I Dreamed a Dream [of Savages]

[krickets]

Do I really have to wait until Christmas for this?
Until I saw the promo I was kind of "meh" on the whole idea of this movie. But last weekend when I saw it in the theaters it pretty much brought me to tears right then and there. Not to mention reminding me how much I enjoy the music from this show. Can it be Christmas now?


"They'll never love you as much as they love each other."

I have been wanting to see this film for a while now. After reading the book, it's become the movie I've most been looking forward to this summer. And while I did have issues with a few notable things, I am still in love with Ben, Chon, and O's story. Because I have no real coherent way to explain my love of these characters, I'm just going to list notable moments:

1) O working in the grow house with Ben and Chon and the three of them exchanging looks and just generally being adorable without words.
2) Ben and Chon. (Basically this.)
3) The total lack of jealousy between all three of them. (SO MUCH.)
4) Elena fucking with Chon and Ben freaking out.
5) Chon talking about how every man in O's life has let her down so far. (Basically Chon being Chon.)
6) O's face when she had to watch Ben basically give up all of his beliefs for her. (I had real issues with the gore in this scene, especially before Lado gives the torch to Ben. Just seemed ridiculous for the sake of being ridiculous, but other than that, it was a good scene.)
7) Chon being all mother-hen with Ben after the fact. (D'awww. Another one of my weaknesses) This especially hit home to me after reading The Kings of Cool because of how much I know Chon is willing to give up for Ben and how much they really love each other. The two of them together was just so wonderful. They got their dynamic exactly right.
8)
Ben: Have I told you that I love you?
Chon: Yeah. This morning.
Ben: Well... I do.
9) Ben with O after she is returned to them, and Chon taking the lead and making sure to keep them behind him.
10) I think my favorite scene in this entire thing is the scene after the threesome and they're all just laying there together talking and being affectionate.

Basically:
Dear Savages,
Congratulations on hitting all of KC's buttons.
- The Universe

I was fine with the ending, especially because it jives with the ending lines of the book, them being on a remote island, climbing trees, and making love like savages. I talked with Dayl and apparently it wasn't entirely clear that at the end of the movie, they were all together there. To me, it definitely seemed like they were. Did anybody else read it any other way? Basically, because I love the three of them, this makes me happy. Is it the tragic, suicide ending of the book? Not exactly. But in this way we were given both.






Trigger Warnings for extreme violence/gore description & mention of rape:






All that said, there were a few things that I really hated. One I already mentioned, and that was the "hanging eyeball" scene. Just no. It seems childish to complain about gratuity in a movie that seems to be made for it, but I think I would have been OK with it had the scene not stretched on for several minutes. That's where it goes from an "Oh, ew, gross!" moment to a "Can we please get on with this scene!?" moment.

The other thing that is worth mentioning as being 100% terrible is that they felt the need to have O victimized by Lado in that way, especially when this was not in the book. I understand that he's equally as loathsome in the novel, but why add a rape that didn't happen when it's not necessary? I just found this a reprehensible choice by the filmmakers. I am pretty upset, not only that it happened, but the way that it happened and the scene afterward with Lado and the cell phone.

Comments

[gigglemonster.livejournal.com]

MY REVIEW OF THIS MOVIE: SEE KC'S REVIEW OF THIS MOVIE

Ben: Have I told you that I love you?
Chon: Yeah. This morning.
Ben: Well... I do.

CLAWING AT MY FAAAACE












write fic

[crickets.livejournal.com]

Hahaha, I really really should but it's so intimidating as Winslow writes them so well.

Ben and Chon fic while O is in captivity is on my wish list of things to write this summer. I swear.

[mollivanders.livejournal.com]

Oh god, that trailer! Eddie Redmayne is int this? *clutches heart*

[crickets.livejournal.com]

Right? I was really excited when I saw him and his face.

[turquoisetumult.livejournal.com]

Ohhh, the Les Mis trailer looks good!

[crickets.livejournal.com]

Doesn't it?

