A Book Review and a Movie Review
Sep. 5th, 2004 09:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kenjariThe Movie
Vanity Fair
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hca, epilimnion, Berly, and I went out to see "Vanity Fair"(based on the Thackeray novel) today. It's very well done. I did indeed read the book, so nothing in the movie came as a surprise. The film, in fact, sticks very closely to the book, only making the kinds of changes and cuts that are necessary for success in a different medium. But it does so in a way that hangs together well and completely works. Reese Witherspoon is very good as Becky Sharp, although the movie does seem to play down her more conniving side. The costumes are a feast for the eyes.
The Book
The Eye in the Door
by Pat Barker
This is the second in the WWI trilogy that started with Regeneration. War is still not the business of sane men. This book focuses much more on the home front and Billy Prior, one of the secondary characters in Regeneration. The pressures of the war create in him such a profound dissociation of personality that he in fact develops multiple personality disorder. The book also deals heavily with the scapegoating and persecution of homosexuals and pacifists that occured in Britain when the war was not going well. This, of course, required many people to lead double lives. Barker is here making the point that in order to be able to do the things war requires, people must close off or even shut down large parts of themselves. And this creates conflicts that cannot easily be resolved in healthy ways. The external conflict also becomes internal, with people and societies battling not only against a military enemy but also against themselves.
Vanity Fair
hca, epilimnion, Berly, and I went out to see "Vanity Fair"(based on the Thackeray novel) today. It's very well done. I did indeed read the book, so nothing in the movie came as a surprise. The film, in fact, sticks very closely to the book, only making the kinds of changes and cuts that are necessary for success in a different medium. But it does so in a way that hangs together well and completely works. Reese Witherspoon is very good as Becky Sharp, although the movie does seem to play down her more conniving side. The costumes are a feast for the eyes. The Book
The Eye in the Door
by Pat Barker
This is the second in the WWI trilogy that started with Regeneration. War is still not the business of sane men. This book focuses much more on the home front and Billy Prior, one of the secondary characters in Regeneration. The pressures of the war create in him such a profound dissociation of personality that he in fact develops multiple personality disorder. The book also deals heavily with the scapegoating and persecution of homosexuals and pacifists that occured in Britain when the war was not going well. This, of course, required many people to lead double lives. Barker is here making the point that in order to be able to do the things war requires, people must close off or even shut down large parts of themselves. And this creates conflicts that cannot easily be resolved in healthy ways. The external conflict also becomes internal, with people and societies battling not only against a military enemy but also against themselves.
