MCTEAGUE IBD

Sinopse

Neal Bell',s adaptation of Frank Norris',s novel tells the story of a couple',s courtship and marriage, and their subsequent descent into poverty, violence, and finally murder as the result of jealousy and greed.áFrank Norris',s novel McTeagueáis a panorama of the U S at the turn of the century: cowboys, gold mines, the immigrant experience, the advent of electricity and the movies. At the core is a gruesome cautionary tale, aptly retitled Greedáby Erich Von Stroheim when he made a nine-hour film of it in 1923 &hellip, In adapting it anew &hellip, Neal Bell',s script [tells] a story of downward mobility, about a miner turned dentist (sans diploma) who winds up defrocked and doomed in an abandoned mine. &mdash,William A Henry III, Time Bell weaves a thick, dark tapestry of themes from MCTEAGUE',s epic of incidents. Socially, the focus is on the helplessness of a rough simpleton in a rapidly urbanizing and professionalizing America &mdash, and on the determination of immigrants and bootstrap-tuggers to cling to the middle class rather than fall into the Victorian abyss of want. Psychologically, it',s on the metamorphosis of McTeague',s innocent ignorance into murderous rage &mdash, and Trina',s sensible shift into masochistic self-denial. Morally, it',s on the life-choking consequences of treating money as an end in itself rather than a means toward fulfilling human needs. Each of these levels resonates through the adaptation',s writing. &mdash,Scott Rosenberg, San Francisco Examiner