After reading Murder on the Orient Express, I decided that I needed to watch the movie again, mostly because I realized that I hadn't actually finished watching it the first time. I also decided to watch it to kick off the Peril on the Screen. Birds! Stones! Trains stuck in snowdrifts!So, the movie... let me start by saying that I absolutely hated Poirot in the movie. I dislike his voice, his mannerisms, his moustache, and his intense shoutiness toward all of the suspects. I heard no shouting in the book.
And that brings me to my other dislike of the film — that the writers/directors/whoever changed facts and situations seemingly on a whim. There was a boat, for one, and an introduction of all the characters before they got on the train, and all of the compartment numbers were different, and different people discovered things, and some things weren't discovered at all, and even the first solution at the end is oddly different. Aaaand, my dearest Michael York's character went from being a fairly decent fellow to a kind of heartless fellow, when you look at it, and I don't like it when Michael York is abused like that. Ahem. I've berated the Harry Potter movies for being impossible to follow without having read the books; here I was not well able to follow the movie having finished the book less than twenty-four hours previous!
I'm trying to think of things I liked about the film, but the story is really it, and you read about that yesterday (at least, I hope you did!).
Recommendation: Just read the book! Or, watch just the parts with Michael York in them — you'll only watch like ten minutes of the film, but they will be a very nice ten minutes.
Rating: 5/10
(RIP Challenge)
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5 comments:
Well, I saw this movie on tv when i was a kid but i don't remember it really. But looking at it now, all i can think is what a cast they,ve got there all together.! Sean Connery, (sigh)
Disliking Poirot would kill the whole movie!
Nicola: It is a lovely cast! I am a moderate fan of ensemble movies, and this is a good one.
Stephanie: I just had to cover my ears and go "lalalalalala" whenever he got too annoying! :)
PBS had a remake of it this summer with David Suchet, who has been doing the Poirot series there for a long while. Maybe I do not remember the book well enough, but was Poirot freakishly Catholic in it? 'Cause in the movie he was, and it didn't make sense to my recollection. Anyway, you might want to give that a spin as a comparison. It is shorter than it should be, though.
I don't recall Poirot being religious at all — just interested in getting the case solved and rather enigmatic.
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