Melissa Rosenberg: On Harry Clearwater’s Death
Posted by Twilight_News - 25/11/09 at 12:11 pm
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Here is the link to it on MTV’s site.
http://hollywoodcrush.mtv.com/2009/11/25/new-moon-scribe-melissa-rosenberg-on-making-victoria-the-cause-of-harry-clearwaters-death/
Misfit.
While I didn’t mind the rewrite in the movie, I disagree with her about his death. New Moon does set up his heart attack. They mention several times about his heart and his eating habits.
I enjoyed New moon so much more than Twilight, but I really think Melissa Rosenburg has done a poor job all around. I just think she doesn’t really understand the books. I understand that the book cannot go to screen word for word and some things need to be more visual, but I think she makes bad choices. Like Bella would have never gone with the motorcycle guy. And all the missing Twilight dialogue, like “I love you.” I just don’t think she really grasps this series. But at least the director did, so we got a pretty good movie!!!
Janice,
I disagree. I think that his heart failing after seeing Victoria was a clever way to increase her threatening role in the storyline. I love the choices that Melissa makes, and she has been able to cleverly adapt certain scenes (the Volturi painting coming to life, etc).
Also, Janice, it makes sense for Bella to go with the man on the motorcycle. She was reckless after Edward left. That was a nice way to set up her interest with the bikes, too.
Matt, i agree with all the things you say.
I find it unfair for fan of this serie to always blame everything on her. For me she makes this movie bearable, because if we’re honnest with ourselve, these books are so poorly writen that it would have been cheesier and so cinematically wrong if they wasn’t some change to the story.
But noone is going to say that the source material is crap because we all like that crap.
While I know it was mentioned several times in the book that Harry needed to watch what he ate, etc, I kind of liked how his death was portrayed in the movie (not that I like to see anyone die, of course). It would have taken too long to establish all of that stuff about his eating habits, etc, in scenes that might have been kind of insignificant(although a couple more scenes of Bella and Jacob interacting wouldn’t have hurt, but we got the message). Rachelle and Graham were great in that scene, and it helped relay the point that Victoria is one nasty vampire.
A major part of the problem with putting these books to film is that the majority of the “action” takes place in Bella’s head. When she sees those guys by the bar-in the book-she remembers what happened before. ( I thought the flashback in the movie was well placed.) But really, in the book, the rest of the “action” is in her head as she considers what she’s hearing and feeling. MR and CW had to add concrete images to make sense of it. And Harry Clearwater’s illness wasn’t mentioned in the Twilight movie so a little poetic license was called for. (I thought it was sadly ironic that he died as a result of a vampire attack when he didn’t have the werewolf gene. Maybe Harry would’ve been proud to go out fighting.) The same goes for the fight with the Volturi, all the “action” in the book was inside people’s heads or in the dialogue. Not remotely exciting on film. So CW and MR were smart to embelish. Overall I thought it was well done. I love to see my favorite characters brought to life and I’m not sweating the small stuff. But, yeah, the missing “I love you” from Twilight was not cool and I wasn’t crazy about Jacob not letting Bella know Edward was on the phone in New Moon. That made him seem mean. But, I’m not a screen writer, producer, director, actor or any other thing remotely related to movie making so I should probably just zip my lip! Given the amount of money the film is making, it’s clear somebody did something right! It couldn’t have been only about Rob and Taylor. (Or maybe it could have…sigh.)
I was pissed too with the missing I love you from twilight! But I have to say that this time Melissa did a good job!! I love how she decided to show harry’s death, I think is an amazing idea! And I loved the fact that the movie was sooo similar to the book!
Well let’s wait what happen in Eclipse. It’s my favorite book so I hope she does something really awesome.!
Watch that scene again. Harry twitches his nose, indicating that he smells a vampire. That is why he looks around for Victoria. This means he had the werewolve gene, and it was passed to Seth and Leah. He just never transformed.
Cool, I missed that. I’ll look when I see the movie again. I meant that he never phased.
I have to say I like how she did it. Though I was not impressed w/ some of things she did in Twilight (the Vampire line anyone? lame x10000000000) in this it worked. She kept all my fave alice quotes minus one (anyone else would of been safer when the vampires left town lol) so I can’t complain so say this was bad I liked how she did it. The Kung fu line was a nice touch too.
All I care about is Eclipse (my fave), if she keeps the “Fall down again Bella?” quote then she is the best if not, she is the worst. *shurgs*
It wasn’t in the book, but I didn’t mind the way she wrote Harry’s death at all. I guess it could’ve happened because Bella wasn’t there when he had his heart attack & the book is from her perspective. Also, that entire scene w/ Victoria, the wolves and Thom Yorke’s song was just so cool, I think his death only added to the drama of it.
