comparison of the number of words in the sentences and number of seconds in each shot was a pretty cool thing to see. Many people in class didn’t seem to think very highly of this idea, but I really thought it was interesting.