Birdsong

[Dej 17]

Any of my fellow Brits watch the TV adaptation of Sebastian Faulks seminal novel of WW1?

 

What did you think?

 

My tu'penorth... good but not nearly good enough. Suffered badly by truncation; dropped the contextually important 'modern day' sections; didn't close in a way that made you understand how much the war had changed Stephen and the characters didn't ave time to develop properly.

 

Good points... the opening day of the Somme offensive was re-created well given the limited focus and brought a lump to my throat, especially when they realised the wire wasn't cut and when the roll call was read out; NML looked authentic; Jack Firebrace was casted well; horrible wounds (hardly a good point per se - but it certainly added a dose of visceral emphesis which was needed.)

[Von Paulus 8]

Thanks for the review, Dej.

I surely will be wanting to watch this.

 

You do understand that most books adapted to TV or cinema (special this) always suffer a little from the truncation.

I remember a few honorable exceptions , like "Brideshead Revisited" (the older series) and the le Carré's "Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy" and "Smiley's People" with the great Alec Guinness as "Smiley".

Edited January 31, 2012 by Von Paulus

[+Polovski 460]

Was very good in itself (not comparing to the novel) both the hope and despair came through. It came across as a high quality well crafted piece of work with some beautiful camera work and scenes, with seemingly realistic trench views. The very expansive view at one point showing the flattened NML landscape with the main character in the middle for example. Overall very good, I haven't read the novel so can't comment on that part.

[themightysrc 5]

"Was very good in itself (not comparing to the novel) both the hope and despair came through. It came across as a high quality well crafted piece of work with some beautiful camera work and scenes, with seemingly realistic trench views. The very expansive view at one point showing the flattened NML landscape with the main character in the middle for example. Overall very good, I haven't read the novel so can't comment on that part."

 

I read the book several years ago, and I will hold my hands up to start with.

 

The book is not the work of art that people say it is. It's absolutely f***ing dreadful.

 

I've read many novels - not just WWI, of which there are very few - but there aren't many that made me feel that I'd been cheated, so convoluted was the plot. Birdsong is worse than Ben Elton's 'The First Casualty', and that is, I assure you, a damning verdict.

 

In an attempt, apparently, to ensure that the TV adaption wouldn't be sullied with anything resembling plot, the scriptwriters removed a good 50% (trust me - I read it so you won't have to) of the plot and feeble rationale. If you saw it and wondered why he suddenly embraced a German in the middle of no mans' land, that's the reason. It's sort of vaguely in there somewhere, in the book (except explicit), but that translates in the truncated, dumbed down version to just hugging a Hun for no particular reason, and without explanation or background.

 

Trust me. The book is an absolute pile of s**te and the BBC adaptation - I regret to say - was even worse. If I want to see people staring wistfully into each other's eyes for no particular reason, I'll bob off down the local FE college's canteen.

 

I'm sorry I can't be positive about it, but it was very, very bad indeed if you like stuff like plot, timeline, characterisation and all that mularkey.

 

Save yourself much wasted time, and if you wish to see British (BBC) drama at its very best, then watch the recent version they did of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice", possibly one of the finest pieces of adaptation of a novel that I have seen in the last 20 years.

 

Just forget about "Birdsong": it was a bag of s**t.

[Dej 17]

Well, each to their own. For me, the awkwardness of the plot in the novel is an emphasis of the mental and emotional dislocation of the characters thoughout the novel - from the pre-war (and granted rather facile) 'stranger on foreign shores' bit to the more obvious disturbance engendered by the horrors of trench and particularly tunnel warfare.

 

I would say though, that if you haven't read 'Birdsong'... read it and form your own opinion. It has a place in WW1 literature whether deserved or not so it'll do no harm to read it. There are worse ways to spend some hours.

 

Ditto with the TV adaptation, if nothing else then Pol is correct, it does have some great camera work and scenery.

[Flyby PC 23]

I never watched it. Curses.

 

I got so far as to read period BBC drame blah blah and thought it was the usual guff.

 

Then independently, I came across a reference the the book Birdsong in the context of tunneling saps and hearing the enemy digging. I'm not sure whether there is similar content in the book, but it;s a WW1 themed book I wasn't aware of.

 

 

I hadn't heard of birdsong, but think I may give it a read.

[RAF_Louvert 101]

.

 

I may have to sit down and read this one myself now. I mean, when two individuals such as Dej and Si, (who both strike me as well-read and more than just a little insightful), have such diametrically opposed viewpoints on the same book? Well, there must be something there then.

 

.

[Dej 17]

Then independently, I came across a reference the the book Birdsong in the context of tunneling saps and hearing the enemy digging. I'm not sure whether there is similar content in the book...

 

Yes, there is. Tunnelling, counter-tunnelling, listening for the enemy, firefights and hand to hand I tunnels you can't stand up in... all there. Also some indication of the kind of man you had to be to do that.

 

Look Birdsong up on Wikipedia. I would say the wiki entry is a neutral and dispassionate synopsis.

[Siggi 10]

Caught it by sheer chance (flicking through the channels) and thought it was quite superb.

[Dej 17]

If you saw it and wondered why he suddenly embraced a German in the middle of no mans' land, that's the reason. It's sort of vaguely in there somewhere, in the book (except explicit), but that translates in the truncated, dumbed down version to just hugging a Hun for no particular reason, and without explanation or background.

 

A reflection on this particular point of view: The scene still worked for me, even though it did not align fully with the novel. I personally find it very believable that an educated man - who had viewed the war as an exercise in futility and degradation; who had been trapped underground and close to death for days at the very end when he thought he might have made it through; who had grown close to very few and had had them all taken from him by the War - should collapse sobbing on the shoulder of the German officer who told him it was finally over.

 

I think I might have done the same in such a situation.

[themightysrc 5]

"A reflection on this particular point of view: The scene still worked for me, even though it did not align fully with the novel. I personally find it very believable that an educated man - who had viewed the war as an exercise in futility and degradation; who had been trapped underground and close to death for days at the very end when he thought he might have made it through; who had grown close to very few and had had them all taken from him by the War - should collapse sobbing on the shoulder of the German officer who told him it was finally over."

 

But that's not how the book worked, and, frankly, if there were even a hint of reality in the Beeb version, then they might have acknowledged the fact that that's not how the narrative was constructed by the author. If I want to be patronised by a bloody awful version of a bloody awful book then I suppose I'll submit to the version filmed recently, but, with hand on heart, you'd have to be very generous indeed to both the book and the adaptation to find very much to praise.

[Shiloh 12]

I watched this a few weeks back and thought it was very well done.

[33LIMA 972]

 

Save yourself much wasted time, and if you wish to see British (BBC) drama at its very best, then watch the recent version they did of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice", possibly one of the finest pieces of adaptation of a novel that I have seen in the last 20 years.

 

 

I perferred 'Jane Austen Does LA', myself - hang on a moment, I'm getting that mixed up with something else aren't I? ANYTHING but Jane Austen - even the soft cushions administered by Cardinal Biggles himself would be better. 'Persuasion' was even worse that 'P&P', I pray the Dreadful Aunti Beeb won't ever dramatise THAT - except ''drama' and 'Jane Austen' are mutually exclusive terms.

Anyway, it was 'Emily Bronte does LA', wasn't it?

[foreigndevil 0]

I liked it very much, great camerawork, good story, good actors, WW1 trenches atmosphere represented well, etc. Haven't read the book, so, can't compare. But "Birdsong" definitely lives up to the (high) BBC standards!

Edited March 14, 2012 by foreigndevil