January 14, 2020 Shelton Mason County Journal | ![]() |
©
Shelton Mason County Journal. All rights reserved. Upgrade to access Premium Tools
PAGE 30 (30 of 46 available) PREVIOUS NEXT Jumbo Image Save To Scrapbook Set Notifiers PDF JPG
January 14, 2020 |
|
Website © 2025. All content copyrighted. Copyright Information Terms Of Use | Privacy Policy | Request Content Removal | About / FAQ | Get Acrobat Reader ![]() |
Page A—32 — Shelton-Mason County Journal Thursday, Jan. 14, 2021
Review: How new adaptation compares to previous ones
continued from page A-31
Huxley’ s novel, all of which have been
produced by NBC, so I thought I’d
compare it to the previous two, plus to
a subversive stealth adaptation that
might surprise you.
The first originally aired on NBC
in 1980 and remains the closest to the
text of the novel, even as its three-
hour running time expands on back-
stories that were only alluded to in
the text.
The aesthetic of its set and cos—
tume design is exactly how the end of
the 1970s envisioned the future, and
its cast was almost too well—suited to
their admittedly limited roles, with
the perpetually adolescent Bud Cort
of “Harold and Maude” playing the
nerdy,insecure misfit Bernard Marx,
and the cleft-chinned Keir Dullea of
“2001: A Space Odyssey” projecting
the suitable officiousness, but little
else, as the director of Hatcheries and
Conditioning for the human race’s
lab-grown babies, who’s also the fa-
ther of the natural—born John the
Savage. L
YouTube hosts multiple copies of
the BBC re-airing of the 1980 “Brave
New World,” which earns points for
its progressive move of casting black
actor Dick Anthony Williams as
Helmholtz Watson, perhaps the only
inhabitant of this society who cri— .
tiques it for nonselfish or backward-
looking reasons.
If the 1980 “Brave New World”
is the adaptation you’d show a high
school classroom, the 1998 “Brave
New World” was the adaptation that
Hollywood wanted, safe for network
television, witha superfluous murder
mystery subplot and a tone-breaking
happy ending tacked on.
But unlike the dated portrayal of
the future offered by the 1980 version,
the 1998 version at least captured a
PG—rated glimpse of the hedonistic
revelries that Huxley alluded to in
this society.
The 1998 “Brave New World”
comes equipped 'with an impressive
cast, even if Peter Gallagher plays
Bernard Marx with the handsome
self-confidence of Helmholtz Watson
in the novel.
Tim Guinee, an already underrated
actor, really sells John the Savage’s
passion for the plays of Shakespeare,
which are forbidden because their
conflicts are driven by societal condi—
tions that literally can’t even be men-
tioned in a supposedly perfect world.
Meanwhile, Sally Kirkland brings
her best Blanche DuBois as the Sav-
Vage’s mother Linda, who raised her
son in exile on the “Savage Reserva-
tion,” and misses the luxuries of “civi-
lized” society, to the point of overdos-
ing on the mood—altering drug Soma.
And Leonard Nimoy is effortlessly
engaging as World Controller Musta-
pha Mond, the one man who knows
what the world used to be like, but
considers its current stagnation-to be
for the best.
This one is admittedly tough to
track down online, aside from DVDs,
but anything that can afford to cast
the always excellent Miguel Ferrer
and Daniel Dae Kim is worth watch-
ing at least once.
Which brings us to the Peacock ad-
aptation of “Brave New World,” the
first season of which made its debut
on the streaming service last year.
a
V Looking for volunteer opportunities? Is your New Year’s resolution to
give back to your community? If so .we have several volunteer positions
we would like to fill.
Here is our listing of volunteers we are seeking:
Office Assistant
0 Looking for someone who is willing to work from 9:00 - 1:00
one day a week or as backup in our office answering the
phones and assist with paperwork.
