okay so i know i said i won't talk about "the plague"'s movie "adaptation" anymore but i hate it so fucking much i cannot possibly stop thinking about it so i will now list everything that i found stupid/annoying about it in no particular order
it's happening in the 90s instead of the 40s which. oh my fucking gods.
since it's the 90s they added a political subplot because there was some kind of civil war(?) going on in Algieria at the time but instead of doing it right they just threw around like 2 comments about how the plague is just an excuse to lock them all up and take over the government but they don't specify anything
Rieux's wife leaves to the sanatorium on a plane, not a train, which is actually just a weird detail that i would get over if they didn't make it clear that Rieux intends to join her later
Rieux gets a memo that they're going to close Oran and he and Martine (genderbent Raymond Rambert) try to escape in a car and this scene has several things wrong with it because 1. Rieux wouldn't do that and 2. at some point Rieux just fucking hits the car in front of him?? (lmao) and turns back so Martine starts hating him lol
since it's the 90s Grand has a computer in his home which is not actually bad but it made me feel so weird like,,,, no i forbid that where's his manuscript that he'll tell Rieux to burn later (he won't even do that we don't get that scene)
since we're talking about Grand. they test Castel's serum on Grand instead of Othon's son
Tarrou is a journalist/cameraman for Martine and HE DOESN'T EVEN HAVE HIS DIARY. i could survive him being employed but where is one of the most important parts of the book. they could have at least shown him writing something and since there's a narrator in the movie anyway they could have read an excerpt from the diary
Martine has the "i have a partner in Paris and i want to go back to him" arc but at some point she starts flirting with both Tarrou and Rieux which is so horrible on so many levels
they ruined Rieux's character COMPLETELY. that's not my Rieux that's the moviemaker's oc. he was mean and aggressive, refused to accept Tarrou's help when in the book he finds Tarrou's idea to organize volunteers for sanitary squads great, he yells at him and literally physically forces him to smell a dead body before telling him to leave. THAT'S NOT MY RIEUX. BOOK RIEUX WOULD NEVER DO ANY OF THAT.
also Rieux completely ignores Martine's flirting only for them to kiss later
Rieux's auxiliary hospital is on a train station instead in a school. again it's something i could easily ignore but i don't understand why are they making changes that are completely irrelevant to the plot
there's a scene where Tarrou asks Rieux if he could get into an ambulance where a plague patient is with his camera which like omfg my guy would not do that. and then when Rieux says no Tarrou is like at least take my camera maybe and Rieux DOES TAKE THE CAMERA WITH HIMSELF. admittedly this was funny for like 3 seconds but who are these people. the book characters would not do any of that
the movie makes christmas a thing when in the book it was barely mentioned. Rieux's mother arrives unexpectedly after the city is already in quarantine (again not like in the book) and tells Rieux that she's here because his wife wouldn't want him to spend christmas alone. she talks to him about opening gifts and they all attend some christmas party, which is, well. i'm not saying that atheists can't do anything for christmas since at this point it became so commercialized that it has little to do with faith for most people and it was originally pagan yule anyway but it's so unnecessary and they added it for no reason at all while they omitted many important scenes from the book
Rieux once wants to use a phone and since doctors had priority to do so he uses that which doesn't really suit book Rieux too. he's not the type of person to use his privileges like that
they also completely ruined Cottard's character. while he is a criminal, in the book he doesn't have any malicious intentions towards other characters, he's just afraid of getting arrested. he actively helps Rambert, there's a scene where he assures another guy that Rambert is his friend and he'll pay them for their help after he escapes Oran. in the movie he takes money from Tarrou and Martine for sending tapes with recordings to Paris which he doesn't do and then he fucking kidnaps Martine which is SO ABSURD and DIDN'T MAKE ANY FUCKING SENSE
THERE'S A LADY DRESSED AS A RAT THAT (I THINK?) IS SUPPOSED TO BE SEXY STANDING NEXT TO A GUY WHO'S TRYING TO SELL PEOPLE SOME PICTURES OF SAINTS THAT ARE SUPPOSED TO PROTECT THEM FROM THE PLAGUE. A SEXY RAT LADY NEXT TO A SCAMMER I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH. LIKE. W H A T. WHO CAME UP WITH THAT
there's no sea scene. there's nothing even close to the sea scene. where's my beach marriage.
Rieux's wife dies way earlier than she does in the book and do you know why. BECAUSE THEY WANTED TO ADD THAT WEIRD FUCKING SUBPLOT WITH HIM AND MARTINE WITHOUT IT BEING CHEATING BUT SURPRISE SURPRISE SHE ALSO HAS SOMEONE AND I DIDN'T SEE THEM BREAKING UP AND ALSO THIS ENTIRE THING IS JSUT SO FUCKING BAD I HATE IT
Tarrou gets the plague, doesn't die of it, and then dies after being shot by Cottard. GIRL WHAT THE FUCK. DO I EVEN HAVE TO COMMENT THAT.
Rieux has a dead daughter in this universe. we don't know anything about her. he mentions it to Tarrou once. that's it. i think adding her was supposed to justify the way Rieux crashes out after a kid dies but you don't have to have a dead kid of your own to feel bad when another kid dies so once again an absurd unnecessary decision with no real influence on the plot
another thing that's not important at all but i don't like it regardless: Rieux is taller than Tarrou in the movie which doesn't sit right with me. i always imagined that Rieux is the shorter one
in the book Rambert asks Tarrou if he's capable of dying for love in a hotel room. in the movie Martine asks that Rieux in a fucking tram full of people. like damn girl that's kinda a private conversation
Paneloux (at least i think it was Paneloux since he was a priest but this movie is so confusing idk anymore) randomly goes to a cementery AND LIES DOWN NEXT TO THE BODIES AND THEY BURY HIM ALIVE THERE. it's never addressed. WHAT THE FUCK
Tarrou doesn't move in with Rieux. he once talks with Martine about what they will do when the plague is over and he says that he's going to move in with Rieux then which doesn't make any sense but nothing in this movie does
also since Cottard is a fucking kidnapper now they completely changed his and Tarrou's relationship so that they weren't friends but hated each other. Cottard literally punches Tarrou
the whole movie feels incredibly rushed, everything happens too soon and at the same time nothing happens at all. it's a combination of random scenes and ¾ of them are completely made up and have nothing to do with the book
frankly there are many more things that i dislike about this movie but if i think about it any longer i'm gonna go down to the sewers and purposefully contract the plague from a rat
they twinkified Tarrou :c Rieux literally describes that he looked like a "big grey bear" once WAS THIS NOT ENOUGH OF A CLUE
this whole movie was me thinking "he would not fucking say that. he would not fucking do that. that didn't happen" for 2.5 hours
AND NOW 2 GOOD THINGS ABOUT THIS MOVIE!! that's all i didn't like any more things
i actually like the choice to turn Raymond into Martine since there's almost no women in the book. if they didn't add any weird romantic subplots i would have approved of this fully
there's a scene where Rieux comes home and just lies down on his bed in a suit and with shoes on and goes to sleep which appropriately shows that he's a fucking mess. 10/10 scene. the only one but it's there.
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