What has been dropped from the original?

Hi Suzanne,

The change from TV mini-series to feature film was Potter's concept back in the early 1990s. I think he felt a US TV version really would be just a 're-make', whereas he saw this version as more of a 're-imagning'. As he said in the terrific book 'Potter on Potter': “First of all, it's not in any sense a précis of the original series, and secondly, it is totally rethought." I doubt Potter would have been interested in a 're-make' he was happy with the British series as it was. By changing the whole format, he was, I think, trying to take his basic idea and style, and create something new. Sort of the way a composer might take a piano piece they've written and turn that into a symphony, using the same basic melody and structure.

Obviously, a lot of wonderful material from the mini-series is gone. (And a lot of what's 'left' is quite different). But I think Potter tried to make that a strength, not a weakness. For example, the lead character is now isolated in a private room, instead of having all those odd and interesting 'roommates'. But I think Potter used this for both dramatic and thematic reasons. I think, by isolating his hero he increases his sense of desperation and lonliness, and makes the piece more intense and direct. The series had a bit more of a 'theatrical' feel - a sense of observing the lead character. His film script is a little more subjective and visceral - seen from inside his protagonist's head. At the same time, he can deal with that particularly American cliche of the 'lone man against the world' that is so much a part of the American mystery and noir tradition (and on a larger, very subtle level, I think he's also jibbing America's tendency towards a xenophobic and 'we'll do it our way' approach to dealing with the world).

Many of the basic elements exist in both versions, but in the film they are often more in shorthand, a bit less spelled out, a bit more poetic and fragmentary. There's much less of the character's childhood in the feature, for example, but the feeling is quite similar.

The other thing that I see as a real difference, although not a 'loss', is that the film has a slightly more hopeful tone. I think Potter's world view evolved over the last years of his life, as one can see in the astounding interview he did for the BBC only weeks before his death. His irrascible wit and sarcasm is as sharp as ever, but he also expresses some real tenderness about the beauty of life, and a sense that this most dark writer found some light before he left the world.

Best,


Keith Gordon