William of Baskerville

The film is faithful to the book in the names of all the characters – our protagonist was named by the late, great Umberto Eco very deliberately for William of Ockham and in reference to the world of Sherlock Holmes.

In fact, most of the plot and incidents in the film are adapted from the novel – which is a fantastic read, if very dense with intellectual layers and asides. So, where it differs the most, as I recall, is in that a lot of these deeper spiritual and philosophical discussions in the book, and details of the historical (factual) background has been excised – necessarily to create a motion picture's pace.

Actually, there are even more murders in the book, too! But the climax of the film has been given a bit of 'Hollywood' (albeit not to the point of a sword fight, as Robert DeNiro apparently wanted written in when he was considered for the part). I loved both book and film. And Eco himself came gradually to enjoy it, I believe – largely because Connery - and the rest of the cast - sell it so brilliantly. Shades of Ian Fleming warming hugely to Connery after an initial horrified reaction to his casting as Bond!




... because I reappear with tedious inevitability