Stephen King's APT PUPIL Deserved a Better Adaptation
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 ต.ค. 2024
- Stephen King's novella APT PUPIL deserved better than the 1998 adaptation from Bryan Singer, which, though offering great performances and a few outstanding shots, is surprisingly boring and very... TWILIGHT-like. Yeah, I said it.
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Want to read the the original novella by Stephen King first? Get that here: amzn.to/3029xv2
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The ending of Apt Pupil was so satisfying that I still think of it even after more than 30 years of reading the novella.
cant agree more
Ian McKellen was only 59 when Apt Pupil was filmed but a beard and make-up effects made him look older. In X-men, he was clean shaven so even though he was in his 60s, it made him look younger.
Disagree. It makes no sense as to why Todd would just go on a shooting spree. There is nothing smart in it. The movie did it better. He used his brains and smarts to literally do a 'cancel culture' before cancel culture. False accusations that would ruin one's reputation...which is apparent everywhere nowadays. Ian's character told Renfro earlier 'it doesn't matter what they believe. The scandal would follow you forever'. So Renfro used Ian's tactic onto Schwimmer's character. Learning a manipulative, evil thing to do which is apparent various times in our culture right now.
You obviously didn't read the book or if you did you understood nothing you read. The movie ruined the ending.
@@alexwest3580 ad hominem, opinion disregarded
It makes perfect sense in the book. Singer's movie is about repressed homosexuality or you could argue it's about hidden sociopathy. King's novel isn't about this at all. It's about repressed evil that refuses to be repressed. The movie's intention is totally different than King's novel, so it's almost like comparing Kubrick's Shining to King's. They're actually so different that the comparison ceases to make sense.
You're a writer. With a few adjustments, this could be a long running series like breaking bad on HBO or Hulu. Why don't you pitch It to them?
I would watch that definitely!
Directed and produced by David Fincher.
In some respects, the movie version was even more chilling--because this sociopathic kid with Nazi sympathies and a talent for identifying and exploiting weaknesses is out there, and God knows what he'll do in the future. He's been an apt pupil, all right, and Dussander has taught him well...and those last shots of the movie reinforce the idea that Dussander's evil has been passed on. And because Todd's young, good-looking and charismatic...who knows how he'll use that kind of influence to pull off whatever he wants?
Good review, you're right the ending sucked. Wonder what happened to that 40 min of the 80's RIck Schroeder version that they filmed, maybe its lying around somewhere still...
Thanks for your reply. I forgot to mention that your review was spot on, also, I too wanted to see Ross, I mean Rubber Ed, get it. I also thought that D.S. was a good choice to play him.
I was surprised to learn Rick Schroeder was considered for the part, I always imagined he would have played it well. He could do the shit eating smile refered to in the last part of the book. A witness says he can't forget it, I think. Here's what I think of the ending. I understand that King had a bigger role in the making of this film than other of his movies previously. I always thought the ending of the book was somewhat ambiguous, yes, they took him down, but he never says if he was taken alive or not. I think Steven King knew how they changed the end to Todd definitely still being alive. Todd Bowden lives. And that's a pretty horrific thought in it self. So in King's universe, it's possible that Todd is in jail. I'm waiting for him to escape so Mr. King can revisit one of his darkest creations. Any thoughts?
He doesn't have too many sequels but that would certainly be interesting!
I thought that He could survive and serve life sentence at a psychiatric Sellitti well medicated he could be rehabilitated it’s normal life
@@Unpaidfilmcritc serial murderers can't be rehabilitated. Right now he'd be looking for someone with nice breath. And maybe it's you. And you don't even know it.
One of the worst movie takes I have seen in quite a long time. The movie wasnt a horror parody...the book wasnt even a horror novel. It, was much like Stand By Me only darker, a little more twisted in a psychological sense and that is why this movie is loved by so many fans of King and the novel itself.
I think everyone gets it backwards with movie adaptations. It's a good adaptation if it makes you want to READ THE BOOK. The Apt Pupil movie made me want to read Four Seasons because it was a really good movie. Not to mention the other novellas from Four Seasons, like The Shawshank Redemption, that were made into great movies that also made me want to read the book.
