As soon as George and Lennie enter, the landscape ‘dies’. This adds to the sense that humans destroy the land:
‘For a moment, the place was lifeless and then two men emerged from the path and came into the opening of the green pool.’
At first, George and Lennie are described as strangers. Their names are not given and they are shown to be itinerant workers through their clothing: ‘Both wore black shapeless hats and denim trouser and coats.’ The word ‘shapeless’ suggests that the men have no direction of their life. At the start of the book they are anonymous, just as Crooks says to Lennie:
‘I seen hundreds of men come by on the road…hundreds of them. They come and they quit and go on and every damn one of ‘ems got a little piece of land in his head.’
This fits in with the whole novel because Steinbeck’s shows us that George and Lennie are no different to all of the ranch workers of this time.
The film opens in darkness. Sinister, orchestral music is heard with a piano refrain. The music brings out an atmosphere of tension and suspense.
After a while the mise en scene starts to change slowly to reveal the light flashing past gaps behind the wooden panels. When it is still dark the soundtrack changes to the noises of a train moving. This carries on the feeling of suspense and unknown mystery. The viewer then becomes aware of a partially lit face staring intensely into space. This is emphasised by the lighting and colour (black and white). The soundtrack becomes louder as the camera focuses closer onto the face, since the face is only half-visible; we still have an air of mystery. This is different to the novel at the start of the story, where there is the description of a Garden of Eden style land. Missing this out changes the atmosphere and meaning of the story.
The editing of the film then creates its first impact as it cuts to a girl running towards the camera in daylight; this is a flashback from George and Lennie on the train. There is a cut then to Lennie and George running away from the camera. The viewer then thinks that they are responsible for the girl’s situation. George is in front and seems to be telling Lennie what to do. The casting is accurate enough for us to recognise the characters George and Lennie. This is similar to the opening of the book because George leads Lennie into the clearing.
Then the film cuts back to the girl, but this time she is running away from the audience, so our empathy changes. This is added to when the film cuts back to George and Lennie and they are running towards us. We also hear George’s words to Lennie: ‘Come on Lennie’. Now that we are empathising with the main characters, when we see and hear the dogs, we are now fearful for George and Lennie and we want them to run away and escape.
When the camera cuts to them in the ditch, our support for them increases by the use of hand held camerawork. We look through the grass and hear George telling Lennie to keep quiet. There is also the sound of deep breathing. When the dogs pass we hear crickets and the audience feels relief that George and Lennie have got away with it.
We then see the characters running alongside a train and boarding it while it is moving. They get on the train. Lennie’s voice in heard and he complains that he is ‘all wet’. George tells him to take his coat off. We see that George guides Lennie and tells him what to do. This is similar to the novel, but unlike the book we are still concerned about the incident that happened with the girl.
It is important in the book that we don’t hear about this incident until section 2. We don’t judge Lennie and George in the same way as we might in the film.
When they get to Soledad we the mise en scene changes to show lots of people in a town. This is where are George and Lennie are going to collect their work permits. At one point a mother and child walk past and there are many examples of working people coming and going. This is different to the novel and not match the way the book shows the disharmony of human beings.
I think that the opening of the film was not as good as the opening of the novel because the novel shows how life in California is made and it also wants to surprise in terms of what is going to happen in the novel. Steinbeck wrote the novel to show that in the 1930s people were very selfish and that economics drove people to self-destruction. In my opinion the film does not show this and so is less effective.
Ricky Taylor
11p