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A/P 'N Tristan and Isolde: The Movie
Jun. 1st, 2006 08:03 pmLast month, I rented last winter's Tristan & Isolde, starring James "yum" Franco and Sophie Myles as the forbidden duo and Rufus Sewell (also not bad on the eyes) as King Marke. If you're not familiar with the original tale, it goes something like this. Isolde was sent by her father to go marry King Mark for political alliance purposes and a hunky, sexy knight named Tristan is sent along to accompany her on her journey (they never send the old, ugly, or gay knights in these courtly love tales). Somebody, usually Isolde's mother, gives Isolde a love potion to swig so she'd be able to stand the wedding night with King Mark. But Isolde gets a load of her cutie companion and they end up drinking the love potion instead. Oops. Messy forbidden love results, ending with the both of them dead. Tristan croaks first, then Isolde dies of a broken heart once she discovers he's dead.
The movie removes the love potion bit, makes Marke a sympathetic character, and goes for a grittier Dark Ages setting. Isolde's fate is a little different too. Overall, I'd say the movie isn't bad but somehow it's not as romantic as I figured it would be either. Maybe it's because the setting is too grim and dark. Maybe it's because it plays off as the Dark Ages edition of "Cheaters." In fact the scene where the sneaky lovebirds are discovered is only missing Joey Greco running out with a camera crew. For that reason (and because Marke is a nice guy), they're not as sympathetic as they are in the original story. In the original story, Tristan and Isolde are defying convention by choosing each other instead of having somebody else choose for them. In the movie, Isolde is just a naughty wife who can't keep her knickers on. In fact, this Isolde is one wild chickie. When Tristan washes up on the shore, she flings off her clothes and sandwiches the guy between her and the maid to warm him up. Hmm, like there weren't any blankets around ;)?
This got me thinking about the GFFA's doomed couple. I can see some parallels between the movie and A/P. The movie aims to show the destructive nature of passion and I think ROTS demonstrates that as well. However, in T&I, it was the trouble caused by the merry duo cuckolding a king, a king who raised Tristan and married Isolde (don't forget, he's a nice guy). In ROTS, it was the trouble caused by Anakin doing anything to ensure the grim reaper doesn't take Padmé from him. And Tristan sorta has ROTS Anakin hair. No love potions in either film.
Otherwise, A/P have a little bit more in common with the original T/I than the movie version. Hunky sexy knight sent to protect a young noble lady? Check. Defying the conventions of their age? Check. Keeping and eventually failing to keep it all a secret? Yup. Bad stuff happens? Yes indeedy. Death by broken heart? Yessir. Okay, so Padmé wasn't set to be fixed up with some planetary ruler and Isolde didn't have to deal with pregnancy. A/P also managed to marry, while I don't think T/I did. T/I violated social rules about marriage and class, while Anakin, as a Jedi, was forbidden to have attachments. That's worth about a half point.
I also think SW did a better job milking the tragedy than this film did. You saw A/P in the throes of young love, frolicking in meadows and having cozy sunset dinners on a lush, romantic planet. You can see that being together made these two happy in a way they weren't when they were apart. There's not a lot of that in T/I. There's a stuffy Council with its blanket prohibition on romantic love versus a nice guy king. And for some reason, they just couldn't make T/I's love scenes hot enough. We never saw A/P actually do the horizontal mambo onscreen, not even in a PG-13ish sort of way, but you knew what was on Anakin's mind whenever he gave Padme certain looks. Heh heh. It's not to say T/I is a bad movie; it's worth checking out. I just think it could have had a little more oomph.
The movie removes the love potion bit, makes Marke a sympathetic character, and goes for a grittier Dark Ages setting. Isolde's fate is a little different too. Overall, I'd say the movie isn't bad but somehow it's not as romantic as I figured it would be either. Maybe it's because the setting is too grim and dark. Maybe it's because it plays off as the Dark Ages edition of "Cheaters." In fact the scene where the sneaky lovebirds are discovered is only missing Joey Greco running out with a camera crew. For that reason (and because Marke is a nice guy), they're not as sympathetic as they are in the original story. In the original story, Tristan and Isolde are defying convention by choosing each other instead of having somebody else choose for them. In the movie, Isolde is just a naughty wife who can't keep her knickers on. In fact, this Isolde is one wild chickie. When Tristan washes up on the shore, she flings off her clothes and sandwiches the guy between her and the maid to warm him up. Hmm, like there weren't any blankets around ;)?
This got me thinking about the GFFA's doomed couple. I can see some parallels between the movie and A/P. The movie aims to show the destructive nature of passion and I think ROTS demonstrates that as well. However, in T&I, it was the trouble caused by the merry duo cuckolding a king, a king who raised Tristan and married Isolde (don't forget, he's a nice guy). In ROTS, it was the trouble caused by Anakin doing anything to ensure the grim reaper doesn't take Padmé from him. And Tristan sorta has ROTS Anakin hair. No love potions in either film.
Otherwise, A/P have a little bit more in common with the original T/I than the movie version. Hunky sexy knight sent to protect a young noble lady? Check. Defying the conventions of their age? Check. Keeping and eventually failing to keep it all a secret? Yup. Bad stuff happens? Yes indeedy. Death by broken heart? Yessir. Okay, so Padmé wasn't set to be fixed up with some planetary ruler and Isolde didn't have to deal with pregnancy. A/P also managed to marry, while I don't think T/I did. T/I violated social rules about marriage and class, while Anakin, as a Jedi, was forbidden to have attachments. That's worth about a half point.
I also think SW did a better job milking the tragedy than this film did. You saw A/P in the throes of young love, frolicking in meadows and having cozy sunset dinners on a lush, romantic planet. You can see that being together made these two happy in a way they weren't when they were apart. There's not a lot of that in T/I. There's a stuffy Council with its blanket prohibition on romantic love versus a nice guy king. And for some reason, they just couldn't make T/I's love scenes hot enough. We never saw A/P actually do the horizontal mambo onscreen, not even in a PG-13ish sort of way, but you knew what was on Anakin's mind whenever he gave Padme certain looks. Heh heh. It's not to say T/I is a bad movie; it's worth checking out. I just think it could have had a little more oomph.
