Henry The Jew Essay, Research Paper
Films that are based on novels when compared often have many similarities and
differences. The Beach directed by Danny Boyle and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Guillaume
Canet, Robert Carlyle and Virginie Ledoyen. The genre of this film is Adventure/Drama because
of the intense moments in the movie and because the movie is one big trip to an island. I think
this film is overwhelming because of the extreme details. For instance the starting of the film when
Richard describes how travelling should be done, I also love this film because of the unique
camera angles.
The Beach is about a traveller named Richard (Leonardo DiCaprio) who sets off to
Thailand searching for an adventure. Accepting every offer, he feels like nothing can stand in his
way. When he is lying in his bed that night he hears an obnoxious Scottish man named Daffy Duck
(Robert Carlyle) who breaks into his room and tells Richard about an exquisite beach. The
following day he finds a map to this infamous beach; when going into Daffy s room to thank him
he finds him dead. Richard immediately accepting the offer of the map goes and asks two other
people to join him on his trek, Francoise(Virginie Ledoyen) and Etienne(Guillaume Canet) who
also accept the challenge. When getting there they discover a dope field run by Thai drug lords
they manage to escape only to find a small village run by happy people. The village people easily
accepted them as a part of the group. A leader runs them named Sal(Tilda Swinton) and
everything is fine until a series of critical events happen; a shark attacks three village fishermen,
Richard begins to go insane and the secret of the beach begins to be exposed to the world. This
story takes place in Thailand and more specifically in the city of Koh Panhagen and in the isles of
Thailand.
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Likewise, to the book the movie has the same plot along with the same setting and most of the
characters. The plot is similar because the village people are afraid of the Thai drug lords in both
the book and the film. The story also takes place in the same setting which is in Thailand. Most of
the characters that are in the book are also in the film and they also have the same character traits;
For instance, Etienne is a kind hearted gentleman in both. Richard is always up for a new
challenge. Sal is a very serious person. Bugs is an obnoxious tough guy. Daffy is crazy in both.
In addition, to the similarities they are also major differences between the two. In the
novel more characters and some characters are involved much more in the story, problems(many
minor problems and two major problems), and a different ending. The characters in the novel that
are missing play a key role in the story, for instance, in the novel Jed is the person that takes care
of Christo(the dying Swede) whereas in the film Etienne is the one to care of the Christo. Also
Richard is Sal s right-hand man and in the film he is not. Keaty plays a key part in the novel as
Richard s new best friend whereas in the film we barely see him. One major problem left out in
the film is the day the camp gets food poisoning(from Keaty catching an already dead fish) and
Bugs soils himself. In frustration he punches Keaty which separates the village people and brings
down group morale. Sal gives and inspiring speech about how everyone has to stick together.
Besides this difference the other major problem that occurred was the love triangle
Richard, Francoise, and Etienne. Where Francoise cheated on Etienne with Richard, and the
argument that occurred among the three and in the movie. The other major difference was the
ending where Richard escaped the island with only his friends whereas in the movie they left with
everyone.
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Although the film was very good, I prefer the novel because it has greater detail in the
story than in the film. The novel includes more problems, characters and gives more detail to the
settings allowing me to understand the characters almost perfectly. It also helped me to imagine
what I would do in their situation and their reasons for acting the way they do. The more
complex the story was the better it was. The story in the film was very simple.
Furthermore, the major actors/actresses played their roles very well. I say this because of
one reason, the way I pictured their characters to be, were very close to how they acted in the
film. This allowed me to enjoy the film a lot. To be more specific I would say Daffy(Robert
Carlyle) played his role most flawlessly; he acted exactly how the character acted in the novel.
The fact that not an actor/actress played their part wrong, made the movie enjoyable to watch.
Generally, in a movie most people would expect that someone would not play their role
well, but in this film I cannot say that. I do think Etienne(Guillaume Canet) could have played his
part a little bit better as I found when he was happy in the film it looked like he was faking it.
Besides that problem I found he played his role very well.
The most outstanding scene in this movie to me is when Richard is running through the
bush and he is imagining that he is playing in a video game. This scene to me is the most
rememberable because of the special effects and the camera angles, and because it is like no other
scene in the movie. The camera angle in this movie a low too high tracking shot (he feels like he
can do anything and he is superior to anyone else). They view this shot at medium range and his
movements are purposely fake in the way that he is exaggerating everything especially the way he
runs. It is also rememberable because of the video game music that is playing and the way that
everything is animated except the trees and himself.
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Besides the fact that The Beach is an excellent movie, this film has a great significance and
importance about society and human behaviour. This film teaches us the lessons that people are
greedy and cannot be trusted. For instance, the fact that Sal was going to shoot Richard to stay at
the beach shows that not even friends can be trusted and that she was doing it for the beach shows
that people are greedy. Also when Daffy kills himself to escape from his cancer(the people)
shows that we are not proper we are slobs and we pollute the earth. This shows a new expertise in
filming because it is lightly insulting us to show us what we are, which has never been presented in
a film.
In conclusion, the target audience of this film is everyone old enough to understand the
film fully. It presents a good message to us on how we act and that we our destroying our world.
I think the audience should see this film because it helps us understand what we are doing to
ourselves. I rate this film an A because it was excellent and almost every aspect of the movie
was outstanding. It presented a good message and it was an interesting story at the same time.