In 2005, the writer
Stieg Larsson released in Sweden the novel Män som hatar kvinnor, the first part of a trilogy which the author
entitled Milennium. Shortly after
its release, the book became a huge worldwide success, a success that Larsson,
unfortunately, didn’t survived to see. He would probably get happy if he knew
that not only one, but in fact two cinematographic versions were made based on
the novel. He would probably get sad if he knew that both versions are strongly
similar. But he would finally get happy if he saw that both movies ended up
being really great, just the kind of
adaptations the novel deserved.
Stieg
Larsson wrote his novel in Swedish and
it was published in 2005, a year after his death. Soon after, in 2009, when the
book was still turning into an international best seller, a Swedish movie based
on the novel was made, which carried the same title of it. The movie, directed
by Niels Arden Oplev, was a great success mainly in its country. In 2011, when
was already a international phenomenon, an American version was released. Directed
by David Fincher, The Girl with the
Dragoon Tatoo seems to have been inspired rather by the Swedish movie than by
the book itself. The similarities shared by the two versions are huge in
several aspects. The selection of what is in and what is out is practically the
same: secondary characters’ are quite diminished and the Mikael’s sexual
escapades are also strongly reduced, in order to keep the focus on the central
storyline, that is, the investigation regarding Harriet Vanger’s disappearance.
Also, both movies opted for developing Lisbeth’s storyline without cuts,
keeping her rape scene. Such scene calls more attention in the American version
once it made clear that Lisbeth is forced to have anal sex, an important detail
that the Swedish version did not mention. On the other hand, the Swedish
version scores pretty well in several other aspects. It has a better
photography – more expressive, more real – and an atmosphere closer than that
of the book; the cast is charismatic and the chemistry between Mikael (Michael
Nyqvist) and Lisbeth (Noome Rapace) is intense. She, it is worth saying,
manages to achieve the exact tone her character required, from her looks to her
look, which expresses at the same time fear and anger. The American Lisbeth was
in charge of Rooney Mara, that got a Oscar nomination for her role. Although
she does in fact a very good job, she was not able to give Lisbeth a sense of
reality. She seems more like someone who came out from Matrix and out of sudden
appeared in Stockholm. And Daniel Craig, the American Mikael, do not
disappoint, but he is really below Swedish Mikael. The same flaws fall on both
versions. Both are not self-sufficient, tha is, they depend on a previous
reading of the book to be fully understood. Besides that, they both eliminate
the social tone present in the novel, which is not a mere policial story a la Agatha Christie, but also kind of a
denouncement about the women’s situation in actual Sweeden and the rests left
by Nazism in the country. Regarding the ending, the Swedish version chooses to
respect Harriet’s and change Lisbeth’s final. The American version does just
the opposite and changes Harriet’s ending – which causes a good surprise - while keeping for Lisbeth the same destiny
presented in the novel. In general, the Swedish version of The Girl with the
Dragoon Tatoo beats the American version – that does not present anything considerably
new but the ending. In fact, it seems like the American version was produced
due to a simply commercial matter, since a movie in English is much more easy
to sell, mainly in the United States, than o movie in Swedish. But if you have
to choose between both movies, instead, choose the novel. Stieg says thanks.
face book: leonardo romanov