[ozmissage.livejournal.com]

I want to see this movie in the worst way! I'll probably have to wait until it hits DVD, but I might have to treat myself to the prequel to tide me over until then. Did the actors all fit the roles okay? I was a little worried about the dude playing Ben because I kept seeing Justin Chatwin's flawless face in my head when I was reading the book and I'm not sure how well I'll adjust to Stone's pick. Still, I'm glad to hear it was good! Given Winslow's distinctive style, this sucker had to be hard to adapt.

[crickets.livejournal.com]

Oh man Justin would have been a great choice but to be honest with you, Aaron hits it out of the park. IMO he is perfectly, perfectly Ben. Definitely read the prequel. I will buy you a movie ticket to go see this. I'll send you a fandango gift card or something, lol.

I think it was hard to adapt but for me it really worked.

That said I am trying SUPER hard to ignore the very few parts I didn't like, which I mentioned above but you may not have read if you haven't seen it yet. So I won't mention them here. And the reason I am probably giving it a pass is because I legit just love these characters so much that seeing them on screen in such a wonderful way (they really are wonderful together) is worth any bullshit that comes with anything "wrong" a film adaptation does.

But then... as far as I remember, Winslow co-adapted the screenplay, so I feel like I kind of have to go "Okay, so if Winslow added this, maybe it's something he wanted to have happen in the book but scrapped" or maybe it was one of those "It happened but I didn't write it down" things that us writers sometimes have in our brains. Not that it necessarily makes it better, but at least it's from the original source?

But I'm going to bring it back around to the fact that, despite any of that, I loved this, and I love them, the end.

[zombie_boogie.livejournal.com]

I don't want to be excited for Les Mis, because it's my favourite musical and I'm protective and stuff AND YET. AND YET. At the very least it will look great. But that trailer needs moar Eponine (thank god they didn't end up casting Taylor Swift).

[crickets.livejournal.com]

It looks lovely doesn't it? (Taylor Swift? Really?)

[quiet-rebel.livejournal.com]

Haven't seen the movie yet, but they added a rape scene with Lado and O? Did they keep the younger guy that helps out O?

[crickets.livejournal.com]

Yes they did keep him, Esteban. Although his part is smaller understandably. I feel like they pretty much cut his part so that Elena could be more "hands on" in it.

Basically the thing with O and Lado goes down like this. She really finds him scary/intimidating. At one point, he gives her a drink that has obviously been drugged. Later, you see her asleep, and Lado leaving, and Esteban looking at Lado very "judgey" so you just know something happened. But you never actually see it. Later, Esteban wakes her up and kindly gives her a glass of milk and tells her she's ok. (She obviously has no memories of what happened to her, but is still disoriented and scared.)

Then at the very end, when Elena agrees to trade O for Magda, Lado comes to O and tells her he wants to show her something before she goes. And he shows her a cell phone video of him raping her when she was drugged and blacked out. That's when she spits on him (from the trailer), at which point Lado basically licks up her spit and is very pleased with himself. It's super gross and just... I can't understand why they added it. After everything O goes through already, why add that? I just don't understand it.

[quiet-rebel.livejournal.com]

Ugh. Yeah, that makes no sense. Lado was already menacing enough from the book and plus, he felt more three-dimensional as a villain. I felt like he had a "job" to do with holding O hostage, it was what he did, and I liked that there wasn't anything sexual done to O in the book. From what you just said, adding the rape scene just makes him very cliche and cartoonish.

[haldoor.livejournal.com]

The Savages movie looks awesome - I checked the trailer online. I don't know the book, but I'm very excited to see it, so I hope it comes here! I'll also look out for the book, once I've seen it (I prefer to see before reading as otherwise the movies always disappoint, since books have so much more in them). Thanks for the rec!

[crickets.livejournal.com]

Yeah you definitely have a point about the book to movie conversion favoring the books. That's definitely the case here. I pretty much fell in love with these characters, so it'll be worth it when you do finally read it!