COM/LF an opinion

On 07 Apr 2008, "Raymond Daley" wrote:

> if i actually wrote what I truly thought i'd be banned by my isp for
> life. yes. it's that bad.
>
> terry may as well have retitled it for closely how it resembles the
> books its loosely (never was a better word used) "based on".
>
> Is there any point in writing descriptions of characters then just
> completely ignoring them when you make a movie?
> liessa & herena stand out in that field big time.

It's true Liessa didn't have red hair, but is hair colour really that
important[1]? I had to hunt through the book to find the single line
where this was mentioned. It's also true that she's not wearing the
outfit described in the book, which most likely has something to do with
it being teatime on a Sunday. You may say that if an author who wrote a
throwaway reference to a character being nearly naked doesn't have the
courage of his convictions when it comes to producing a family drama in
which an actual actress is expected to hang upside down, he's got no
business agreeing to make a TV version at all, but I respectfully
disagree.

Herrena, whose red hair is possibly more significant, since she's
something of a Red Sonja parody, was suitably cast, and also suitably
dressed in the sensible chain mail described in the book.

Beyond clothes and hair there's not really anything to get wrong, Pterry
rarely bothering with physical description except inasmuch as it tells
you what the character is *like*.

Frankly, if Pterry was pondering how much he could have changed, he
dramatically underestemated it; if he seriously wanted to create extra
work for himself he could have written an entirely new story, and we'd
still have shelled out for the DVDs. (In fact, even more so; a TV
production of *new* Discworld material?)

[1]Jimmy Olsen, to name a famous fictional redhead, has been played by
six actors that I can think of. None of them had red hair.

--
Dave
"I thought Billie Piper was an oil rig."
-Sandi Toksvig, The News Quiz
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Daibhid Ceanaideach wrote:

> Herrena, whose red hair is possibly more significant, since she's
> something of a Red Sonja parody, was suitably cast, and also suitably
> dressed in the sensible chain mail described in the book.

OTOH, I wasn't sure I'd have tried to fight in that corsetty thing she was
wearing, and I know whereof I speak.
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In article ,
Esmeraldus wrote:
>Daibhid Ceanaideach wrote:
>
>> Herrena, whose red hair is possibly more significant, since she's
>> something of a Red Sonja parody, was suitably cast, and also suitably
>> dressed in the sensible chain mail described in the book.
>
>OTOH, I wasn't sure I'd have tried to fight in that corsetty thing she
>was wearing, and I know whereof I speak.

I haven't had the chance to see the action yet (hoping to get the DVD
someday) but as I understand it, a properly made corset doesn't restrict
your range of motion enough to notice, and is not painful to wear.
I assume that Herrena's armor was well made.

You can get away with it in a book, but having two redheaded women
fighters in the same movie is a visual duplication that a good producer
will avoid unless it's somehow important, either to plot or to some major
theme. In COM/LF they don't even encounter each other, so the common
visual element was eliminated.

=Tamar
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Esmeraldus wrote:

> Daibhid Ceanaideach wrote:
>
> > Herrena, whose red hair is possibly more significant, since she's
> > something of a Red Sonja parody, was suitably cast, and also suitably
> > dressed in the sensible chain mail described in the book.
>
> OTOH, I wasn't sure I'd have tried to fight in that corsetty thing she was
> wearing, and I know whereof I speak.

I haven't seen it, but Xena always looked pretty good fighting.
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On 8 Apr, 04:19, "Esmeraldus" wrote:
> Daibhid Ceanaideach wrote:
> > Herrena, whose red hair is possibly more significant, since she's
> > something of a Red Sonja parody, was suitably cast, and also suitably
> > dressed in the sensible chain mail described in the book.
>
> OTOH, I wasn't sure I'd have tried to fight in that corsetty thing she was
> wearing, and I know whereof I speak.

Well, fighting in the movies and for real are two very different
things, and they generally seldom meet. But there's an interesting
topic. In fact, if stagefighting was made more realistic, I think it
would be a lot less exciting. The audience want to see Robin Hood and
the Sheriff engaged in a five-minute duel, during which they break a
lot of furniture, smash windows and make gallant/humorous comments,
all the time slashing and stabbing at each other with ridiculously
large and conspiciuous movements and block with the edge of the sword
rather than using a shield or at least deflecting the opponent's blade
with the flat of their own. This is a lot more fun to watch than a
realistic swordfight, which is generally over very quickly.

What I want to say by all this, I think, is that stagefighting does
not actually need to be realistic. Most people don't bother.
Personally, I think well-made, realistic swords and well staged fight
scenes (as in the Lord of the Rings movies) makes a film more
credible, even if it is a fantasy film. But in the case of the
Discworld, and especially CoM, where the fantasy pastiche element is
so strong, the more fantasy clichés, the better.
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Richard Eney wrote:
> In article ,
> Esmeraldus wrote:
>> Daibhid Ceanaideach wrote:
>>
>>> Herrena, whose red hair is possibly more significant, since she's
>>> something of a Red Sonja parody, was suitably cast, and also
>>> suitably dressed in the sensible chain mail described in the book.
>>
>> OTOH, I wasn't sure I'd have tried to fight in that corsetty thing
>> she was wearing, and I know whereof I speak.
>
> I haven't had the chance to see the action yet (hoping to get the DVD
> someday) but as I understand it, a properly made corset doesn't
> restrict your range of motion enough to notice, and is not painful to
> wear.
> I assume that Herrena's armor was well made.

It looked tight, was my thought.
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lowas262 RemoveThis @student.liu.se wrote:
> On 8 Apr, 04:19, "Esmeraldus" wrote:
>> Daibhid Ceanaideach wrote:
>>> Herrena, whose red hair is possibly more significant, since she's
>>> something of a Red Sonja parody, was suitably cast, and also
>>> suitably dressed in the sensible chain mail described in the book.
>>
>> OTOH, I wasn't sure I'd have tried to fight in that corsetty thing
>> she was wearing, and I know whereof I speak.
>
> Well, fighting in the movies and for real are two very different
> things, and they generally seldom meet. But there's an interesting
> topic. In fact, if stagefighting was made more realistic, I think it
> would be a lot less exciting. The audience want to see Robin Hood and
> the Sheriff engaged in a five-minute duel, during which they break a
> lot of furniture, smash windows and make gallant/humorous comments,
> all the time slashing and stabbing at each other with ridiculously
> large and conspiciuous movements and block with the edge of the sword
> rather than using a shield or at least deflecting the opponent's blade
> with the flat of their own. This is a lot more fun to watch than a
> realistic swordfight, which is generally over very quickly.
>
> What I want to say by all this, I think, is that stagefighting does
> not actually need to be realistic. Most people don't bother.
> Personally, I think well-made, realistic swords and well staged fight
> scenes (as in the Lord of the Rings movies) makes a film more
> credible, even if it is a fantasy film. But in the case of the
> Discworld, and especially CoM, where the fantasy pastiche element is
> so strong, the more fantasy clichés, the better.

Queue the obligatory reference to Maskerade here. Pterry knows all
about the difference between stage fighting and the real thing. Well,
enough, anyway.

Geoff

--
Geoff Field
Professional Geek,
Amateur Stage-Levelling Gauge
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