RDJ Holmes
It seems that much longer than a year has passed since we've been waiting for this film to come out. It's actually sort of hard to believe it's really here, after all of the hype and anticipation, the arguing and whining and bitten knuckles, eye-rolling and teeth-gnashing going on about it. I haven't been looking forward to a film this much since the Lord of the Rings trilogy. To be completely truthful, Sherlock Holmes has been something that has been nearer and dearer to me for far longer than LOTR; I can remember reading these stories by flashlight under a sheet in my room when I was supposed to be asleep (an old, dog-eared, illustrated children's version that I still have). I did not see any of the films until many years later, but the movies of Basil Rathbone and Peter Cushing especially are beloved, often-watched favorites of mine. I am heavily involved in Holmesian fandom and scholarship, including a local scion, and of course proud co-moderation of Holmesian.net (hi friends!). So, this is a Very Big Deal.
Robert Downey, Jr. as Sherlock Holmes? Directed by Guy Ritchie? Are you kidding me? That's the initial reaction. Some Holmesians are behaving as if Mr. Ritchie has slaughtered their family members, kicked their dogs, shot the president, and danced a jig on Arthur Conan Doyle's grave. The sheer hand-wringing overreaction to this movie is astonishing. Doyle himself got sick of Holmes. So sick, in fact, that he attempted to kill him off, by sending him over the Reichenbach Falls with Professor Moriarty. Fans were so devastated that they wore mourning clothes--including the Prince of Wales. It was years before Doyle consented to bring Holmes back, and his popularity has never waned. Even after he resurrected the detective, Doyle was never exactly fond of him. Doyle was far more like Watson--a jovial, family-oriented ex-military type. So it was that when William Gillette was writing his play, Sherlock Holmes, and came to Doyle to ask the author what he thought about giving Holmes a love interest, Doyle famously said, "You may marry him or murder him or do what you like with him." Gillette, who is responsible for the iconic images of the Meerschaum pipe (it was easier to say his lines with it than the straight clay pipe) and the deerstalker cap (based off of Sidney Paget's drawings) so often associated with Holmes, did just that, including a fiancee in that first play featuring Holmes. By all accounts Doyle was very impressed with it, fiancee and all.
Sadly Doyle died long before the days of Basil Rathbone, Peter Cushing, Clive Merrison, Ian Richardson, Ronald Howard, Christopher Lee, Douglas Wilmer, etc., etc. Holmes is still listed in the Guiness Book as the most portrayed character in the history of cinema--over 100 films. He has fought Nazis in WWII (the Rathbone films), been turned into a mouse (The Great Mouse Detective) and a dog (Sherlock Hound), gone into a drug-addled haze and been psychoanalyzed by Sigmund Freud (The Seven-Per-Cent Solution), even fought Jack the Ripper--twice (A Study in Terror and Murder By Decree). And that's not even getting into the dozens of lame TV movies there have been over the years, nor the HUNDREDS (literally, HUNDREDS) of pastiche novels written every year. Holmes is in the public domain now, which means that anyone can write a book about him. And anyone does--one could literally read nothing but Sherlock Holmes pastiches and probably never run out of reading material. There is THAT much to read. Granted not all of it is GOOD, but still.
Why is it, then, that Holmesians are in such an uproar over this film? Honestly, I have no idea. From the beginning, it was not marketed as a serious adaptation of the Holmesian canon. It was marketed as a big-budget, action buddy flick. And that was fine with me. Holmesians have a reputation as being a bunch of stodgy old men sitting around in armchairs with pipes going, "Cheerio, old man" and being completely serious about playing the "Game" as they call it. Then they complain about this reputation, and wonder why they can't get younger people to attend their scion meetings. I wonder why?
I've been close to tearing out my hair. The complaining, whining, sneering, and downright bitching had reached fever pitch right before the film came out. RDJ is too short. Guy Ritchie has no respect for the canon. There are too many explosions. Holmes is too scruffy. Excuse me? Have you even seen the film yet? How about you actually watch it before you give your opinion on it? I wanted to scream. I was apprehensive before I went in. The trailers are certainly bombastic. Though I had a good feeling, particularly about Jude Law as Watson, it looked a bit like "Holmes of the Caribbean" and I felt iffy about the whole thing. Well, I've finally seen it.
