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| re: Aaron Sorkin had no respect for Harper Lee' why would he for Alan Jay Lerner and TH White? | |
| Posted by: NewtonUK 10:51 am EDT 04/02/23 | |
| In reply to: Sat Matinee "Camelot" - stan 08:42 pm EDT 04/01/23 | |
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| He rewrites as his political/social beliefs lead him, with no concern every about what an author may intend or write,. And every author he 'improves; is a better author than he is. End of rant-let. | |
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| re: Aaron Sorkin had no respect for Harper Lee' why would he for Alan Jay Lerner and TH White? | |
| Last Edit: singleticket 10:44 pm EDT 04/02/23 | |
| Posted by: singleticket 10:43 pm EDT 04/02/23 | |
| In reply to: re: Aaron Sorkin had no respect for Harper Lee' why would he for Alan Jay Lerner and TH White? - NewtonUK 10:51 am EDT 04/02/23 | |
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| I haven't seen enough of Sorkin's work to agree completely but what I have seen has made me try to avoid it. I also saw only one act of the current Camelot revival and I've read in other posts that people like what he did with the second act. But I found the first one hundred minutes to be like Disney for adults in that we must have our beliefs confirmed to us over and over again like liturgy or else possibly lose the culture war. | |
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| re: Aaron Sorkin had no respect for Harper Lee' why would he for Alan Jay Lerner and TH White? | |
| Posted by: ryhog 09:59 pm EDT 04/02/23 | |
| In reply to: re: Aaron Sorkin had no respect for Harper Lee' why would he for Alan Jay Lerner and TH White? - NewtonUK 10:51 am EDT 04/02/23 | |
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| and every author's chosen literary steward signed off on every word of it. But of course you imagine that you were bestowed that responsibility. | |
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| re: Aaron Sorkin had no respect for Harper Lee' why would he for Alan Jay Lerner and TH White? | |
| Last Edit: EvFoDr 09:14 am EDT 04/03/23 | |
| Posted by: EvFoDr 09:14 am EDT 04/03/23 | |
| In reply to: re: Aaron Sorkin had no respect for Harper Lee' why would he for Alan Jay Lerner and TH White? - ryhog 09:59 pm EDT 04/02/23 | |
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| Well actually Harper Lee's estate sued the production because of how much Aaron Sorkin's script deviated from the novel. So it wasn't all roses and lollipops. | |
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| re: Aaron Sorkin had no respect for Harper Lee' why would he for Alan Jay Lerner and TH White? | |
| Last Edit: Singapore/Fling 10:40 am EDT 04/03/23 | |
| Posted by: Singapore/Fling 10:38 am EDT 04/03/23 | |
| In reply to: re: Aaron Sorkin had no respect for Harper Lee' why would he for Alan Jay Lerner and TH White? - EvFoDr 09:14 am EDT 04/03/23 | |
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| Isn't Harper Lee's estate run by someone that people claim swindled her and stole her money? Or was it that the estate is separate from the guy who now has the rights to that book, and the estate is attached to the old play and he to the new play? I just remember there was a lot of drama pre-Covid. |
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| re: Aaron Sorkin has always used literary license | |
| Posted by: waterfall 01:37 pm EDT 04/02/23 | |
| In reply to: re: Aaron Sorkin had no respect for Harper Lee' why would he for Alan Jay Lerner and TH White? - NewtonUK 10:51 am EDT 04/02/23 | |
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| Sorkin often writes thing that are "wrong", in the interests of a bigger picture. It doesn't necessarily have anything to do with his beliefs. Case in point: the finale of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip featured the producer, alone in his theater. The last thing he does before he leaves is to turn OFF the ghost light. Anyone who has ever worked in a theater knows that you turn ON the ghost light on the way out. Sorkin surely knows this - but 90% of America does not. Given that, turning on the light made more sense. |
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| re: Aaron Sorkin has always used literary license | |
| Posted by: Chazwaza 08:10 pm EDT 04/02/23 | |
| In reply to: re: Aaron Sorkin has always used literary license - waterfall 01:37 pm EDT 04/02/23 | |
