12-22-2011, 08:54 AM
I was reading a review of the new Sherlock Holmes film, A Game of Shadows, the other day, and the critic seemed struck by how different the original Holmes of Arthur Conan Doyle's stories is from this new action hero played by Robert Downey Jr. Where the old Holmes was fastidious, almost obsessive compulsive, about his home and appearance, the new Holmes is slovenly. Where the old was a precise intellectual, the new is a laddish adventurer, and so on.
Personally, I find this deeply annoying. I understand that Guy Ritchie isn't making art, and I'm perfectly fine with the addition of more action to the plot, but was it really necessary to change so much about the character's personality? Are modern audiences really so anti-intellectual that their heroes have to invariably be boorish, adolescent pricks?
Personally, I find this deeply annoying. I understand that Guy Ritchie isn't making art, and I'm perfectly fine with the addition of more action to the plot, but was it really necessary to change so much about the character's personality? Are modern audiences really so anti-intellectual that their heroes have to invariably be boorish, adolescent pricks?