I loved it. Now, I won't lie: I definitely thought this was Watson's film, all around. Jude Law was much better than Robert Downey, Jr. was. This will not go down in the books as one of the top Holmes performances of all time, but Watson? Most emphatically yes. He walks with a limp. I died. He actually gets to practice medicine! And Kelly Reilly--Was anybody else as impressed with her as I was? First of all--OMG SHE IS GORGEOUS. Secondly, I just loved how she didn't put up with Holmes's crap, and that she and Watson seemed well-matched. I wanted more of her, and more of Mrs. Hudson, too. The relationship between Holmes and Watson, though it is strained here due to Watson's impending marriage, is a believable one. For once, these are two equals, rather than Holmes and his sidekick, which is so often the case. I believed wholeheartedly that this was a former military man--I LOVED Watson holding off the thugs while Irene and Holmes dismantled Blackwood's device. This is a Watson who does not put up with any of Holmes's crap, and even gets to punch him in the face, as I wished Doyle's Watson would have done more than once. As Sarah said when we were on our way home from the movie, their relationship feels REAL. They are affectionate, but they're also kind of assy to each other, in a way that feels true, especially from two independent men in this time period.
Oh, and that time period. I was afraid of the CGI, I will admit, but it wasn't that bad. London is practically a character in itself here. It's all dirty streets and handsom cabs. The skylines are gorgeous, and the buildings, from Big Ben to Parliament, have the old, dingy look of Industrial England. There's a lot about it that feels steampunkish, as well, from the strange machinery in Reardon's lab to the device Blackwood attempts to use to kill the members of Parliament. The costumes are great, too; I'm glad to say that the pink dress we all loathed so much is much better-looking in action than in stills. I hope this wins awards for costumes and set decorations--they were really great. And I'll say this as a biased Guy Ritchie fan: I loved the direction and cinematography. Holmes's "deductions" before his fight scenes were ace, and the slow-motion and frenetic pacing during the chase scenes were great. It was also atmospheric as hell, very pseudo-gothic, which Doyle himself would have loved. I also enjoyed the music.
Rachel McAdams was serviceable as Irene, and I was glad to see that all the whining and moaning about her relationship with Holmes was not justified. Apparently those shots of her in her corset from the trailer were gone from the finished film, which was okay. I could not quite believe that this was the Irene who bested Holmes and nearly toppled a European monarchy, nor that she was the criminal mastermind they made her out to be, but she was all right. Mark Strong was not given much to do, but I really like him so I thought he was good. Eddie Marsan was a wonderful Lestrade, as well. And a wee bit of trivia: James Fox, who played Lord Blackwood's father, Sir Thomas, played Sherlock Holmes in the BBC radio adaptation of Laurie R. King's The Beekeeper's Apprentice a few years ago. :D
What I really adored, though, were all the lines straight from canon. I lost count of how many there were. What about the homages to previous Holmes actors? The way Downey plucks at his violin to experiment on the flies is a straight nod to Rathbone and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Some of his mannerisms were evocative of both Brett and Cushing, and I would swear that the first opening shot of Baker Street is very similar to the credits of the Granada series.
I was very satisfied with this film, both as a popcorn action flick, and as a fun nod to Holmesiana. No, it's not a straight canonical adaptation, but it never purported itself to be such. There is a definite affection to the canon and to previous Holmes films, and it's obvious that both Downey and Law put a lot of time into the development of their versions of Holmes and Watson. I've only seen the film once, but I'm going to go so far as to say that Law has won my heart--he is my favorite Watson, maybe ever. He was fabulous. I am beyond thrilled and satisfied, and I look forward to a sequel.
It's amazing, somewhat mind-boggling, to me, to hear people going around talking about Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson. Like, real mundane sort of people, who would never otherwise be doing so. To sit in a movie theater and hear "Holmes!" and "Watson!" being spoken on a big screen was absolutely thrilling and a little bit surreal. To hear that a Sherlock Holmes movie is the #2 movie at the box-office on Christmas weekend...I mean, what? It's...rather awesome, as a matter of fact.
For those who are curious, or perhaps as obsessive as I am, in addition to what I mentioned above, here's a list of the stuff I could remember, as well as a couple supplied on HN:
Starting with a quote from "The Dying Detective":
"His incredible untidiness, his addiction to music at strange hours, his occasional revolver practice within doors, his weird and often malodorous scientific experiments, and the atmosphere of violence and danger which hung around him made him the very worst tenant in London."
- The "VR" in bullets on the wall (for "Victoria Regina" from "The Musgrave Ritual")
- The bull-pup (A Study in Scarlet)
- Watson's limp, which switches limbs depending on the story (the shoulder in A Study in Scarlet, the leg in The Sign of Four)
- Several references to Watson as an army man
- The deductions about the pocket watch (only it belonged to the ginger midget, rather than Watson's brother) (A Study in Scarlet)
- The line about a doctor being the first of criminals (only applied to Watson, wasn't it?) ("The Speckled Band")
- The trunk full of Watson's notebooks--presumably notes about his adventures with Holmes
- The photograph of Irene Adler on display in Holmes's room ("A Scandal in Bohemia")
- Holmes's brother Mycroft ("The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter")
- Lord Blackwood (Count Negretto Silvius -- Blackwood in Latin -- "The Adventure of Mazarin Stone")
- Watson's neat military appearance (dialog from "The Boscombe Valley Mystery")
- Lestrade's mention that Holmes might make a master criminal (Holmes' own line from "The Missing Three Quarter" (I think?)
- Mary Morstan and her wearing pearls (The Sign of Four)
- Holmes fighting in his own style ("Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist", "The Empty House")
- the violin
- Mycroft's estate in Chichester, West Sussex (Holmes takes up bee-keeping in Sussex in "His Last Bow")
- sitting with his feet on the chair and his knees drawn up
- Holmes speaking French ("Adventure of the Greek Interpreter", Holmes' grandmother was a sister of Vernet)
- Holmes locks Watson's checkbook in a drawer ("The Adventure of the Dancing Men")
- tiger skin rug also present in the Russian production of SH
- Watson's gambling problem (mention of losing half of his wound-pension in "Shoscombe Old Place," and more indirectly, through his knowledge of the turf in "Silver Blaze")
- ambitious secret society (this appears in several stories)
- magic that is not magic (The Hound of the Baskervilles)
Robert Downey, Jr. as Sherlock Holmes? Directed by Guy Ritchie? Are you kidding me? That's the initial reaction. Some Holmesians are behaving as if Mr. Ritchie has slaughtered their family members, kicked their dogs, shot the president, and danced a jig on Arthur Conan Doyle's grave. The sheer hand-wringing overreaction to this movie is astonishing. Doyle himself got sick of Holmes. So sick, in fact, that he attempted to kill him off, by sending him over the Reichenbach Falls with Professor Moriarty. Fans were so devastated that they wore mourning clothes--including the Prince of Wales. It was years before Doyle consented to bring Holmes back, and his popularity has never waned. Even after he resurrected the detective, Doyle was never exactly fond of him. Doyle was far more like Watson--a jovial, family-oriented ex-military type. So it was that when William Gillette was writing his play, Sherlock Holmes, and came to Doyle to ask the author what he thought about giving Holmes a love interest, Doyle famously said, "You may marry him or murder him or do what you like with him." Gillette, who is responsible for the iconic images of the Meerschaum pipe (it was easier to say his lines with it than the straight clay pipe) and the deerstalker cap (based off of Sidney Paget's drawings) so often associated with Holmes, did just that, including a fiancee in that first play featuring Holmes. By all accounts Doyle was very impressed with it, fiancee and all.
Sadly Doyle died long before the days of Basil Rathbone, Peter Cushing, Clive Merrison, Ian Richardson, Ronald Howard, Christopher Lee, Douglas Wilmer, etc., etc. Holmes is still listed in the Guiness Book as the most portrayed character in the history of cinema--over 100 films. He has fought Nazis in WWII (the Rathbone films), been turned into a mouse (The Great Mouse Detective) and a dog (Sherlock Hound), gone into a drug-addled haze and been psychoanalyzed by Sigmund Freud (The Seven-Per-Cent Solution), even fought Jack the Ripper--twice (A Study in Terror and Murder By Decree). And that's not even getting into the dozens of lame TV movies there have been over the years, nor the HUNDREDS (literally, HUNDREDS) of pastiche novels written every year. Holmes is in the public domain now, which means that anyone can write a book about him. And anyone does--one could literally read nothing but Sherlock Holmes pastiches and probably never run out of reading material. There is THAT much to read. Granted not all of it is GOOD, but still.
Why is it, then, that Holmesians are in such an uproar over this film? Honestly, I have no idea. From the beginning, it was not marketed as a serious adaptation of the Holmesian canon. It was marketed as a big-budget, action buddy flick. And that was fine with me. Holmesians have a reputation as being a bunch of stodgy old men sitting around in armchairs with pipes going, "Cheerio, old man" and being completely serious about playing the "Game" as they call it. Then they complain about this reputation, and wonder why they can't get younger people to attend their scion meetings. I wonder why?
I've been close to tearing out my hair. The complaining, whining, sneering, and downright bitching had reached fever pitch right before the film came out. RDJ is too short. Guy Ritchie has no respect for the canon. There are too many explosions. Holmes is too scruffy. Excuse me? Have you even seen the film yet? How about you actually watch it before you give your opinion on it? I wanted to scream. I was apprehensive before I went in. The trailers are certainly bombastic. Though I had a good feeling, particularly about Jude Law as Watson, it looked a bit like "Holmes of the Caribbean" and I felt iffy about the whole thing. Well, I've finally seen it.
I loved it. Now, I won't lie: I definitely thought this was Watson's film, all around. Jude Law was much better than Robert Downey, Jr. was. This will not go down in the books as one of the top Holmes performances of all time, but Watson? Most emphatically yes. He walks with a limp. I died. He actually gets to practice medicine! And Kelly Reilly--Was anybody else as impressed with her as I was? First of all--OMG SHE IS GORGEOUS. Secondly, I just loved how she didn't put up with Holmes's crap, and that she and Watson seemed well-matched. I wanted more of her, and more of Mrs. Hudson, too. The relationship between Holmes and Watson, though it is strained here due to Watson's impending marriage, is a believable one. For once, these are two equals, rather than Holmes and his sidekick, which is so often the case. I believed wholeheartedly that this was a former military man--I LOVED Watson holding off the thugs while Irene and Holmes dismantled Blackwood's device. This is a Watson who does not put up with any of Holmes's crap, and even gets to punch him in the face, as I wished Doyle's Watson would have done more than once. As Sarah said when we were on our way home from the movie, their relationship feels REAL. They are affectionate, but they're also kind of assy to each other, in a way that feels true, especially from two independent men in this time period.
Oh, and that time period. I was afraid of the CGI, I will admit, but it wasn't that bad. London is practically a character in itself here. It's all dirty streets and handsom cabs. The skylines are gorgeous, and the buildings, from Big Ben to Parliament, have the old, dingy look of Industrial England. There's a lot about it that feels steampunkish, as well, from the strange machinery in Reardon's lab to the device Blackwood attempts to use to kill the members of Parliament. The costumes are great, too; I'm glad to say that the pink dress we all loathed so much is much better-looking in action than in stills. I hope this wins awards for costumes and set decorations--they were really great. And I'll say this as a biased Guy Ritchie fan: I loved the direction and cinematography. Holmes's "deductions" before his fight scenes were ace, and the slow-motion and frenetic pacing during the chase scenes were great. It was also atmospheric as hell, very pseudo-gothic, which Doyle himself would have loved. I also enjoyed the music.
Rachel McAdams was serviceable as Irene, and I was glad to see that all the whining and moaning about her relationship with Holmes was not justified. Apparently those shots of her in her corset from the trailer were gone from the finished film, which was okay. I could not quite believe that this was the Irene who bested Holmes and nearly toppled a European monarchy, nor that she was the criminal mastermind they made her out to be, but she was all right. Mark Strong was not given much to do, but I really like him so I thought he was good. Eddie Marsan was a wonderful Lestrade, as well. And a wee bit of trivia: James Fox, who played Lord Blackwood's father, Sir Thomas, played Sherlock Holmes in the BBC radio adaptation of Laurie R. King's The Beekeeper's Apprentice a few years ago. :D
What I really adored, though, were all the lines straight from canon. I lost count of how many there were. What about the homages to previous Holmes actors? The way Downey plucks at his violin to experiment on the flies is a straight nod to Rathbone and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Some of his mannerisms were evocative of both Brett and Cushing, and I would swear that the first opening shot of Baker Street is very similar to the credits of the Granada series.
I was very satisfied with this film, both as a popcorn action flick, and as a fun nod to Holmesiana. No, it's not a straight canonical adaptation, but it never purported itself to be such. There is a definite affection to the canon and to previous Holmes films, and it's obvious that both Downey and Law put a lot of time into the development of their versions of Holmes and Watson. I've only seen the film once, but I'm going to go so far as to say that Law has won my heart--he is my favorite Watson, maybe ever. He was fabulous. I am beyond thrilled and satisfied, and I look forward to a sequel.
It's amazing, somewhat mind-boggling, to me, to hear people going around talking about Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson. Like, real mundane sort of people, who would never otherwise be doing so. To sit in a movie theater and hear "Holmes!" and "Watson!" being spoken on a big screen was absolutely thrilling and a little bit surreal. To hear that a Sherlock Holmes movie is the #2 movie at the box-office on Christmas weekend...I mean, what? It's...rather awesome, as a matter of fact.
For those who are curious, or perhaps as obsessive as I am, in addition to what I mentioned above, here's a list of the stuff I could remember, as well as a couple supplied on HN:
Starting with a quote from "The Dying Detective":
"His incredible untidiness, his addiction to music at strange hours, his occasional revolver practice within doors, his weird and often malodorous scientific experiments, and the atmosphere of violence and danger which hung around him made him the very worst tenant in London."
- The "VR" in bullets on the wall (for "Victoria Regina" from "The Musgrave Ritual")
- The bull-pup (A Study in Scarlet)
- Watson's limp, which switches limbs depending on the story (the shoulder in A Study in Scarlet, the leg in The Sign of Four)
- Several references to Watson as an army man
- The deductions about the pocket watch (only it belonged to the ginger midget, rather than Watson's brother) (A Study in Scarlet)
- The line about a doctor being the first of criminals (only applied to Watson, wasn't it?) ("The Speckled Band")
- The trunk full of Watson's notebooks--presumably notes about his adventures with Holmes
- The photograph of Irene Adler on display in Holmes's room ("A Scandal in Bohemia")
- Holmes's brother Mycroft ("The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter")
- Lord Blackwood (Count Negretto Silvius -- Blackwood in Latin -- "The Adventure of Mazarin Stone")
- Watson's neat military appearance (dialog from "The Boscombe Valley Mystery")
- Lestrade's mention that Holmes might make a master criminal (Holmes' own line from "The Missing Three Quarter" (I think?)
- Mary Morstan and her wearing pearls (The Sign of Four)
- Holmes fighting in his own style ("Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist", "The Empty House")
- the violin
- Mycroft's estate in Chichester, West Sussex (Holmes takes up bee-keeping in Sussex in "His Last Bow")
- sitting with his feet on the chair and his knees drawn up
- Holmes speaking French ("Adventure of the Greek Interpreter", Holmes' grandmother was a sister of Vernet)
- Holmes locks Watson's checkbook in a drawer ("The Adventure of the Dancing Men")
- tiger skin rug also present in the Russian production of SH
- Watson's gambling problem (mention of losing half of his wound-pension in "Shoscombe Old Place," and more indirectly, through his knowledge of the turf in "Silver Blaze")
- ambitious secret society (this appears in several stories)
- magic that is not magic (The Hound of the Baskervilles)