The 1981 film was made for television, to keep the viewer interested they have the credits over the top of the action and because of this the credits are done with just text over the picture, they are presented very simply and this is because it is faster to do it this way so that it takes up less of the film and it can be done over the action without ruining that action. In the 1939 film it was one of the first films ever to have action before the credits. This meant that they took time over the credits because they were actually in the middle of a scene. An extract from the poem that the book and therefore the film are connected to is written of the side of the train carriage as if it has been written there. Then the writers name comes up in what looks like a handwritten font to look like a signature. The 1939 film mentions the poem by Robert Burns, which goes:
“The best-laid plans o' mice an' men
Gang aft a-gley,
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain
For promised joy.”
This is significant because the film is about plans made by George and Lennie which seem to be god and nothing could go wrong with them but something goes drastically wrong and leave George and Lennie with nought but grief an' pain. The 1939 film does mention this however the book on which the film was based and the 1981 film do not. This could be because the 1939 film considers its viewers intelligent enough to understand and that they are at the cinema for a bit of culture however the 1981 film was made for television and so just for the action of it and it would not want to bore its viewers with poetry since most of the viewers will be watching for the action of the film rather than the significance of a link to a poem. The remaining credits are done skilfully and use the motion of the train and the objects that go past as wipes to change the credit picture so that it almost looks like they are actually written on the train. The way that the credits break up the action and are in between two sections of the film show us that time has elapsed and that the beginning was just setting the scene and the rest of the film is the main storyline.
In the 1981 film there is a whole section with Aunt Clara that is not in the original film on which the later one is based. When George and Lennie are walking to Aunt Clara’s the music in the background is “Red River Valley” played on the mouth organ. This tells us a lot because the mouth organ was an instrument used a lot in “old school” western movies so tells us where and when this film is set. A more important point is that the song is about going home and that implies that Aunt Clara is “home.” At Aunt Clara’s we are shown by his actions what Lennie is like when he says, “I’ve been here before” and “Aren’t you going to eat your pie George?” This is a comical thing to say and produced some laughs while we were watching it but also shows that Lennie acts like a small child in the things that he says and does. Lennie obviously hero-worships George when he repeats everything George says and he is shown to be not so bright when he calls his own Aunt ma’am. George “moans” to Aunt Clara and the words are nearly exactly the same as when he moans to Lennie in the woods later on in this film and in the same place in the 1939 film. This could show that George is bitter about having Lennie tagging along with hi but the fact that he uses the same words again means that it is rehearsed and the words do not come from the heart so he does not really mean them. This also sets the scene for us when George says, “He ain’t no kin.” This tells us that George and Lennie are not related. The writer feels that he might need this scene in the film because Aunt Clara is mentioned later on and the fact that the film is intended for television where you get people watching who are not paying a lot of attention means that actions and characters need explaining more thoroughly. This also explains the music and some of Lennie’s comments such as “I’ve been here before.”
George is presented a lot differently in the 1981 film than in the earlier version. The fact that George could even consider leaving Lennie would be impossible in the 1939 version. Even in the 1981 version George stutters when e tells Lennie to sit and wait as if he is not sure whether he should be doing it and that it is not planned. George then looks at Aunt Clara whose expression is impossible to read which tells us that she perhaps can understand why George would want to leave Lennie (backed up by her agreement to George’s moans earlier on) but does not think that he will go through with it (which he doesn’t.) Lennie then fidgets and looks helpless when George gets a lift, George has always been around and is Lennie’s “comfort blanket.” Lennie has complete faith in George when he mutters, “I know you’re going to come back” but this is heard when an image of George on the truck seen and this makes the viewer very doubtful to whether Lennie is right to place his faith in George.
There is more use of music when George walks back after changing his mind. There is music playing when George walks back which suggests that time has passed and it is used so that it is not silent. The music stands still when George stands still and jumps when Lennie jumps and there is “bad-guy music” when the bad-guys are on and “chasey” music when Lennie has to run. This music is to try and get the viewer involved and to help them understand the film. This is a literalist use of music but is also a simple technique and it provides the viewer with a sense of excitement and involvement. The 1939 film does not use this technique at all.
The following chase in the 1981 film is very similar to the original chase in the 1939 film and the later film could even start there and miss out anything before it if it wanted to be the same as the film that it was based upon. It is shot outside and the chasers are on horseback, they are running a different way and there are long shots indicating distances and George and Lennie lose them in a different way but simply George and Lennie are being chased and are almost caught but somehow they manage to get away.
Both films then have George and Lennie travelling, in the 1939 film they are on the bus and in the 1981 film they are walking down the railway track. Both films suggest that they have travelled a long way, they fact that they are on the bus shows that it was too far to walk and on the railway track you can se for miles backwards and that implies that they have walked for miles from “backwards.” When George throws the stone at the advert in the 1939 film it is a very good shot to hit the face and this is not very good film making – simply too good to be true. He throws the stone because there is an advert for the railway and by taking the bus they will have to walk for ten miles. The person on the advert is smiling a lot so this will irritate George because he will not be in the mood for smiling.
Other examples of shots being done artificially include the huge amount of back-projection used in the 1939 film and the small amount used in 1981. The 1939 back projection includes: the original chase; jumping onto the train shown by the actors running on the spot and then stopping when they get on to the train and on the bus, first when sitting down and next when near the driver, shown by the phoney movement of the drivers arms on the wheel (there are fake bus noises when it stops, using brakes and then pulls away again.) The scene by the watering pond it is shot in a studio where again fake running water noises are used and fake bug noises that are “supposed” to be realistic but in the 1981 film it is shot outside in the real open air and there are no bug noises there because none have been added in. The only place where back-projection was obvious in the 1981 film was when George was sitting on the truck and behind him was back-projection, cleverly edited with long-shots that were real and real film when he got on and off. Back-projection was used a lot more in the earlier film because by 1981 it was possible to do a lot more filming outside because technology had improved.
The 1981 film uses other techniques though. The choice of music is very important because the music nearly always has meaning, this can be as explained above or by the actual piece of music itself. “Red River Valley” is used again when George and Lennie are by the river and because it is a song about going home it suggests that George and Lennie are going t their new home, which will be the ranch. “New World Symphony” is used when George and Lennie are walking along after the visit to Aunt Clara’s and the second chase. “New World Symphony” is based on a song “Going Home” which is used at funerals, this could mean that George and Lennie are on a trip to take one of them (Lennie) home for good. All the music is played on the harmonica, which is a plaintive instrument that amplifies the point that the songs are making.
The last scene by the river are almost word-for-word the same in both films. The second film is an adaptation on the first film so this is to be expected. Even the acting of the four men is very similar and the moving around is the same. This could be because the adaptors of the second film have liked the way the first film does this part of the production and could not think of a better way to do it so they did it in exactly the same way as the first film.
