Robert Altman, Carver’s big fan in the film industry, filmed a hodgepodge movie "Silver, Sex, Men and Women" based on Carver’s nine novels and a poem in 1993, which brought together Lily Taylor and Xiao A large number of capable actors such as Robert Downey and Tim Robbins. The audience feels depressed that the beauty of Carver's novels lies in the constant subtraction. The unspeakable pain and silence of ordinary people still linger when you close the book. And if the movie doesn't want to lose money and reach the necessary length, it can only be added, using images to reproduce what Carver wanted to say but stopped. Altman did his best. The movie is full of the bitterness, black humor and taste of alcohol, but the inner tension of Carver's novels is gone.
In 2006, Australian director Lawrence adapted Carver's novel "There is so much water at my doorstep" into the movie "Suspicious Clouds by the Lake". The four big men discovered that a female body did not report the crime in time, but continued to fish, play cards, and drink, triggering a series of conflicts. Since "there is so much water at the door of your house", you can fish as you like, why do you bother to get too close to you? Carver's novel is not outstanding. The handling of the conflicts between husband and wife seems too deliberate and formal, and it has a strong preaching taste. In order to enhance the drama, the director almost did not turn such an ethical play into a thriller. The media's comments hit the nail on the head: "The actor abused himself for two hours in the film, and the audience followed suit and suffered."
In 2010, Carver's short story "Why don't you dance a dance?" "It was put on the big screen by Dan Rush. The director obviously got inspiration from Carver’s life experience: as a hopeless alcoholic, Carver was admitted to the hospital many times for treatment, and once relied on his wife to carry a plate to make a living; the protagonist of the film "Big Sale" Nick lost his job because of alcoholism. , Family, home, savings, only the furniture that needs urgent treatment and the sky full of stars accompany him. Dan Rush drastically cut off more than half of the original short novel, leaving only the main story line of the big sale and the bitterness that no amount of alcohol can drown.
A man desperately desperate, asked a couple who came to buy his furniture: "Why don't you do a dance?" It is also true, idle is idle, why not do a dance? To set off the desolation and lonely state of mind with noisy and enthusiasm, this kind of despair and humor, which is not obvious, is very thorough and very Carver. The director’s addition of children, police officers, big belly women, high school classmates and other roles on the basis of the original work seems to be highlighting this Carver-style despair, but the main plot of "Why don’t you guys have a dance" is cut off. It's really puzzling.
The actor Will Ferrell, who plays Nick, won the Golden Plum Award for the Worst Screen Partner in 2006 for co-starring with the famous actress Nicole Kidman in "A Fairy Wife". Farrell looked very happy, with an innocent expression, as if the whole world was deliberately having trouble with him; his cautiousness in maintaining self-esteem, the swallowing voices of hooligans, and the rogue during the onset of alcohol addiction made the audience very happy. The feeling of "mourning for its misfortune, angering its indisputable". Nick's rivalry with Kenny, a young African-American boy, is very exciting. The latter seems to be dumb, and the little Jiujiu in his heart is faster than anyone else. Nick intends to hire him to help with 4 US dollars an hour. Sorry, the legal minimum wage in Arizona is 7.25 US dollars an hour. In addition, there are additional conditions: teach me to play baseball.
Looking through the old things, Nick accidentally found a message on the high school memorial book: "Nick, you are a diamond in the gravel. Delina." Nick, who is at the bottom of his life and feels that he is useless, seems to have been given a shot in the heart, and immediately decided Go to visit this old classmate. It turned out that at a crazy party 20 years ago, the brave and brave Nick showed his skills during the crisis, which made Delina's gratitude to this day: "Nick, you have a good heart, and this has not changed." Nick will Crying, he has long forgotten that he once had a heroic feat. His sorrow and the benefits of being remembered are closely related to alcohol.
In order to make our protagonist even more unlucky, the director made Nick's wife, who was out of the wall, fall in love with the police officer who cared for Nick. Like Carver, who has gone through ups and downs and finally got rid of alcohol addiction to achieve the dream of a writer, Nick realizes the damage caused by alcoholism to his wife, and is determined to give up drinking and get back together. The despair of the original book has now given way to inspirational light comedy. In other words, "Big Sale" does not help deepen your understanding of Carver's work. In the context of the economic crisis and the occupation of Wall Street, inspiration will inevitably become the main theme of Hollywood.
It is not impossible to describe Carver's novels as "diamonds in the gravel". The daily chores of the low-income people in the United States are like endless grit, created and tailored by Carver and his editor Lish, leaving readers with plenty of room for intrigue and aftertaste. That is the "diamond" of literature and art. As John Lehman said, when he read Carver, he found the parts of himself that he had lost.
View more about Everything Must Go reviews
