Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote The Scarlet Letter, one of the greatest classic American novels. This Roland Joffé movie would have caused Nathaniel Hawthorne to roll over in his grave. The only similarity the movie had with the original story line was the character names and the title. It was an absolute embarrassment to the intelligence of anyone who actually read the novel, or even those few who went to see it.
It would be impossible to name all the things that were changed from the novel to the movie, but the most drastic were the 80-minute prologue, the entire Indian plot line, and the changed ending. While watching in class, I noted only three major lines taken from the book, two of which were out of context. In a deranged cinematic nightmare, the movie added a nonsensical prologue that Hawthorne never would have included in his wildest dreams. Also, added into the movie was an Indian plot line. This was never even slightly mentioned in the book. The battles and gore were a figment of the imagination of Hollywood, and a horrendous attempt as well. The most offensive part of the movie for me personally, was the changed ending. Not only did it not make any sense, but it undermined the entire point of the story. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne was not supposed to have a happy ending in North Carolina. It was absolutely scandalous of the writers of this movie to allow that to happen. Demi Moore reportedly said it was, "okay with her to make the ending happy because not many people have read the book" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114345/).
Besides creating a bastardization of a classic American novel, Joffé created a generally horrible film. The acting was unrealistic, the sex and violence utterly unnecessary, and the symbolism offensively overdone. The unsubtle, tacky symbolism was an insult to anyone over the age of four. In one pathetically obtuse moment; Hester chases a red bird into the forest; a place of evil doers, and eats the forbidden fruit off of a tree. Clearly the American public did not appreciate this terrible movie either, according to www.boxofficemojo.com, it cost 46 million dollars in production, and earned a surprisingly high 10.3 million dollars; equaling a net loss of over 36 million dollars. The only saving grace of this movie was that there wasn't a sequel, but maybe if there had been they would have eventually found some essence of the original plot.
It would be impossible to name all the things that were changed from the novel to the movie, but the most drastic were the 80-minute prologue, the entire Indian plot line, and the changed ending. While watching in class, I noted only three major lines taken from the book, two of which were out of context. In a deranged cinematic nightmare, the movie added a nonsensical prologue that Hawthorne never would have included in his wildest dreams. Also, added into the movie was an Indian plot line. This was never even slightly mentioned in the book. The battles and gore were a figment of the imagination of Hollywood, and a horrendous attempt as well. The most offensive part of the movie for me personally, was the changed ending. Not only did it not make any sense, but it undermined the entire point of the story. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne was not supposed to have a happy ending in North Carolina. It was absolutely scandalous of the writers of this movie to allow that to happen. Demi Moore reportedly said it was, "okay with her to make the ending happy because not many people have read the book" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114345/).
Besides creating a bastardization of a classic American novel, Joffé created a generally horrible film. The acting was unrealistic, the sex and violence utterly unnecessary, and the symbolism offensively overdone. The unsubtle, tacky symbolism was an insult to anyone over the age of four. In one pathetically obtuse moment; Hester chases a red bird into the forest; a place of evil doers, and eats the forbidden fruit off of a tree. Clearly the American public did not appreciate this terrible movie either, according to www.boxofficemojo.com, it cost 46 million dollars in production, and earned a surprisingly high 10.3 million dollars; equaling a net loss of over 36 million dollars. The only saving grace of this movie was that there wasn't a sequel, but maybe if there had been they would have eventually found some essence of the original plot.