A Note on Adaptation
OK, so my movie-watching has fallen off and I've just seen the DVD of
Adaptation. I won't bore you with my thoughts on it's general brilliance or intricacy or what it all means, as the subject has likely been picked over. One question though: has it been noted or remarked anywhere that the film owes a debt to Sam Shepherd's play
True West -- not literally, but in terms of inspiration, perhaps? Great play about a semi-successful screenwriter whose brother is a scummy low-life burglar. Over the course of the drama, the two men gradually switch personalities; the burglar has a screenplay idea which turns out to have more currency than his brother's, and turns into a Hollywood bigshot of sorts, while his presumably smarter sibling takes a personal nosedive and ultimately turns to robbing houses. Been years since I've seen it, so I've forgotten a lot of the plot. The role of the burglar, incidentally, was first played by John Malkovich; the other was Gary Sinise. Anyway, it came to mind.
P.S. Just Googled "True West" and "Charlie Kaufman." Ninety-one hits, and it looks like I'm not the first to make the connection: "closely echos Sam Shepard's play, True West," "a hint of Sam Shepard's True West," "the screenwriters-as-doppelganger idea felt straight out of Shepard’s TRUE WEST," "suspiciously derivative of True West," etc.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home