| re: A slight problem | |
| Posted by: | AlanScott 12:47 am EST 01/16/15 |
| In reply to: | re: A slight problem - Michael_Portantiere 12:12 am EST 01/16/15 |
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| "Well, I mean, it's pretty clear that she has lost her powers when she tries to do something to Rapunzel's Prince and nothing happens. Apparently it's not so clear to everyone. In the show, there is narration making it clear. No narration at that point in the movie. A line or two could have been added to make it clear. FWIW, friends who've seen the movie with intelligent adults who had never seen the show have said that when asked, those intelligent adults said that they did not get what had happened or even that anything in particular had happened. The moment goes by fairly quickly in the movie. Not that much is made of it. "Do you mean you wondered if people realized before that?" No, that would be stupid. "WHY does the witch lose her powers, and when exactly does that happen? When she's rejuvenated? Why would those two things go hand in hand? When it happens is made clear in the show. It happens simultaneously with her transformation (though it is perhaps a bit odd that she doesn't seem to realize it for more than nine months). In the movie it becomes much more muddled. In fact, it kind of makes no sense. Since the Witch doesn't realize in the movie that she's lost her powers until after the Giant's wife has appeared and has been causing death and destruction, including to the WItch's house (at least the Witch's house been destroyed in the show, I can't remember if that is said to have happened in the movie), why hasn't she tried to use her powers to do something about it? If she had tried and failed, she would have realized before the scene with Rapunzel and her Prince that she had lost her powers. "Also, why does she have magic beans to throw around during 'The Last Midnight' when so much is made about her having lost the beans?" In the show, it is never said that she had no more beans. Is that said in the movie? I don't remember. In the show, she has the line "All that's left of my garden is this sack of beans." I guess that's not in the movie. If it's not, there's another example of a change that may cause, at minimum, confusion. "And why exactly does the witch get swallowed up by the earth at the end of 'The Last Midnight?' She has some line about, 'Oh, mother, must I be punished for losing the beans a second time?' But what does that mean?" I think it's fairly clear in the show (though you have to listen very closely to a lyric that goes by quickly) that she is calling upon her mother to simply get her out of there, even if that means causing her to be ugly again. I agree, it should be clearer. What certainly is never clear (and this must have been intentional) is just what happens to her after she disappears. This was discussed here not long ago. I've never thought she dies, but some people do think that. It seems that some people seeing the movie think she turns into the swamp (or whatever that is). One of my problems with the movie is the fast cutting during the second half of "Last Midnight," along with everything else going on then. (I know you don't think there is much fast cutting in the movie.) It seems to me that the lyric there is very important for people to hear, and no one who doesn't already know it is really hearing it because so much else is going on. "And why do we first hear the witch singing about how 'children WON'T listen,' but then, over the credits, we hear her singing 'Children WILL listen?' I suppose maybe children won't listen' is meant to mean 'children won't do what you tell them to do' whereas 'children will listen' is supposed to mean 'children will be affected by what you say even if they don't obey you,' but I still think it's sloppy writing and very confusing." I have no problem with it in the show since it's clear (at least to me) that the Witch is not literally there in the finale, at least not as the exact character we've seen all evening. I do think that her meaning is the one you state, but it does get confusing when the lyric is changed from "Children may not obey / But children will listen" to "Guide them along the way / Children will glisten." For some reason, the latter is how it was performed in the original production, although on the cast recording the former was used. It has been published both ways. The film uses the "glisten" version, which I can hardly believe Sondheim wrote. I think that whole voiceover thing with the finale in the movie represents a total failure of imagination and . . . let's leave it at that. And I'm told that many people are leaving as soon as it starts. At least that's what a few friends have seen happen when they've seen the movie. | |
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