Six Of One...

Day 365: So which was better, the book or the movie? I have to tell you, it was "six of one, half dozen of another." Both have their strong points and weaknesses, and where one falls down, the other substantially supports it. The novel is monolog/dialog-driven and focuses primarily on Mark Watney's log entries, heavy on conversation, with no descriptions of interior or exterior environment. The reader gets very little fuel for the imagination, or as I put it to one friend, "It's like watching TV on paper." However, the lack of descriptive writing in the book is counterbalanced in the film's remarkable filmography (some of the best I've seen), but the thought processes detailed in the novel are lost in favour of a flurry of hard-to-follow action sequences in the movie. Overall, the film gives a better sense of the timeframe of events, jumping between the venues of Mars and various agencies.

In the movie, the protagonist's mental efforts with respect to problem-solving are unvoiced; the audience understands that he made miscalculations which caused his plan/plans to fail, but the hard science behind the failures is lost. The fast action of the film has you gripping the arms of your theater seat as you experience the suddenness of each potentially catastrophic event in real-time, and while the book is a can't-put-it-down work, the movie doesn't allow you time for breath, let alone popcorn.

The science in the book is well-researched and believable, and that is where Hollywood made its major mistake: they changed the ending, adding a showy but scientifically flawed last-minute maneuver. Even if I could have suspended disbelief for that deviation, the omission of one of the more spectacular milestones of Watney's Martian sojourn was a great disappointment, especially since the time which could have been used to include it was filled instead with an epilogue not included in the the novel. Still, I find myself willing to overlook Hollywood's unfortunate tendency to stamp everything with their own signature, and in conclusion I can only advise my followers to read and see for themselves. Do both. You won't regret it.

Train To Shanghai

Day 184: My mother used to say that if there were two ways of doing something, she would invariably try the hard way first. I seem to have inherited the gene.

In addition to my regular photography, I "play" in a few photo groups on line. One of our assignments for this month was to create a black-and-white movie poster in the style used in the 1940-1950 era, so not having any other model, I dragged out a wig and the theatrical makeup and got myself all kitted up to fit the period. Then and only then did I think about what to wear. I managed to get out of my tight-necked t-shirt without ruining the makeup, but the wig had to come off temporarily. Then, naked from the waist up, I started searching for a particular mediaeval costume which had wide fur trim around the hem, thinking to drape it around my shoulders like a stole. After twenty minutes, I gave up the hunt for faux mink. In a last desperate move, I settled on a velour bathrobe which at least had a collar consistent with the style of the era.

You might think I'd have set the camera up beforehand, but no, that's not in keeping with the Hard Way Approach. In costume and trying to preserve the Garboesque hair style, I was wiping acrylic hair out of my mouth and eyes with one hand while dragging furniture around the living room with the other to create a space where I could use the drapes as a backdrop. Well before I'd processed the image and made the poster, the bedtime hour slipped past me unnoticed. Ah, how we must suffer for our Art!