The movie is very great!! Brad was awesome in movie!!
The recent Stephen King tv show The Stand 2020 was crap. Only if you want to, you could do a video on how that could’ve been a better adaptation.
I'm working toward that now! Doing a new deep dive into the novel soon (reading now) followed by a vid on that series (which I haven't watched yet but have sadly heard very few good things about)
@@DrunkonWriting Hoping HBO will adapt The Stand sooner rather than later and fix what CBS has done.
Anyone think this could be remade? It's only 4 years older film wise than the Stand so.....
My main issue with the changes was that, by taking out the excess murdering, it changes both Todd's character and the overarching social commentary of the book. We only hear about Dussander's misdeeds after the fact, but we live through Todd's and that makes him even more of a dislikable character than Dussander - which leads to the question of morality and how it is easy to overlook tragedies that don't immediately impact you personally. By taking that away, it became a boring watered-down film about not romanticising the second world war. We have enough of those. Also I know it wasn't a major thing but I was sad we didn't get the background for the hospital roommate to eventually provides the justice by turning Dussander in.
I love both the book and the movie. I do agree that it would have been amazing if the script followed the book at the end, shooting Ed in the driveway crying out for his daughter to no avail as Todd finished him off. Then loading up with all he had of amo killing God knows how many from his place of hiding with a perfect view towards a highway filled with cars. Five hours before they brought him down.. yikes. 400 rounds and a magnifying glass attatched to his gun. Todd could have killed 100 plus in that timespan on a chaotic standstill highway flooded with cars and frantic people. I think this was definately discussed. The jew killer had to die. The nosy apt pupil did not have to die, so they took the easy out. Not a poor script. He was indeed an apt pupil and instead of breaking, he broke Ed and hit all net on his final throw giving opportunity for a sequel or the thought of what kind of adult monster Todd would become. The film works very well if you have not read the book. It works pretty good having read the book as well.
I liked the movie and I really liked the book. I do wonder if a remake may be done and how good it would be? McKellen and Renfro were suberb in the movie. Like this video states. Bad script
It's a great script, but I think what people were disappointed by is that Singer's movie has totally different intentions than King's novel. On its own, Singer's version is a great movie, but it's really about a different topic than King's book. King wasn't really writing a novel about repressed homosexuality, whereas this was pretty clearly the what Singer was most interested in.
In the actual novella Todd becomes as serial killer.
I know this was uploaded A LONG TIME ago, but I just had to comment on this real quick.
I was in the middle of writing an adaptation for Rest Stop as a Dollar Baby (which I would be honored for you to watch if you'd like), and in a magazine that covered King's career, I had heard of Apt Pupil for the first time. There was just something about the concept that really spoke to me -- especially as I was making the film shortly after a mass shooting happened in my home town of El Paso, Texas -- seeing just evil facing evil, and how it can be in the face of someone as innocent and normal as a kid I'd see down the halls in my high school just a couple years back.
So as I got to shooting the film, I watched a lot of King adaptations to prepare myself for the task of adapting his work: Darabont's work, It, and even Apt Pupil. And I couldn't explain it, but something felt absolutely off. I couldn't help but feel like I'm not seeing the best possible version of what it could be, and hearing your thoughts that it was almost a parody of a horror film felt so much like mine. When I found out about the original ending and the dream sequences... I understood the cuts, but the potential for the execution of the story still rung in my head. I needed to find this book.
Now here we are, July 11th, and I finally got a chance to buy the book a month ago, and I needed to finally get this story out of my head. I just finished the haunting final sentence that I swear has been tattooed into my brain since I first heard of it all that time ago, and I cannot thank you enough for this video. You put into words everything that I feel about the adaptation in hindsight. I tell you... if I am able to completely adapt the novella, I would approach it with the lens of a character study of both shades of evil, with a focus on how socially conscious a Spike Lee film is. That ending is one of the scariest things that King has ever written, and again, as someone who experienced a small town get shook to its core by the surprise visit of a ball of hate who got all gooshy at the thought of inflicting harm on innocents, it fascinates me how King really gets in the psychology of someone you could see on the news at any moment.
