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Originally Posted by !@#$%!
why less respect? someone had to bring that story to the screen and salingers only public activity in his late days was filing copyright lawsuits. plus, what was transgressive in the 50s is nothing today and as a period piece it would be a bit shit. eg cant be complaining that people are"flitty". so it was really a great way to do all that---have the older brother instead of the rommate fuck the girl, the mental illness goes to the dad instead of the mom, etc. i think it was awesome if anything precisely for that.
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It's been a long, long time since I last saw the Igby, so I should definitely rewatch. But, I actually kind of thought I was seeing Catcher parallels because I
wanted to see them. Between the ages of about 13 and 26, I viewed the world through
very Salinger-colored glasses. I remember calling my (sometimes haughty, academic, lit professor) mother and telling her about Igby after I'd seen it — recommending it as a cinematic ode to Catcher. She dismissed it, and thought it was a sneering and cynical, soulless Hollywood product. Almost the antithesis of Catcher, which she tends to see as a story about angelic beauty and warmth. So ... I thought it was just me, that I was projecting Holdenisms onto Igby.
To hear you say that it's an obvious adaptation in everything but name makes me think less of it as its own creature. But, like I said, I don't know how it holds up. Maybe it stands on its own two feet. But if it's really such an obvious and unrepentant theft of a book that I love so much, then I think it's pretty natural for me to be a bit put off.
But I don't know! I really want to watch it again now, and see if it works or doesn't work. So I'll refrain from spitting venom on the movie until I have time to re-evaluate it with your points in mind. Fair?
Also... I'm not sure I agree that it needed to be brought to the screen. In fact, I guess I've always felt that it was unadaptable. Sacred ground, maybe. I'm biased as hell, because my family is ... Jesus... honestly, kind of like a real-life Glads family at times, and most of us feel deep and profound connections to Salinger. But we're all haughty academics and eggheads, so... y'know... we're full of shit. Seriously. Not being sarcastic.
I think you're right that there needs to be a Holden Caulfield of cinema, though. But I think other films had already managed to tastefully bring the character to the big screen before Igby. The Graduate, Ordinary People, hell... even Rushmore, to some warped and cartoonish degree.
I don't know. I guess what you said about it being just shy of plagiarism made me think ... well, this:
