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PhilPacker
Reviews
Fight Club (1999)
Yes, this is Jekyll and Hyde
I do not hear it discussed too often, but FIGHT CLUB is essentially an adaptation/re-telling of Robert Lous Stevenson's THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE. Yes, there are significant differences, but at it's core, the main points are there.
First, the two sides to the character being played by different actors isn't unique, it's what Stevenson intended. He writes Jekyll and Hyde as two different people, both physically and mentally and they approach each other as individuals too. FIGHT CLUB essentially does the same. These are two different people with two different mindsets. The main difference being that Tyler and the narrarator only appear different to each other; physically they are the same to everyone else.
Some of the key elements thematically are that both are about breaking free of the societal limitations fo the time. Durden is free of consumersim and capitalistic expectations. Hyde is free of Victorian reservations and norms.
Additionally, Hyde/Durden both start off with less of an influence but eventually fight to take over the other personality in its entirety.
At it's heart this is a great movie and a great adaptation/interpretion (call it what you will). It gets better with each viewing and reading (the book is even better).
I, Monster (1971)
It has it's moments
I've been on a Jekyll and Hyde adaptation kick, so I thought I'd give this one a review too. Yes, it's really low-budget but if you are a fan of the novella, it has about a 30-minute section that follows it very closely , and that, I really like.
I actually bought this DVD and found out some interesting factoids. First, it was originally supposed to be a 3D movie but the budget was cut, so there are these weird moments in the movie where Christopher Lee is pointing things at the camera and it comes off as goofy.
For me, the Jekyll and Hyde benchmark has become FIGHT CLUB. Ultimately that is one of the best adaptations. I like when two actors are used to portray the characters as Stevenson writes them to be two different characters (both mentally and physically).
One of the funniest/goofiest/worse things about this movie though, is the transformation. Lee cowers into the shadows then rises as Hyde (called Mr. Blake here) and simply smiles really big and darts his eyes around. In the book, one of the most freeing elements for the characters is that Hyde is virtually unrecognizeable as Jekyll (who can be a passenger to his wrongdoings). In this version Lee's transformation from Jekyll (here called Marlow) to Hyde is comical. A big smile and crazy eyes apparently do the trick!
The setting is taken from Victorian England and put into the early Freudian-influenced 20th century and Marlow is a psychiatrist. This is fine as the Freudian rhetoric fits well with Marlow's attempts to break free from the reserved Victorian frame of mind.
Get over the budget concerns and this is a damn decent adaptation.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (2017)
Pretty good for a low budget adaptation
Okay, first off, if I'm comparing this to a movie I'd see in theater's that cost 100 million dollars, then it's a 5 or 6, but I get that this is a low budget adaptation. I love the book and I like checking out movies with the Jekyll and Hyde influence. One of my favorite's is FIGHT CLUB. Is this FIGHT CLUB, no, of course not. But one of the things I like best about that movie is that they use two different actors to represent the split personality.
If you've ever actually read the the book Jekyll and Hyde, then you would understand that there is an actual physical transformation and Stevenson treats Jekyll and Hyde as two different characters. I like that this version took a chance and did something out of the norm and used two different actors.
It moves pretty slow, but the pacing is comfortable and compares to the book. It's a great adaptation, and a pretty good low budget movie.
I get the reviews that knock thsi for being too low budget and I get the reviews that praise it for being a good adaptation. It's probably somehwere in between. I liked it.