Creative Engagement: Forbidden Planet

When researching further adaptations for the play, "The Tempest", there were none that were nearly as interest as "Forbidden Planet". "Forbidden Planet" was made in 1956 and although it is not completely similar to "The Tempest", it is close enough to be entertaining. Leslie Nielson (The Naked Gun movies) is the lead role and plays a character similar to Ferdinand. This movie takes plays in the 24th Century and Leslie Nieslon's character is a captain of a spaceship that decides to enter an uninhabited planet where only two people live. These people are Dr. Morbius (Prospero) and his daughter Altaira (Miranda). ONe of the differences that made me laugh is that Altaira is 19, not 15. This is due to the sexual implications of the film. These are the similarities of the film to the play. However, there is one key difference between the two stories; "Forbidden Planet" has nothing to do with forgiveness. It is instead substituted with a pretty entertaining Sci-Fi plot. This difference begs the question, should a film like "Forbidden Planet" with such a great thematic difference, still be considered an adaptation? I have embedded the trailer for the film below to possibly help decide.

Adaptation Adapted and The Importance of Art in Society

The brilliance of authors is proven sometimes by the amount of times in which they are adapted. Stories are adapted and used again because the message of a specific human emotion is so important that it needs to be revisited. I compared "Volpone" to "Wall Street" last week and a fellow classmate compared it to "Goodfellas". This displays the brilliance of Jonson as an author. However, no author will ever achieve the flattery level of adaptation as well as Shakespeare. It is true that the movie affected me on an emotional level. The portrayal of Sammie as a caring, intelligent, and grief-ridden human being who then gets denied parole was undoubtedly a tear-jerking moment. Nonetheless, the film actually hit me greater on an artistic level. It did not make me feel more artistic, but instead showed me the great need and importance for art at a societal level.

The need and relevance for art in society is understood as important but I sense that many feel skeptical about the subject. The inmates are proof of its importance because they are able to learn how to fix themselves through the story of "The Tempest". Proof of this is seen when "Big G" attempts to discover "Caliban", the character he is playing in their production. He first portrays the character as a pure monster, who awkwardly lumbers around with no emotion or care. He then gets stopped by the director and his fellow actors because they understood something about the art. They understood that even though the world viewed Caliban as a monster, he had feelings and emotions just like anyone else. I would argue that this is the thesis of "Shakespeare Behind Bars". Big G and the other inmates realized that every person, no matter what they do, has real emotions. They could now use this information created by art, to make themselves truly better people.

More proof of how the adaptation of great art helped the inmates is with Red's realizations through the character Miranda. Red is able to deal with is bisexuality through Miranda as well as dealing with parental issues that plagued his life. This is proof that the archetypes already established by great authors should not be ignored due to a lack of creativity, but instead developed further to create a new kind of message.

A movie that attempts to find the archetypes of contemporary writing is the movie "Adaptation". Attempting to summarize the movie would be a true nightmare, but the video that I posted below does a pretty good job of showing the struggle of an author attempting to be fresh and creative. The story is about a screenwriter attempting to adapt a book into a movie, which is what the screenwriter of the actual movie did. If you understand that, than the movie is right for you. The youtube video below is comically titled "Adaptation Adapted". Enjoy!

Volpone: Greed is Good

When reading "Volpone", I could not help but see the extraordinary similarities between it and the movie "Wall Street". Above, I have posted the most famous scene from the legendary film that sums up the greed that surrounds Volpone as well as the 1980's. Volpone's opens with one of his famous speeches by saying "Hail the world's soul and mine! More glad than is/The teeming earth to see the longed-for sun/Peep through the horns of the celestial Ram". I believe this is comparable to Gekko's a speech and is one of the many similarities that is shared between the two stories. Pre-Crazy Charlie Sheen plays Bud Fox in the movie Wall Street, a character who is extremely similar to Mosca. Michael Douglas plays the infamous Gordon Gekko, with the same initial financial success and desire for greed that Volpone has. Mosca and Bud both respect and work under their respective leaders at the beginning of their stories, but at the end attempt to sabotage them. Also, Volpone and Gekko end up in jail at the end of their stories.

It is hard to imagine all of the similarities being a complete coincidence as some of the plot was probably stolen from Volpone. Nonetheless, the movie "Wall Street" proves that the story written by Ben Jonson is one that will last throughout time because it explicitly deals with greed; a character flaw that will probably never vanish in civilization. Due to the fact that the lessons of greed are lessons that can stand the tests of time, I think a contemporary version of the play is unnecessary. That may sound contradictory, but I think it is important for historical purposes to keep the play how it is written in 1600's Venice.

Since the times of Shakespeare and Jonson were so similar, I could not help but to imagine the costumes of the story in the same way that I envision Shakespearean plays I have seen in the past. I imagine Volpone in one of those funny looking dressy shirts and stockings with a boatload of ruffles. I would always have Volpone wearing dark green to symbolize the color of money and greed. Makeup would also have to be worn for his fake sickness. I would have Celia wearing a big, long white dress to symbolize her purity and innocence. I would always have Mosca looking dirty and wearing a black suit to represent him always lurking in the darkness somewhere. When thinking about actors to play these characters my immediate thought was Michael Douglas to play Volpone. However, Douglas' character Gordon Gekko does not have the fun kind of energy that the character embodies. He is also too old in my mind. I would instead pick Robert Downey Jr. to play Volpone. I feel that he could fully embody the entire character of Volpone. For the character Mosca, I would choose John Turturro because he could incorporate a mix of servitude with a growing sense of dignity. I would choose Scarlett Johannsen to play Celia because she is ridiculously good looking and I could see an innocence in her.