Updating the Classics

Every year over the past so many decades, Hollywood has pulled out all the stops in an effort to release films that are sure to draw in the crowds and in turn make the studios a lot of money. Some of these movies have been tremendously successful and others have been tremendously terrible but one thing remains; the studios keep trying. The subject matter for these films is often as varied as the people acting in the films. You can have movies like "Titanic" which was released in 1997 just a week before Christmas or you can have movies like the "Lord of the Rings" films which were each released a year apart in the week before Christmas. This year is no different; James Cameron's latest efforts (his first major film since "Titanic") entitled "Avatar" has been released and is already making a boatload (pun intended) of money. This coming week another film is hoping to dethrone the current champion and it is based on one of the most beloved and revered characters in classic literature; the forefather of all great detectives, Sherlock Holmes.

The character of Sherlock Holmes has been portrayed in numerous forms of media by actors of all shapes and sizes. Historians estimate that next to Bram Stoker's Dracula, Sherlock Holmes is one character who has been portrayed the maximum number of times in media. He's been portrayed by actors such as Peter Cushing, Christopher Plummer, Michael Caine and of course Basil Rathbone. He's been shown in stories based upon the original stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and he's been shown in films based upon completely original material. The latest version which is being directed by Guy Ritchie stars Robert Downey Jr. as the irascable Holmes with Jude Law portraying his faithful partner Dr. John Watson.

Now when I was in my final years of college I read every single story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle dealing with Sherlock Holmes. I read them in the order that they were written and came to appreciate the way in which Holmes managed to solve so many mysteries. Unlike many of the current crime shows on television, Holmes didn't always have the luxury of modern technology or a team of forensic scientists backing him up; rather he always relied on his knowledge and the assistance of his able companion Watson. It made me appreciate that the human mind was just as important (if not more so) in accomplishing what can often seem to be a difficult task. But more so, it gave me an appreciation of the fact that this was all shown to be during the Victorian era when sciences like detection and forensics were still in their infancy. It's hard to fathom these days but back then it was the standard.

So what does this all have to do with the new movie that will be coming out? Well nothing so much as just helping to set the background on what I'm hoping to see in the film. Films that are set in a historical era are often required to walk a very narrow line. They can either be true to their era or they can turn it on its ear for the sake of telling an entertaining story. For me, I tend to appreciate the more historically accurate depictions. As entertaining as the "Pirates of the Carribean" films were, I thought the age of sailing was better depicted in a film like "Master and Commander". Still, "Pirates of the Carribean" spawned two sequels (with talk of another) while "Master and Commander" was appreciated but didn't result in any sequels (at least not yet).

So what worries me is that a film like "Sherlock Holmes" has to walk that very narrow line too but the filmmakers also have to remember that with a character like Holmes who is so ingrained in literature and has always been depicted as being (more or less) true to his era, they can't stray too far from what is known. What that means is that I would hate to see a Sherlock Holmes who behaves more modern than what his character really was. He was cutting edge at the time but that doesn't mean that he should be depicted as being decades ahead of his time. I would rather see a Sherlock Holmes that is more in tune with Basil Rathbone than with Captain Jack Sparrow. I'm giving the film the benefit of the doubt but I just don't want to see a beloved character like Holmes turned into a caricature of what he truly is.