Movie Review of The Stone Angel

In my opinion, The Stone Angel the novel and The Stone Angel the movie, have the same plot but are two different stories. I enjoyed both the novel and the movie, but as I would two different tales. Such differences as how the Hagar were portrayed, additional scenes, scenes being deleted or changes and the modernization of the film all played a part in creating a different story, which still followed the main event of the plot of The Stone Angel in text format.
The changes that the director made to the characters changed the story dramatically. Especially the changes made to Hagar. Hagar in the novel, in blunt words, is a prude. In the movie however, she is shown taking charge in the situation with Telford Simmons and allows other people to possibly see her and Bram pre/post-sexual activity. These scenes make Hagar out to be a hormone crazed individual prior to being with Bram, which is not the case at all. In the novel Hagar was surprised and somewhat unaware of what was suppose to happen on her wedding night. The director I predict was trying to make Hagar more modern, and easier to relate to a teenage audience. The director would do this mainly because the majority of profit from movies is made from teenagers.
The modernization of the story was a change the director thought was necessary in order to make the story interesting to the general public. For example, the change of Murray’s character from an unhappy husband hiding to a lover of a rebellious daughter, made that particular scene a lot more applicable to the audience. The change also allowed Hagar to get the reflection about John she needed, but did not require as much explanation. Also the fact that in the scene Hagar and the Murray substitute character were smoking marijuana made the hallucinations quite more realistic than if it had come from alcohol.
There was one additional scene not written in the novel that the director put in the movie that I did not like. In the movie it showed Marvin drunk, and speaking about sex to Doris. This changes how Marvin is look at completely. Marvin would be described as reliable, responsible, always trying to avoid conflict, honourable and respectable. The scene contradicts your entire view of Marvin’s good boy reputation.
As I previously stated, I enjoyed both the film and book. The movie was a good representation of the novel’s story, but not of the novel’s version of Hagar. The changes the director made definitely help the story to manifest itself in a smaller time frame, but unfortunately you lose part of the tale the novel is telling.