I loved that the scene was included, as it is very important to the story. though, stephenie has said that his heart attack is from seeing seth and/or leah phase for the first time. but this way gave rachelle more to do, loved how she had such a big presence in the movie without actually having any lines.
I have mixed feelings. I think Melissa did well in adapting some parts, but her “cheesy line” factor in the last two movies really moves me to think they should use someone else to adapt them. But I guess there is only one more to be done (if it will be done).
If you think her lines are cheesy, then just take the book and read it out loud with someone and you would change your mind. I read the book with my boyfriend. We always try to find out what the other is reading. And after the 2 first chapter of twilight, i stop reading it outloud because it was so cheesy and poorly writen. my boyfriend was making fun of me and i had to read it when he wasn’t around. I took him to the movie and he like it. He says that thancks to the actors and the adaptation even the chesiest line from the book came out honnest and believable.
The thing to keep in mind when talking “cheesy” is the book is supposed to be written from a teenager’s perspective. Everything is melodramatic and overdone at that age. Based on that, I think the book matches the perspective well.
One of my biggest challenges when viewing ANY movie from book adaptation is that it isn’t going to be an exact interpretation and that changes will be made. I think that, visually and from the past licenses she already took, the Harry death one worked as well as it could.
The scenes with Victoria/Harry Clearwater/and Bella jumping from the cliff was the most beautiful sequence of the entire movie! Of course, that’s Chris Weitz and his cinematographer who’s responsible for that one–not Rosenberg.
And with Thom Yorke’s song playing to it all…TRULY BEAUTIFUL! That entire sequence had the most artistic of any in the film.
Freaking A-men
THANK YOU! Finally, someone read my mind. It was indeed one of the most epic scenes in the movie, if not the most epic. It was well thought out, it was creative, brilliant, unexpected, shocking, beautiful, etc etc etc. I would go on in detail, but it was just awesome. ^_^
Since it’s been mentioned a couple of times here, I’m wondering if someone can answer a question for me. Like everyone else I was disappointed that there were no “I Love You”s in Twilight, but I have always been curious about something. In the scene when Bella is about to leave with Alice, Edward cups his hand around her face and it looks to me like he says “I Love You”, but for some reason there is the sound of a car revving at the same moment. Anybody else catch that?
I think he says “Bella, you are my life now.’ (If you mean when Bella is leaving with Edward while Edward goes to hunt for James.”
I meant leaving with Alice and Jasper
Thanks, but I wasn’t talking about the audible line. I was talking about something he is mouthing to her at the moment when the engine revs and he cups his hand around her face. He definitely says something with an L in it, and to me it looks like “I love you”, but you can’t hear it. If you go back and watch that scene you will know what I mean.
Oh, yet another thing I missed in the movie. I’ll have to look at it again. (For the bazillionth time.)
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I thought it was rather clever of MR to have Victoria be the cause of Harry’s heart attack. Since the books are told from Bella’s perspective and Bella wasn’t in the woods at the time, there would have been no way for her to know that Victoria was the cause. Someone earlier mentioned that the book blames the heart attack on Harry’s eating habits, well it could easily have been a mixture of the two! Fear alone generally doesn’t kill anyone, but maybe mixing it with a few clogged arteries would do the job.
Also I think having Victoria be the cause of Harry’s death, makes the fact that Seth plays a role in helping Edward kill her at the end of Eclipse be that much more meaningful. Anyone agree?
Yeah that sounds good. I love Seth.
Ooooh, I think you are right about Victoria’s death. I hope David Slater noticed this and made it work in the third one. :3
Totally agree! LisCat!!! A good choice there. But i do agree with Janice on one thing. Simple dialouge like “I love you” really needed to be in there.
Oh I totally agree with the “I love you” thing as well. Think about how many times in the saga Edward and Bella exchange “I love you”s.
I’m glad it is worked into the dialogue more in New Moon, but it was still seriously lacking. The only time there was an actual, “I love you, I love you too” was after the Jasper attack and Edward says it soooo half heatedly. I mean I know he is really conflicted at that point in the story, but I just could never imagine Edward professing his love to Bella with so little enthusiasm. It almost made me mad at him to hear it said like that. Maybe that was the point…?
I think you are all forgetting that it wasn’t just his eating habits in the book. It was the shock of finding out leah and seth had the wolf gene. So in a way the way she did it still kept true to leah and seths hate for vampires.
Well, technically Seth is more open minded, but yeah you’re right.
I thought that she did a good job wi/ Harry’s death in new moon, until i remembered that Harry dies because he sees Leah transform for the first time. I’m pretty sure it’s said in new moon ?