After completeing the Novel “A Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood, I decided to watch the movie interpretation of the book to see how well the film was able to grasp the book and I’ll admit, I was slightly disappointed. Aside from the obvious mistake in which, the handmaids of the film were not wearing the white blinders – which I feel is an important aspect to the uniform the handmaids are forced to wear – the film failed to grasp little things.
In the novel a particular scene, which struck me, was when the Japanese tourists came to visit and their clothing and actions would be classified as our western ways. Offred’s reaction to their revealed skin, which was how she dressed a short time ago, was uncomfortable and slightly shocked. I found that to be a significant scene demonstrating the change in which the state of Gilead and it’s people have already gone through, and how they have become used to what life had become. The movie also does not portray the salvaging, where Ofglen specifically attacks the accused “rapist” first as a way to knock him out of his misery, however she becomes one of the crowd.
The particular scene where Ofwarren goes into labour and gives birth I found to be very well done in film by keeping very much to the novel. The commander’s wife assists ofwarren in the birth and what I found to be very well done was after, when ofwarren gave birth, the commander’s wife took the child out to the other wives where they all cooed and awed over the baby, Ofred is ordered by the commander’s wife to hurry things along and concieve a baby. After Ofred goes inside to tend to Ofwarren and Ofwarren asks her what the baby was. I found this particularly powerful in showing the immediate seperation from the handmaids and their child. While they may stay a while to breastfeed the child, the handmaid is no longer the mother and is no more another person the baby than anyone passing by on the street. I found this moment to be particularly powerful.
The movie ends with Offred (or Kate) is living up in the mountains in a trailer with a dog and a baby on the way. She explains that the war down in Gilead continues and the revolution group Mayday brings her food while she waits for the birth of her child. Sometimes she recieves news from Nick brought by the Mayday group. The movie ends with her stating she waits for the time in which her baby can grow up in a different world and the screen fades into blackness leaving the viewers with a sense of hope.
While I wasn’t pleased with the ending of the novel, I found the movie’s ending to be cliché and romantic. I thought the novel should have ended a little further with even a little bit of information into whether or not Mayday exsists and if the war continues. However the movie ending was weak as well. Not all things in life ends happily, it’s a sad thought, but it’s true. So my question is why does every movie need to end with a happily ever after? I feel much of the dissapointment towards the movie ending is based on the fact that as a protagonist, Offred is not very passionate, she does not achieve much nor is she a hero to the story, so for her to just escape and get a happily ever after doesn’t make sense. Protagonists are usually the ones to help solve the problem, who usually help stop the evil and fight for freedom and while they may die they have still done something heroic for the people, they have achieved something, where as I feel Ofred didn’t really achieve anything… as a charater she was pretty weak and honestly I was dissappointed with the movie and the book ending.
Hey Robyn, nice blog post! Just wanted to add in a comment that I too did not necessarily like certain parts of the movie adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale. It was most definitely too cliche, too romantic, and overall too “Hollywood”. I think we can all agree that movie versions of novels (mostly) turn out ‘not as good’ as the original. Although the film ending was “nicer” than the novel’s ending, I can say I definitely preferred the novel’s ending. Seeing the supposedly passive Offred stab The Commander in the movie literally made me groan of disappointment. The ambiguity and the sense of wonder made me feel satisfied with what had occurred. The thrill of not knowing what happens to Offred made me feel a sense of hope for Mayday, in a way (ha!). Call me weird but I definitely preferred the unhappy ending.
Hello Robyn, reading your post and Grace’s comment, I am questioning myself if I should watch the rest of the movie version of The Handmaid’s Tale or not. When we did watch the ending of the movie in class, I was mind blown that they would change their ending so drastically from the novel. To tell you the truth, the half of me was shocked but the other half told me that it was expected. With multiple film adaptation of novels, the directors change many scenes in order to catch the eyes of the readers. However, I personally don’t think that really works well with those audiences who watch the film because they enjoyed the novel. Also completely agreeing with Grace, when Offred stabbed the Commander, I was left speechless since the Offred was known as a passive character. I believe that the directors should consider once more before changing some of the scenes to fit in with the rest of “hollywood” films.