Right. After reading some comments on Facebook (some from people who are not actually followers of my blog... yet... ahem... (grin)...) I realized that there was an omission to my review on "A Game of Shadows"; i.e., how does it stack up to the original stories? What about the Basil Rathbone series, Jeremy Brett's epic portrayls, or the modern "Sherlock"? How about all the great odds and ends, like "Without a Clue", or "The Seven Percent Solution", the wonderfully funny "Sherlock Holmes Smarter Brother"? There is even a BBC series where Arthur Conan Doyle "reveals" the inspiration for the Holmes stories, called "Dr. Bell and Mr, Doyle. If you are a fan of Holmes, check this series out by all means..... anyway, I started to write this as a postscipt to the review, when I realized that this really need a whole new blog. Especially after I spent 20 minutes on writing it. ^..^
Sherlock Holmes may well be the most adapted character in literature. There are literally hundreds of films, dozens of TV and radio series, spinoff stories by people like Stephen King and Laurie King (no relation)Neil Gaiman, and the character was even given a Royal Society "Honorary Fellowship" about ten years ago. He has gone up against Dracula, been placed in modern times and the future, been on the Animaniacs... and yes, I have read or watched damn near everything Holmesian (is that a word? it is now). My grandmother was a huge fan, and got me started on her first collection when I was nine or so. My brother grabbed the books when she moved on. I'll have to kill him to get them I suspect. Ooops... ignore that.
So, as far as the two films by Guy Ritchie go, they are far from spot-on to the original ACD stories. They were never intended to be so however; like so many of these other works, they are an homage to "the greatest detective ever writen". I thoroughly enjoyed George C. Scott as the mentally unbalanced patient being treated by "Dr. Watson". Watching Nicol Williamson as the cocaine addicted Holmes in "The Seven Percent Solution" did not offend me in any way... though Williamson himself did, after he injured another actor on Broadway during a stage fight, because Nicol was too arrogant to show up for practice. Oaf. He was so awesome as Little John in "Robion and Marian".... oh well. I laughed during damn near every minute of Gene Wilder and Marty Feldman's portrayals, as well as the one by Michale Caine and Ben Kingsley.
I love to see all the little influences in film, television, novels of sci-fi, fantasy, steanpunk. Hell, he is even part of the inspiration behind Dr. Who (yechhh), and so many other detective characters. Batman's crime deduction methods are obviously takne from Holmes, and Johnny Depp gives him a nod in "Sleepy Hollow". You see tribute paid in Tom and Jerry cartoons, Mickey Mouse, you even see Daffy Duck wearing the famous deerstalker hat.
These two movies are action/adventure/comedies, and aren't intended to re-define or re-spin Holmes and Watson, any more than the anime dog Sherlock Holmes was. They should be looked at, not with a severely jaundiced eye, but with the affection for anything that introduces the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to a new generation of fans. If even one person in two hundred picks up a Kindle and downloads "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (which scared the hell out of me as a kid) or "The Sign of the Four" then I think the movies did a superb service.
And maybe, just maybe, one of the people reading those stories will start thinking a little more clearly; begin looking more carefully and closely at the world around them; and run for President.
I can dream, can't I?
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