Birdsong (2012)

Director: Philip Martin                                    Writers: Sebastian Faulks & Abi Morgan
Film Score: Nicholas Hooper                          Cinematography: Julian Court
Starring: Eddie Redmayne, Clémence Poésy, Joseph Mawle and Marie-Josée Croze

One of the common complaints about literature that is made into film, is that the filmmakers change too much, or leave things out, or otherwise tamper with the novel or story. I admit, I used to be one of those who complained. But at some point I realized that films are a completely different art form, and that filmmakers shouldn’t be bound by the constraints of their source material. Often times, when the opportunity arises to film a novel almost completely and emulate everything in the book, it doesn’t really work. Birdsong is an example of this. A best-selling novel by Sebastian Faulks, the BBC series is overlong and as a result, dilutes its drama to the point that nothing in the picture seems dramatic. One of the things film does so well, in the same way as poetry, is compression of the story to give it maximum impact. By attempting to emulate the leisurely pace of fiction, Birdsong is utterly unable to control the narrative in a filmic sense.

Film is an objective medium, which means that the only thing we can know is what the characters tell us, almost exclusively in dialogue. So, long sections of internal dialog where the character tells us what he thinks and feels in the book . . . become long, tedious sections of characters looking at each other and saying nothing. It just doesn’t work. If the screenwriter had made Redmayne keep a diary, or done some kind of minimal voiceover, we might have been able to approximate the novel. But no, it was Faulks himself who co-wrote the screenplay, guaranteeing those long sections of non-verbal staring at each other.

I enjoyed the book, and in many ways it bears a strong relationship to Atonement, based on the novel by Ian McEwan, both of which use World War I for the backdrop of their love stories and a multigenerational approach to the narrative. Unfortunately, even with all of that space in the mini-series, the author decided to ditch the modern section of the novel, much to the detriment of the film. Instead, we have even longer to linger over the two streams of narrative, one from before the war, and one during. Eddie Redmayne is an apprentice to a French manufacturer, learning about modern textile techniques. He falls in love with the man’s wife, Clémence Poésy, while staying in their home, and the two run away together. This is juxtaposed with Redmayne during the war, alternately guarding the tunnel diggers and going over the top into no man’s land.

This is a popular mini-series, no doubt due to the popularity of the novel. But on its own, it lacks the impact of a feature film, the compression that makes the drama so immediate and so powerful. The two leads, Redmayne and Poésy, are very good, as is the supporting cast. But floating as they are, awash in a bloated narrative in which very little seems to happen because of the immensity of the film’s length, it’s ultimately disappointing. For those who have read the novel, it no doubt will be enjoyable, the story familiar, the characters engaging. But for those who haven’t, it will probably come off as over long, which it really is. And that’s too bad, because Birdsong had the potential to be something great, but was simply overdone.

In The Shadow of the Moon (2007)

Director: David Sington                                     Presenter: Ron Howard
Music Score: Philip Sheppard                           Cinematography: Clive North
Starring: Buzz Aldrin, Gene Cernan, Michael Collins and Jim Lovell

In the 1983 feature film Terms of Endearment, Jack Nicholson as astronaut Garrett Breedlove expresses some interesting thoughts about his experience in space. “There's a hundred and six astronauts in the whole world and I’m one of them . . . Do you want to know what bothers me? None of us ever got together in one room, locked all the doors, and compared notes on the experience. I think we had to pretend it wasn’t the fun that it was.” This feature documentary, In the Shadow of the Moon, tries to do exactly that. Unlike most histories of the U.S. space program in the sixties, this film doesn’t approach the subject chronologically by mission. It takes as its premise the experience of the astronauts themselves who actually went to the moon and compares all of the aspects of space flight, from the preparation to the liftoff to the landing and exploration of the moon itself. As such, it’s the closest thing to Nicholson’s locked room that we’re likely to see, especially with the passing of so many astronauts.

Another aspect to this film that fits it into part of a larger movement was the success of Ron Howard’s 1995 film Apollo 13. In the wake of that film came a number of projects by Howard and the film’s star, Tom Hanks. The most impressive is a dramatic reenactment of the entire Apollo program that the two put together for HBO in 1998, the miniseries From the Earth to the Moon. That renewed interest in the space program inspired the single most impressive documentary on the entire program, To The Moon, produced by NOVA in 1999. One other tremendous program that was made that same year by The History Channel and dealt with the Soviet space program is the lamentably out of print Secrets of Soviet Space Disasters. All of these programs feature interviews with surviving members of the space programs and delve into material previously only found in books. The explosion of interviews and information conveyed in a visual medium created a new interest and popularity of the original program that beat the Russians to the Moon.

The surviving astronauts in Shadow are Jim Lovell from Apollo 8, the first men to orbit the moon, and Apollo 13, the successful failure that was almost the greatest space tragedy in U.S. history, Dave Scott from Apollo 9 and 15, Gene Cernan from Apollo 10 and 17, the last flight to the moon, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins from Apollo 11, the flight that first landed on the moon, Alan Bean from the following flight Apollo 12, and the only non-aviator to land on the Moon, scientist Jack Schmitt on Apollo 17. The film emphasizes the experience of space flight, like the interesting fact of the way the rocket gimbals as it’s coming off the launch pad, and the way the packed schedule of the astronauts allows very little time for introspection. Though Ron Howard wasn’t directly involved in the film, he was brought onboard as the presenter to provide name recognition and a link to his popular film about Jim Lovell, whose book ;Lost Moon provided the storyline for Howard’s film. Those expecting a detailed telling of the Apollo program will not find it in In the Shadow of the Moon. For that they should check out the NOVA program. But for those interested in the human experience of traveling to another planet, it’s fascinating.