Simon Birch essays

Simon Birch essays Im going to be a hero. Pretty vague job description, isnt it? These lines of dialogue are a spoken between the lead character, Simon Birch, and Ben Goodrich, who is played by Oliver Platt. This proclamation sums up the driving force behind Simons actions. His quest to be a hero is Simon Birchs maguffin. It is the thing that drives him forward through the film. Throughout the film he is constantly in search of a sign from god that will tell him when the time has come for him to be a hero. This most recent adaptation of a John Irving novel, A Prayer for Owen Meany, is filmmaker Mark Johnsons Simon Birch. What needs to be understood by the viewer is that the movie is an adaptation and not the book. Reviewers repeatedly said that the movie was not like the book and the reason for that is it is not the book. This seems to be something that critics lost sight of, the movie was judged against the book and not for its artistic merit. Although the film ...premiered to cheers from the audience...(17.), most critics seem to agree that there was no justice done to the Irving novel. Variety said that Simon Birch yet again showed that, capturing Irvings mercurial tonal shifts in another medium is not so easy. The article goes on to point out that Irving himself demanded a character (and hence title) name change. As well as suggested by rather than based on credit (13.). Irving is quoted as saying, The story is significantly different from my novel and it would be unfair to my readers to mislead them to think theyll see A Prayer for Owen Meany. Its not A Prayer for Owen Meany, but I liked it. And Im happy with the way I was treated (13.). This quote leads you to believe that Irving approved of the film, but his insistence on ...