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"Talk some sense into this honorable honourable fool (fooul? )" Cannoli Send a noteboard - 23/10/2017 03:44:34 PM

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"I ate his liver with some fava beans and a big Amarone."

So much better than the pathetic, dumbed-down substitute used in the movie. I hate it when movie makers take a line directly from the source novel and then rewrite it to make it more understandable or accessible for the uneducated masses. This is one of the more egregious examples. Does anyone else have one that particularly offends or aggravates them?


That was from Game of Thrones, where the original line was "frozen-faced fool" Because on the show, honor is dumb, and the reason for all the good guys' failures. It occurred to me when I was rewatching some of the later seasons with my sister, and binging the end of the last one, that the showrunners really want to tell a story about the Lannisters, and regard everyone else as supporting characters in the Lannister family drama, so they don't bother to understand anyone else, and just write everything off according to one or two traits. Ned is honorable and gets killed therefore honor=stupid. And then they try to prove it by deleting all of Ned's actual arguments and rationales, while changing the characters' arguments against Ned. In the context of the line given above, for instance, they omitted Barristan Selmy from the scene, so we can't see Ned's argument having an effect on the best man in the room, or how it starts Barristan's own disenchantment with the regime and leads to his arc in the latest books. They'd much rather have Tyrion rule Meereen in Dany's absence, with quips and hookers, rather than deal with a good and honorable man torn between his perceived limitations and his obligations in service to his queen, and the fact that everything he's ever assumed about his job is telling him NOT to do what seems to be the best way to serve said queen. They could have complexity, or they could have their favorite character snark at people and have other characters praise his genius (even though he didn't do anything all that impressive), and they can't be bothered to think past the season finale of whatever year they are working on at the moment, so they assassinate two whole characters just to work in their post-modern sniggering at the concept of honor.

Another was in "The Godfather" where Don Corleone dismissively refers to Bonasera as an 'undertaker', when in the books, the line is "corpse-valet". There's a whole other implication in that. For a mobster to sneer at an undertaker doesn't make much sense, especially as Bonasera is literally an undertaker, which is not a dishonorable or unworthy occupation, and therefore his actual job title is not an insult. "Corpse valet" describes him as a servant to corpses, and it makes sense because an undertaker performs many of the same acts upon a body that a valet does for a gentleman, such as grooming and dressing, while at the same time placing him at a rank inferior to, and servile towards, dead people. Vito uses the term in the midst of telling Tom Hagen to be careful not to kill Bonasera's enemies, because they aren't murderers, whatever that "corpse-valet" might believe. And then, later in the books, Bonasera resurfaces twice to perform his valet services upon the corpses of Don Corleone's son and presumed heir, and then upon Corleone himself. In both cases, he conceals the horrific appearance of their dead bodies, elevating them in people's eyes, as it were, and concealing the fundamental truth of their own evil and its consequences. Corleone sneers at Bonasera as someone who devotes himself to the service of the dead, to treating bodies like gentlemen, but in the end, he too is mortal and his own choices mean he ends up desperately begging Bonasera not to let his wife see what has become of their first child. The Godfather was all about the duplicity and hypocrisy of Corleone and his world. Vito is constantly saying different things than what he does, and his aphorisms and rules are frequently proven wrong or followed to disaster, and he is a predator and parasite, who is hailed as a protector and a man of respect, and a moral role model. A purveyor of death who has the audacity to condescend to someone who rescues whatever decency and dignity is to be had in death. The movie can't be expected to convey all the details about Bonasera's professional ethics and how he makes his services all about comforting the loved ones and being respectful, or his living in fear that the service he asks of the Don is going to bring the price of making him and his establishment accessories to Corleone's criminality, but they could at least retain the line that shows how hypocritical the Don is in his presumption of superiority, when he's going to break down in Bonasera's parlor as he looks on what he has cost the family he claims to be protecting.

And speaking as a non-drinker, who has no clue what a big Amarone is, and probably not a Chianti either, if not for the movie, "quantify" alone is so much better than test.

Cannoli
“Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions.” GK Chesteron
Inde muagdhe Aes Sedai misain ye!
Deus Vult!
*MySmiley*
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"A census taker tried to quantify me once." - 23/10/2017 03:09:06 PM 642 Views
Basically all of LoTR. Don't ask me about the Hobbit. *NM* - 23/10/2017 03:34:29 PM 377 Views
How about The Hobbit? *NM* - 23/10/2017 04:36:09 PM 175 Views
so nice I had to post it twice *NM* - 23/10/2017 04:36:09 PM 186 Views
"Talk some sense into this honorable honourable fool (fooul? )" - 23/10/2017 03:44:34 PM 475 Views
Good examples - 23/10/2017 04:15:59 PM 383 Views
That is where a bad memory helps - 23/10/2017 04:10:32 PM 377 Views
Subtext you will not get if you are not familiar with the medicine and the subtext around that quote - 23/10/2017 08:57:15 PM 387 Views
bah. the "in" joke still works without dumbing down the line. - 23/10/2017 09:23:54 PM 317 Views
Meh I guess I don't care - 23/10/2017 09:34:46 PM 346 Views
So is this a quote that I should just know? - 24/10/2017 04:02:06 AM 482 Views
Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs. *NM* - 24/10/2017 06:54:40 AM 223 Views

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