Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
The transformation of any novel into cinema typically requires the filmmaker to omit people, events or other aspects of the novel to fit the format and time constraints of film. The same is true with respect to Clint EastwoodÆs cinematic version of John BerendtÆs Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. However, despite this need of cinema film also offers opportunities to enrich novels in ways that the printed page cannot achieve. This analysis will compare and contrast the film and book versions of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil to demonstrate the above points.
There are many differences in the movie version that make me like the book version of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil better. Chief among these is that in the book the narrator is not really a major factor in the events that unfold or in his interactions with the locals. In the movie, the narrator is named John Kelso, a writer through whose hands all of the movieÆs action passes. In the book, the locals are full of energy and color and their interactions, like the womenÆs card club, are humorous and revealing. In the movie, we basically only see the characters in relation to Kelso which undermines the richness of the characters in the book. Instead, we get Kelso talking about Savannah or the characters. ôThis place is fantastic; itÆs like Gone With The Wind on mescalineö he tells a peer at his magazine (Eastwood, 1997).
The movie also changes the relationship between Joe Odom and Mandy Nichols. In the book they are dating but the movie quickly dispenses with Odom so that Mandy is free to begin seeing Kelso. Once more this change undermines the richness of the relationships in the book, especially because Kelso acts like he has never dated before in the movie and the relationship is bland. He has to be told to kiss Mandy. Another significant change in the movie that undermines charac
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