Beyond Fidelity Movie Interpretation

Adaptation: The Journey We All Take As movie-goers, we all have seen films advertised with the “based on the book” tag line. Unfortunately, after watching these films there are always viewers that bring up the fidelity of the film to the original piece. Artistically, this raises the question of to what extent do we define originality. Robert Stam, the author of Beyond Fidelity: The Dialogics of Adaptation, pointed out that a film’s fidelity to a novel is an issue deemed by audiences to be moralistic, labeling a wrongful adaptation as a “betrayal” to the original piece and its readers (Stam, 2000). However, Stam analyzes this debate of fidelity and discusses the inevitability of violations of “fidelity” between mediums and that the “betrayals”
It also provides the audience perspective on what we consider to be good entertainment and storytelling. The film does this by using an ironic twist ending. Charlie feels it is his responsibility to be faithful to the novel. As stated by Robert Stam in Beyond Fidelity: The Dialogics of Adaptation, “film adaptation of novels has often been profoundly moralistic” (Stam, 2000). This is made clear in Charlie continuously throughout the film. He believes it is his artistic responsibility and his moral responsibility to not submit himself to the Hollywood film industry and stay true to the novel. However, by the third act, all of the clichés he rejected (making the flowers into poppies, learning profound life lessons, guns, sex, and car chases) ended up in the film. This ironic twist raises the question of why we, as an audience, expect plot devices like these in films. Is there a balance that can be made between plot devices and originality? The relationship between Charlie Kaufman and his twin brother, Donald Kaufman, helps illustrate this debate over fidelity, originality, and
Charlie constantly rejects the “formulas” and “recipes” of screenwriting in Hollywood while Donald embraces them. Donald treats writing and film as a product to be sold to the masses, while Charlie perceives it as more of an art form that should not spell things out for the audience. This conflict between Charlie and Donald and the ultimate fate of Charlie’s screenplay sheds light on the fact that both methods of storytelling has their downfalls but can be compromised. Although Donald is able to write a profitable Hollywood screenplay, it is simplistic, lacks creativity, and has little to provide the audience except Hollywood thrills. As for Charlie, he has the talent to write incredibly deep and original scripts like Being John Malkovich that provide the audience with ideas beyond superficial entertainment. However, when it came to trying to write a screenplay for The Orchid Thief, he is not able to craft a story that anyone wants to listen to. It was a story not worth telling. Charlie ultimately turns to his brother Donald for help to finish the screenplay. It is not a coincidence that the moment when Charlie asks for Donald’s advice that the film began to plug in the Hollywood plot devices. Some may view this as the film selling-out in order to satisfy everyone in the