MovieChat Forums > The Go-Between (1971) Discussion > Very similar to 'Atonement'

Very similar to 'Atonement'

posted 15 years ago by EdenTrask
3 replies | jump to latest

While we're on the topic didn't Ian McEwan also get into trouble with the similarities between 'The Cement Garden' and 'Our Mother's House'? After seeing this film I felt a little bit cheated by 'Atonement'. I enjoyed reading the book and also enjoyed the film but that was before I had been fortunate enough to see this film. Since seeing this film I noticed all the similarties and am now far less impressed by 'Atonement' which seems to have taken many ideas from this work and no doubt the novel too.

[–] 15 years ago

[deleted]

[–] ArmandFancypants 13 years ago

Joe Wright, knowingly or not, wound up making a sort-of reference to this film with his adaptation of Atonement, by casting none other than Michael Redgrave's daughter as the flash-forward version of the protagonist. At first I thought it was just because V. Redgrave would have been the best option, and that may well be the case, but it's hard to ignore that fact as well.

[–] clivy 11 years ago

When I read Atonement I immediately noticed similarities to the Go Between: the grand country home, the hot summer, the group of people in the house including young adults and young teenagers.... then when Robbie handed a note to Byrony to give to her older sister I said aloud, "Come on McEwan, this is the Go Between!"

I found an interview with McEwan in which he said he wanted to put a direct reference to the Go Between in his novel, but he couldn't, as it was published after the 1940s, the time of the middle section of Atonement.