It's based on a book by Dodie Smith, who also wrote 101 Dalmations (a novel of skill and promise mostly unknown in its original form). I Capture the Castle is written in diary format, and the resulting movie makes strong use of the narrative voice of the 17-year-old protagonist.
In both Brokeback and I Capture, an initial stage of the story deals with a romantic coming-together: a partnering that seems impossible proceeds anyway, to the great relief of certain primal desires. What makes these movies similar, and unlike others, is that they don't stop there; they deal with what comes after "happily every after," which is not happy or simple at all.
I Capture had an added impact because I have never been a cowboy. I have, however been a diary-obsessed 17-year-old, madly trying to make sense of the life into which I'd been cast in a befuddled and idealistic role. Reality so readily transgresses the adolescent storyline of adolescent and turns hard, real and complicated. By the time the movie ends, nobody has behaved entirely honorably, or as they "should," and things end happily only because of an unlikely and unexpected truth-telling.
Unlike Cassandra in I Capture the Castle, it took a few more iterations of reality to convince me that that life was not a game, that I was capable of wreaking—and suffering—great devastation. And telling the truth about uncomfortable internal realities—I'm still not very skilled at that. But that's really the only hope for a future where you can have a simple and free relationship with yourself, and with others.
The heaviness and hopelessness of Brokeback Mountain came from the fact that truth was denied and covered-up; hidden-in-plain-sight, yet never acknowledged. Telling the truth seemed impossible in the short run; but in the long run, falsehoods poisoned everything, including the magic they were intended to protect.
I wonder if the hardest truths to tell aren't, in fact, the most important.
1 comment:
Loved both of those Dodie Smith books--especially all the gender-bending in 101 D. (The Disney movie was fun too, and the animation is incredibly stylish, but the book was obviously a lot more complex.) Must see the I capture the castle movie. Thanks for the recommendataion.
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