The movie focused on mostly the “violent and women abuse”
theme that inspired the novel, while the book brought in a lot more factors,
and I think that the directors chose this option to make the rape message more
powerful and straight the point. The movie seemed to be more about Lisbeth more
than Mikael and the main story about Harriet was changed a lot towards the end
– the movie combined Anita’s and Herriet’s story lines from the novel to one
character in the film.
Lisbeth is more powerful and a fighter in the movie, we do
not see a lot of her soft side, but we see more of her aggressive side. For
example her computer wasn’t just crashed by a car and in the book he didn’t do
anything to the person who crashed her laptop. But in the movie it was stolen by
a guy in a train station and he bit him up on the escalators and this scene
show us the more violent side of Lisbeth. In the movie her motorbike was more
sophisticated and large which helped with creating the fearless image of
Lisbeth. In the movie she even rides the motorbike in harsh weather conditions
while in the book it was only during the summer. Even though Lisbeth was this
brave girl in both the novel and the film, I think in the film they left out
most the compassionate part about her.
For example the scene where she visits her mother and discusses her
sister is cut out and her group of friends is never mentioned in the movie. The
scene where she attacks Bjurman is too rough in the movie; she kicks him
several times and lives him with a cutter for the handcuffs instead of the keys
like it happened in the book.
Mikael is not portrayed as the bad bod in the movie as he is
in the book. He doesn’t ever go to jail for three months but he is just charged
a large fine by the law. Secondly, he doesn’t sleep with a lot of women in the movie;
he doesn’t fall in love with Cecelia Vanger.
Towards the end of the movie, we discover that Harriet plays
both her part and Anita’s. Harriet Vanger is a not married and doesn’t have
children. She also lives in London instead of Australia and we do not see the
change of her hair color. And her character in pretty much flat and never fully
developed.
I agree that in the movie we see an angrier Lisbeth than in the book. This could partially be because of her make up, clothes, and motorcycle. These material objects and her style make us perceive her as angry. Even her body language sets her up as an angry character like how she crosses her arms or walks with heavy steps places. I thought this was an interesting choice in character, but okay because this stance makes her seem tough like she can overcome most anything.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your analysis of Mikael's character. Many aspects of his character were overlooked in the film but I think this was so audiences could better focus on Lisbeth as the main protagonist. I think the novel focused more equally on Lisbeth and Mikael, but the film was more about Lisbeth's world.
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