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| I'm not sure the one case that can be made is that turning the ghost light off made more sense... i think it's kind of lazy, and a good director would also have been able to see turning it on and walking out in a way that felt like an end, in a beautiful way. I don't remember the end of the show, but I bet there is an even better way to end it that makes actual sense in the context of the world the characters are in. Turning off the lights of the writers room, for example, or the work lights of the theater, or unplugging the countdown-to-show clock, whatever it is. |
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| re: Aaron Sorkin had no respect for Harper Lee' why would he for Alan Jay Lerner and TH White? | |
| Posted by: Amiens 11:50 am EDT 04/02/23 | |
| In reply to: re: Aaron Sorkin had no respect for Harper Lee' why would he for Alan Jay Lerner and TH White? - NewtonUK 10:51 am EDT 04/02/23 | |
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| What were the major (or minor) changes Sorkin made to To Kill a Mockingbird? | |
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| re: Aaron Sorkin had no respect for Harper Lee' why would he for Alan Jay Lerner and TH White? | |
| Posted by: NewtonUK 01:21 pm EDT 04/02/23 | |
| In reply to: re: Aaron Sorkin had no respect for Harper Lee' why would he for Alan Jay Lerner and TH White? - Amiens 11:50 am EDT 04/02/23 | |
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| The most glaring change was the character of Calpurnia, who became, in Sorkin's version, very sassy in her relationship with Atticus. And she spoke her mind, always. In 1933-35, when TKAM takes place (and all through the 60s and 70s at least) a black housekeeper who behaved as Sorkin's housekeeper does would have been fired, and become unemployable. Throughout the novel there are examples of Atticus' inherent racism - he talks of fully racist neighbors like Miss Dubose, and makes it clear that her racism does not keep them from being friends - he is also unconcerned about KKK activities in Maycomb County. He is clear that he is defending Tom Robinson because of injustice, not race. Atticus, in the novel, is much more evolved than most f his neighbors on race issues - but they are still a part of his everyday life and experience, and do not trouble him unduly. And Scout, our narrator , is a VERY reliable witness in the novel. At the trial of Tom Robinson, when Tom is being questioned by the Prosecutor, Dill starts sobbing. Jem takes him out of the courthouse and Scout follows. When asked why he was crying, Dill talks about how the prosecutor was talking to Tom Robinson. 'The wat the man called him 'boy' all the time, an sneered at him, an' looked around at the jury every time he answered." Scout replies ... "Well, Dill, after all he's just a Negro." Not even Scout, in Harper Lee's novel, is spared the tinge of the racism that is in every part of life in Alabama in 1933-35. Even more than the movie, Mr Sorking wants Atticus and Scout et al to be outliers - saints in a tainted society. That wasn't Lee's point. Her point was much more about the real Alabama. Even the good people were racists. It was just part of the fabric of life. I know Alabama and many people there - one - a well known writer - came to see TKAMB on Broadway, and left at intermission crying in pain and anger at the whitewashing of Lee's novel by Mr Sorkin. Ms Lee's novel is beautiful hard, and complex. Mr Sokrin's play was like an episode of The West Wing. Nice enhlightened liberals up against horrible people. harper Lee had no interest in stories which are that reductive. If Mr Sorkin had been brave or selfless enough to understand Ms Lee's novel, he would have seen that portraying Atticus and Scout as Lee wrote them would have been much more powerful - reminding us that the systemic, endemic racism in our society is the real danger. But Mr Sorking was just looking for heroes and villains. | |
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| re: Aaron Sorkin had no respect for Harper Lee' why would he for Alan Jay Lerner and TH White? | |
| Posted by: Chazwaza 08:13 pm EDT 04/02/23 | |
| In reply to: re: Aaron Sorkin had no respect for Harper Lee' why would he for Alan Jay Lerner and TH White? - NewtonUK 01:21 pm EDT 04/02/23 | |
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| Maintaining civil neighborly friendships with people who exhibit racism is not solely an example of that character BEING racist. Especially in a time when the prevailing default was racism against black people. I really really think you missed the point Lee was making about Atticus if you think him talking to racist neighbors, despite them being racist, was meant to show him as inherently racist himself. But I agree that Sorkin's play is a far cry from the book, and I didn't find it a very good play or a very memorable experience in the theater. |
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