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Show, don't tell
Jul. 9th, 2008 09:10 pmThe slacktivist series on Left Behind often talks about how "Show, don't tell" is a good adage of writing that the authors of Left Behind tend not to follow.
This particular adage, and the power of following it, and the haplessness of not following it, were ilulstrated very clearly to me just recently.
I've had The Manchurian Candidate flagged for some time as a movie I really should watch. So, yesterday I picked it up from the local video rental and watched it. I ended up being somewhat disappointed, since the movie featured Wycleaf Jean instead of Frank Sinatra, the Gulf War instead of the Korea War and An Evil Biogenetics Megacorp instead of Evil Communist Top Brass. In addition, to add insult to injury, the elegant symbolisms used in the 1962 version were almost completely removed from the modern version.
Now, that I'm watching the 1962 original today, I notice repeatedly how much better it is than the remake. One of the many reasons is that it actually SHOWS the ghastliness of the ghastly characters. Instead of the Manipulative Mother doing Something Bad to scare away the Love Interest and force The Main Character into the army, the old version shows The Main Character reminiscing about his Summer of Love with the Love Interest, and how The Mother then talks him into breaking up with her because of her being, as it were, A Daughter Of The Communist Enemy.
Similar examples are sprinkled throughout. There simply is an elegance to the storytelling in the original, that is completely eradicated in the remake.
This particular adage, and the power of following it, and the haplessness of not following it, were ilulstrated very clearly to me just recently.
I've had The Manchurian Candidate flagged for some time as a movie I really should watch. So, yesterday I picked it up from the local video rental and watched it. I ended up being somewhat disappointed, since the movie featured Wycleaf Jean instead of Frank Sinatra, the Gulf War instead of the Korea War and An Evil Biogenetics Megacorp instead of Evil Communist Top Brass. In addition, to add insult to injury, the elegant symbolisms used in the 1962 version were almost completely removed from the modern version.
Now, that I'm watching the 1962 original today, I notice repeatedly how much better it is than the remake. One of the many reasons is that it actually SHOWS the ghastliness of the ghastly characters. Instead of the Manipulative Mother doing Something Bad to scare away the Love Interest and force The Main Character into the army, the old version shows The Main Character reminiscing about his Summer of Love with the Love Interest, and how The Mother then talks him into breaking up with her because of her being, as it were, A Daughter Of The Communist Enemy.
Similar examples are sprinkled throughout. There simply is an elegance to the storytelling in the original, that is completely eradicated in the remake.
