There has always been talk (hope) of the book, Catcher In The Rye, being made into a film.
Chances of it ever really happening seem slim at best: Wikepedia Article On Subject
My questions are:
Has the peak popularity of the book passed for a film version to be anything more than a curiosity?
Or do you think a good film version would do it justice, even today - and if so, who should film it and any suggestions for casting?
I don’t think it’s so played out that it would be a mere curiosity. I think a film adaptation would work if they
a) cast an unknown as Holden*
b) film it so that it’s inescapably set in 1950, as opposed to using a generic retro style (or Og forbid, updating it)
c) stay faithful to the book’s sarcastic, irreverent tone and resisting the urge to pile up the angst. Holden is not a hero.
*But they gotta get Christopher Eigman for Luce. I can’t see anyone else in that role.
I don’t think it’s age has much to do with whether it would be a good film or not. I don’t think it would have been a good movie 20 years ago, or today.
There’s just too much interior monologue to make it a good movie. It’s all about his thoughts about the world, and not actually about the world around him. So the movie folks will have to create his imaginary world, which is of course at least half belonging to the reader as well, and it will inevitably be disappointing to all.
But maybe I’ll be wrong. Still, whether it succeeds or not, I don’t see its age as a problem.
I’m not sure the whole “being sent home from boarding school” would resonate with modern audiences. How many wealthy East Coast families still send their kids to boarding schools, anyway?
Does it matter, though? There are a few other circumstances in the book that are just as archaic*, like an angsty teenager being a barfly instead of smoking weed. Just as there are circumstances in just about any movie set in the past that a current audience would have a hard time relating to. It’s the general theme of dreading facing the music while not really wanting to be anywhere that matters.
*allowing that AFAIK, boarding schools are, while less prevalent, still far from extinct, but I could be wrong.
No. Holden was weird to me, 'case when I read his book, NY was a town that ate people and shit pain. He worked it, as best as he could, and survived.
He grew up to be Travis Bickle. And that worked out really well for him, right?
Or maybe he became Claude, from a production of “Hair”, but I doubt it.
No draft is the only thing keeping us together as a country.
I have no idea what any of this means.
DarthNader couldn’t relate to Holden, because Holden lived in New York, and at the time DN read the book, New York was, in DN’s mind, a terrible place. But Holden managed to get by.
In DN mind, Holden grew up to be Travis Bickle, the emotionally unhinged taxi driver in, uh Taxi Driver. *Spoiler for Taxi Driver to follow, in case you haven’t seen it.
Another possibility in DN’s mind is that Holden grew up to be Claude from Hair. Can’t help ya there - haven’t seen it.
Can’t really help ya with the bit about the draft, either.
Not that it’s impossible for it to be made into an effective movie, but the fact that “Catcher in the Rye” is mostly an interior monologue is a major drawback. In any case, I don’t see it happening for a long time. Salinger has taken great efforts to make sure “Catcher in the Rye” is not filmed while he’s alive. After he passes, I think his estate will likely continue to stand in the way of any attempt to make “Catcher in the Rye” a movie until the copyright expires.