This is a really long comment, almost a novella in itself, but want to say bravo for this video. This and your other Apt Pupil videos are masterful, and consider me a subscriber.
Side note: the description of Todd's face going as blank as a department store dummy literally made my blood go cold, and it took me back to seeing the court sentences for mass shooters and seeing the cold, empty looks they had. It really was like all the healthiness and vivacity had drained from it.
Thanks for this comment! I'm glad you enjoyed and yes would LOVE to see your adaptation!
@@DrunkonWriting I'll see if I can send you the link on Google Drive. Can I DM you on Twitter?
The fact is though, the adaptation was excellent.
2:19 There'd be no Night Court with that attitude.
TheBCR100... The novella is far, far better than the movie adaptation. Except for the fact that, in the book, it didn't make sense to me why Todd went off on a murdering tangent, this book is so stark that the fear I felt was secondary. The movie was more reasonable in this respect... Todd doesn't turn into a serial murderer but the movie also didn't incorporate his wet dream about sexually torturing a Jewish girl, which MIGHT be more likely.
Except for Brad Renfro and Ian MacKellan, the whole movie was miscast. Bruce Davidson as the father? No way!! That bit of casting was clearly not following the character in the book. And the movie never mentioned that the Trask girl is Jewish (as she was in the book -- though Todd racistly referred to her as a "sheeny").
In the movie Todd keeps making threats all over the place (to Dussander and French [the guidance counselor]) never having cause to follow through on them.
This movie adaptation is so weak and incomplete it is a serious disappointment as an adaptation AND as a movie in its own right.
Thumbs down.
The novella of Apt pupil was indeed somewhat of an interesting crime drama. But let me ask you this, does this story remind you of Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange? Only reason why I say that is because of the fact that it reminds me so much of that film with the themes of violence being treated as a normal everyday thing to some extent though, especially when you're considering the killings of those winos.
Now I do agree with you though that young boy in the old man were indeed perfect for the roles in the film, but I thought everybody else was okay at best, I mean the guy that played Ed French was fine. But I agree with you that the film was indeed a toned down version of the story that we got from the novella itself. In fact, I'd say that the story end of itself is inferior to all the other ones that I've read from Stephen King so far. However that doesn't mean this is a bad story nor does it mean it's a terrible movie, but just me alone, I just don't think this story does too well.
Overall, I didn't really care too much about this one. But I am quite looking forward to reading the body and watching the movie Stand By Me. So in conclusion, I'm not a fan of this but tell me, do you like this novella as well?
@@thebcr1012 I'm afraid I don't agree with you about this being like A Clockwork Orange in that violence is being treated normally. It's not, in that the characters are hiding it like they don't want to be caught/punished for what they did. Please notice that I didn't say "...for what they did wrong" because I don't think that they think what they did was wrong. I think their evil became a sickness and they needed to murder so it justified their actions. Though in the movie 🎬 It was at least understandable why Todd fought the wino... because he was attacking him. But in the book, it didn't make ANY sense at all why Todd was killing wino's all over the place. His first wet dream sort of made sense, people can be kinky. But not to go off on a murdering tangent throughout the book and a major murdering spree at the end of the novella.
When comparing the novella and movie I have to say that both suffer in major areas and even though the novella gets intense in some places, it's really not one of Kings best works.
@@thebcr1012 And now for something completely different... how do I change my thumbnail from a purple F to a photo like you have? Please help me?
@@FreyaF... In order to change the photo, you'd have to go to your Google account and change it there.
Now yes, that was something that I caught that was indeed just straight up weird. If anything else, those wino killings had to be completely psychopathic in nature. But I believe it was there that I first thought about A Clockwork Orange. I felt like all that was simply brushed over, and not explained at all. But as for the photo, you'd have to change it from your Google Account, which is what I'm about to do very soon as well.
@@thebcr1012 Thank you very much. I'm going to try again.
Blah blah blah It could have been better. Who cares?
The ending of the movie was poor.