Friday, November 28, 2008

Movie Time!

As a confessed movie lover, I constantly am comparing things I read to movies I’ve seen. Less than halfway through Pratchett and Gaimen’s Good Omens I have already found a few connections to movies from the last few years that I have watched numerous times.

The first movie connection is with one of my personal favorites, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, aka the 2nd Pirate movie.

On page 54, Crowley and Azriphale discuss the Kraken, a sea monster. According to Aziraphale, the Kraken is a “great big bugger… sleepth beneath the thunders of the upper deep.”

As a Pirates fan, I remember the Kraken all too well and was able to visualize this “said terrible beasty” (as Capt. Jack would call it) that Crowley and Aziraphale discussed. In the movie, the Kraken was also a great big bugger that was found in the sea. The movie also showed how fierce this sea creature was, which can be seen in the following clip. (I'm including the URL at the end in case the video doesn't embed properly)



The second connection may be a stretch for some, but it’s the movie I thought of. Page 87 finds Crowley speeding through central London with Aziraphale fearing for his life;

Aziraphale grabbed the dashboard. “You can’t do ninety miles an hour in Central London!”
Crowley peered at the dial. “Why not?” he said.
“You’ll get us killed!” Good Omens page 87


I thought of the car chase scene from National Treasure: Book of Secrets (aka National Treasure 2). The cars in National Treasure probably weren't going 90 miles an hour, and Crowley’s Bentley wasn’t being shot at, but it’s still crazy driving within London. (Once again if the embedded video does not work, the URL will be at the bottom)

"Saliva dripped from its jaws and sizzled on the tar.
It took a few steps forward, and sniffed the sullen air.
Its ears flicked up." Good Omens, page 80

When reading these three lines I thought of the 3rd Harry Potter, Prisioner of Azkaban. In the beginning of the movie where a black dog is seen hiding in places like bushes, this could describe the dog. Before the dog is known to be Sirius (and before Sirius is known to be Harry's godfather and innocent) it is seen as an evil being. In Divination class, this dog is referred to as 'The Grim', a bad omen. This dog in Good Omens is being portrayed as a similar evil being as it as actually the hell hound heading for the home of the anti-christ.

These three movies are very different but they are able to represent the portions of the book showing how diverse this book is.


*Clip URLs in case the embedding didn't work*
Pirates 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uVqRo8_9LM

National Treasure 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXnZ-OqagOw

Special credit to youtube.com where these videos were found




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