Bridge to Terabithia

[cahn]

I watched Bridge to Terabithia the other day, and I had horribly mixed feelings about it. On one hand, I thought it did a great many things very well, like really capture, viscerally, what grade school was like, ugh. I'd forgotten how... horrible it was. And it did retain some nice things on father-child relationships and the power of imagination, even if it did feel the need to bludgeon once in a while-- which the book never does. Of course the book did all these things much, much better, but since it had access to Jess' internal monologues, which the movie didn't have at all, I'll give them some credit for that. And the animations, which I was prepared to hate, were really not badly done.

On the other hand, they messed up my favorite scene, the "Lord, boy, don't be a fool." In general, the Aarons became much less white-trashy, which was one of the beauties of the book. My most serious problem, though, was that Leslie was a flipping Mary Sue, complete with a beautiful face, terribly cute perfectly coiffed blond hair, an impish way of speaking every single line, and eyeshadow, for crying out loud. I mean, I understand the necessity for film makeup, but good grief, she looked like I would expect Elizabeth Wakefield from Sweet Valley Twins to look, not Leslie Burke.

I thought, "I remember Leslie being more of a tomboy sort... not very pretty even... and I don't remember the blond hair. Or the makeup. And I really don't think she was impish all the time." I actually went and looked it up, and in fact, Leslie has "jagged" brown hair. And May Belle was also kind of a Mary Sue in a younger, cuter, adorable sort of way.

Also? I believed Jess was an artist in the book because of the way he talked about art in his internal monologues, especially when he talked about the things he wanted to do with paint. Seeing the pictures in the movie? Someone had better talk this kid out of being an artist, fast.

But in general I kind of wish I hadn't watched the movie, because I liked my internal pictures better... on the other hand, I am the last person to object to a more-or-less competent retelling of a book story, as the TV version (remember that, anyone?) is how I found the book in the first place! However... all this has bolstered my opinion that one should never read a book one loves, ideally, the year before watching the movie adaptation; you're just asking to hate the movie that way. (I hadn't read the book for years and years, which saved this movie for me.)

Comments

[ase.livejournal.com]

I read Bridge to Terabithia years ago (school, natch) and hadn't realized how much of it I'd forgotten. I take it you'd recommend rereading the book over seeing the movie? :-)

[charlie-ego.livejournal.com]

Oh, most definitely! I just love that book to little bits and pieces -- particularly, this time around, what struck me was the way that Jesse is accepting of but ultimately doesn't fit into his blue-collar roots - it seems so easy to either fall into the "aw shucks po' folk are really golden-hearted inside" or "run away from evil bigoted uneducated people!!" camps... and I think this book actually shows them as real people, mostly good (Jesse is really a *very* nice boy) but certainly with some issues nevertheless.

[charlie-ego.livejournal.com]

wait, you read this book for *school*? I don't think we ever read anything that... emotional in school until I got to high school.

[ase.livejournal.com]

I think I read it in early middle school, maybe sixth grade? IIRC the reading curriculum was pretty keen on throwing Newbury medalists at us. Most of my sixth grade year has been mercifully effaced by the passage of time, so my parents may have made me read it, but I'm almost certain I didn't pick it up on my own.

[charlie-ego.livejournal.com]

Huh. We didn't have anything like that. I'm not sure my teachers were patient enough to have us actually read novels at all, come to think of it. I think the only things we ever read were out of the reading-book anthologies. Though in fourth grade -- I remember this way too well, but it was definitely a watershed in my reading career-- the reading book had excerpts from I, Robot; Lion, Witch and Wardrobe; and Tom Sawyer. That was a great year.

[ase.livejournal.com]

In sixth grade we had a "reading" period. Think reading/comprehension, as opposed to an english/writing class. IIRC students were handed reading assignments they had to finish as homework, and then had some sort of analysis or discussion or project later in class. We did Greek myths in that class.

In seventh grade english, we read out of a collection of excerpts and short stories. We may or may not have read a really sad story about an Earth girl on Venus, and The Ransom of Red Chief that year. (It's been a while, so the details are hazy.)