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Like all fairy tales, the filmic adaptation of Stephen King's novels are very simple without being simplistic. Characters' one-dimensionality is intentional, since they are archetypes, caricatures of various aspects of human behavior. The stories are exceedingly simple, but a general theme to all of them is one which is of universal and singular interest to all children, including the child still remaining within an adult: the terrifying introduction of innocence to the cruelty of the alien world around us. Some boys go on a journey to meet death face-to-face for the first time. A man is held against his will and tortured by a deranged psychopath he helped to create. An innocent man's body is imprisoned but try as they might his surroundings cannot imprison his soul. All of these stories start out within a false cocoon of safety and gradually the protagonists learn to deal with the unknown and unknowable catastrophes into which they suddenly are thrown. Much like the first time young boys and girls meet a bully, or find out their parents cannot always protect them, or any number of other introductions of youth to the world at large, they cannot understand why anyone or anything would wish them harm. Most any of us have had similar experiences of these sort, and they often leave a bewildering and fearful impression deep within the psyche. Unlike in the other films adapted from King's stories, like Misery or Stand By Me, Dufresne's triumph is so utterly complete as to be mythical. Of course it's cartoonish and unrealistic, but that is what is so satisfying about it. It takes a victory over evil as quintessential as his is to quell that fear of the world that still dwells within each of us. The film is equivalent to someone soothing a lover after they awaken from a nightmare; the words told us are baby-talk, but because of this, they remind us of a time when we knew nothing of harsh reality, and in this way they soothe our fear. I think an important message, if there is one, can be found not in Dufresne's story but in the reactions of those around him to his story. His hope and triumph lifts them up even after he is gone. Oftentimes I think of people around me to whom I look up, and I fear that to them, the triumphs and accomplishments of their lives probably seem small, of little consequence, unimportant or not living up to expectations. They cannot see how their heroism affects those around them, gives them hope, that most precious and easily lost living commodity. The film is written like a children's story, and for some of us this simplicity is insulting, and that is understandable. Whether the motivation for such an exaggerated, overwrought motion picture is a result of producers, screenwriters and a director avoiding adult complexity because of a lack of faith in their audience, or because they themselves are dripping in lachrymose sentimentality I don't think really matters in the end. The result was a story as universally appealing as The Runaway Bunny or "This Land Is Your Land".
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Jun 10, 2006 05:42
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| # ¿ May 5, 2024 04:02 |
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