... in honor of the new Sherlock Holmes movie which features cannons, handguns, chase scenes and, for all I know, Holmes covered in tattoos and shooting his 9mm gangsta style after engaging in a threesome. Instead, I offer you this wonderful bit of Jeremy Brett as Holmes.
Ahhh, the younger generation. So deprived. THIS is Sherlock Holmes.
ReplyDeleteDe gustibus non disputandum est (or as Watson might translate it, One man's meat is another man's poison); but, speaking as a member of a not-terribly-young generation (56 in April), who has seen both Brett and Rathbone, I think that Brett is the better Holmes.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I must add that the two are not fully comparable, as Rathbone was forced to act as a Hollywood version of Holmes; one can only speculate as to how he would have done with the values and fidelity of the BBC productions.
I liked it when Vladimir Lenin threw the knife at Holmes.
ReplyDeleteYou know, now that you mention it, I'm not entirely sure that Downey's Holmes actually uses a firearm at any time in the new movie (although he does get into an awful lot of fights). Watson, on the other hand, fires everything from his service revolver up to a piece of heavy artillery, with a brief excursion into submachine guns.
ReplyDeleteI think this is actually one point that is in line with the original stories; it always struck me that, when Holmes suspected that gunfire might be advisable, he always brought along Watson as his gunman. I don't recall him ever actually using a gun himself, other than when he "in one of his queer humors, would sit in an arm-chair with his hair-trigger and a hundred Boxer cartridges, and proceed to adorn the opposite wall with a patriotic V. R. done in bullet-pocks."
I've seen both movies. They were entertaining. But they had nothing to do with Sherlock Holmes. Then again, Rathbone's Holmes had little to do with Holmes.
ReplyDeleteThe movies are just a revisionist history. They are 21st Century action flick that happens to be placed in Victorian England.
Having read at least half of the stories and two of the books, Britt is the only Holmes for me. That Mystery! series was fantastic. I think I still have many of them on VHS somewhere.
I doubt I could get my kids to watch them. But they might surprise me. However, they like the Johnny Depp Willy Wonka over Gene Wilder! And episodes 1-3 more than 4-6. They just don't get it. :-)
Nothing to do with Doyle's Holmes! I beg to differ. Have you not seen Rathbone in Voice of Terror, bringing Doyle's famous story about WWII to the silver screen in full One-Channel Skinky Audio(tm)?
ReplyDeleteVarlet.
:-)
ReplyDelete