Trap-Neuter—Return (TNR) program
0 In need of volunteers to set traps and/or transport cats.
Board of Directors
t Seeking those in our community who would be willing to
serve on our Board of Directors. Looking for volunteers who
have one of more of the following abilities:
0 Grant writing
0 Veterinary skills
0 Fund raising
Community development
If you are interested in becoming a volunteer please contact our office
by calling 360-275-9310 or email us at info@hsmcwa.org.
Happy New Year!
Board of Directors
Humane Society of Mason County
www.hsmcwa.org
Yes, you read that correctly, and
its cancellation means that its clearly
planned second season will not be
forthcoming, but the nine episodes we
got are kind of amazing.
At first, the Peacock adaptation
seems to recreate all of the 1998 ver-
sion’s most annoying divergences
from the novel, with John the Sav-
age’s love of Shakespeare completely
scrubbed, and Helmholtz Watson ren-
dered unrecognizable as shallow artis—
tic taste—maker Wilhelmina Watson.
But it doesn’t take long for those
updates to lend the story even more
relevance to modern society than was
already present in Huxley’ s prescient
tale of genetic engineering and behav-
ioral conditioning through disposable
mass-media entertainment.
' The “Savage Reservation” is recast
as a “flyover country” devoted to re-
enacting antiquated horrors such as
“Black Friday” riots at Walmart-style
superstores, and the “civilized” society
is kept united by Indra, an artificial
intelligence which connects everyone’s
sensory input through Google Glass-
style contact lenses.
I loved the subtle touch of CGI to
give an entire batch of Epsilon clones
the exact same face, and I found my-
self laughing out loud at how John
the Savage, played by Alden Ehren-
reich with more Han Solo charm than
he brought to “Solo: A Star Wars
Story,” can’t help but be a disruptive
influence as an empathetic redneck.
If you can forgive the plot for going
wildly and unrepentantly off the res-
ervation of its source text, there’s a lot
to love in how this adaptation doesn’t
hold back in its portrayal of this soci-
ety’s sensualist nature (let’s just say
its ’zmwfifim
[I ll
it earns its TV -MA rating) and in the
caliber of acting that it brings to bear.
Harry Lloyd is a pitch-perfect-
Bernard Marx, struggling to come
to terms with how he doesn’t belong
in this world, while Hannah John-
Kamen sells me on the idea of her
Watson as an astute social engineer
whose tools are fads and “feelies”
— virtual experiences with no real
meaning — and Demi Moore imbues
the character of Linda with a raw
strength she never had in the novel,
delivering her best acting perfor-
mance in years in the process.
Be warned, the Peacock “Brave
V New World” ends on a cliflhanger, but
with its once-meticulously ordered
society and inhabitants broken in fas—
cinating ways.
All that being said, my favorite
adaptation of “Brave New World” re-
mains one that most folks don’t even
recognize as such.
Sylvester Stallone’s “Demolition
Man” in 1993 cast him as “John Spar-
tan” rather than John the Savage,
but he was still a man out of place in
an unnervineg idyllic future society,
with Sandra Bullock as his chirpy
partner, Lenina Huxley (inspired by
Lenina Crowne from the novel), and
the sadly missed Sir Nigel Hawthorne
playing a delightfully smarmy stand-
in for Mustapha Mond, Who keeps the
world running through aggressively
mandated political correctness.
In case anyone watching has
missed the point, Wesley Snipes takes
the time to bellow, “It’s a Brave New
World!”
All that, plus shameless shilling for
the Taco Bell brand, so what’s not to
love?
Kitten Rescue of Mason County
Right now we have young and adult cats available for adoption.
Indoor only and a warm lap to sit on are ours and the kitties
request.
Healthy and well adjusted, our kitties want their own home and
family to love. For more information please go to our website
'kittenresq.net or call us at (360)- 42743167.
Furrg Friends Looking for a Howie
Sponsored by:
We have created a
low-stress, healthy
environment
" with soft lighting,
(360) 426-3052
270 SE Spring Place
Shelton, Washington 98584
E—mail: sylvan@hctc.com
music, a regular
exercise program, if
and frequent,
individualized
attention. We treat
eyery pet with
affection, respect,
and kindness.