DocMcCoy said:ketan said
ocMcCoy said:Am I to gather from this that the Red Riding trilogy was broadcast by BBC America stateside, then? It was an indie production that got its first run on Channel 4 in the UK.
It was one huge missed opportunity as far as I was concerned. The books (four, as opposed to the three films) are incredible, and while I'd concede that my view of the adaptation may have been tainted by reading them first, it all still looked as if it was made with one eye on international sales and the other on technical and craft awards.
Couldn't tell you as I don't own a TV - I just read about how good it was in the UK press and sought it out on the high seas.
Not having read the books, I can't comment on that aspect, but what I really liked about it was the storytelling and the acting.
Yeah, there were some great performances throughout, especially from Paddy Considine in the second film, and it wasn't bad by any means. There were just too many short-cuts for my liking. Often, the plot wasn't so much compressed as pounded flat, and it seemed as hidebound by a lack of nerve just as much as any budget constraints in the way so much of the narrative was underdeveloped, skimmed over or bypassed. On the screen, you see a bunch of people who are, at best, comprehensively bent, and who are certainly involved in some pretty nasty business. In the books, you read about the same characters and (many of) the same events, and you think, "These people are fucking monsters." The dramatisation didn't come anywhere near conveying that for me.
Yeah, I do recall there being a lot of characters who were largely peripheral. I think the net effect for me was that there was a lot of suspense (rather than just confusion) about who was relevant to what part of the story... but I can see how it could be a gross simplification of a rich narrative if you've read the books!
We had a thread on here a while back, but those who like True Detective and Red Riding should also check Top of the Lake!
ocMcCoy said:Am I to gather from this that the Red Riding trilogy was broadcast by BBC America stateside, then? It was an indie production that got its first run on Channel 4 in the UK.It was one huge missed opportunity as far as I was concerned. The books (four, as opposed to the three films) are incredible, and while I'd concede that my view of the adaptation may have been tainted by reading them first, it all still looked as if it was made with one eye on international sales and the other on technical and craft awards.
Couldn't tell you as I don't own a TV - I just read about how good it was in the UK press and sought it out on the high seas.
Not having read the books, I can't comment on that aspect, but what I really liked about it was the storytelling and the acting.
Yeah, there were some great performances throughout, especially from Paddy Considine in the second film, and it wasn't bad by any means. There were just too many short-cuts for my liking. Often, the plot wasn't so much compressed as pounded flat, and it seemed as hidebound by a lack of nerve just as much as any budget constraints in the way so much of the narrative was underdeveloped, skimmed over or bypassed. On the screen, you see a bunch of people who are, at best, comprehensively bent, and who are certainly involved in some pretty nasty business. In the books, you read about the same characters and (many of) the same events, and you think, "These people are fucking monsters." The dramatisation didn't come anywhere near conveying that for me.
Yeah, I do recall there being a lot of characters who were largely peripheral. I think the net effect for me was that there was a lot of suspense (rather than just confusion) about who was relevant to what part of the story... but I can see how it could be a gross simplification of a rich narrative if you've read the books!
We had a thread on here a while back, but those who like True Detective and Red Riding should also check Top of the Lake!
