Film and Literature Class

I mentioned at the beginning of the school year that I had broken down and read Twilight. Remember that rant? Well, now I have come in a full circle. For the "Film and Literature" class Ana and I are teaching (a glorified excuse to watch movies an hour a week), we are treating the girls in the class to Twilight.

The kids are hilarious movie companions. They don't sit quietly through movies and their chatter adds a soundtrack that I love. It brought race to a forefront that it doesn't normally have at school. In case you haven't seen the film, the main characters are pasty-pale, one because her skin is that white, the rest because they are vampires. My girls kept asking, "Why are they so pale? Why is he so pale? Why is she so pale?" After the first ten minutes of this, the seventh grade teacher and I both burst out, "Because they're white! White people get that way when there's no sun!"

Along a similar line, they are all in the Jacob (long-haired, Native American werewolf) fan club, rather than the Edward (carefully put-together, pale vampire) fan club. In general, they hold Edward in confused disdain; he is the hero and Bella loves him, but he is too pretty, pale, soft-spoken, controlled. Unlike the book, he has a subtle sense of humor that my girls were not perceptive enough to appreciate, so his character must have seemed bland.

Especially interesting to me, the girls do not like the relationship between Edward and Bella. Having taught in their school for a year now, I have seen their life decisions... which are on par for middle school life decisions from their particular demographic. But they see so clearly, more clearly than people from my own demographic, the destructive nature of Edward and Bella's relationship. They think Bella is stupid for staying with him. Which is likely true.

In case you are considering watching the film, I find it a vast improvement over the book. It gets out of Bella's head, which helps alleviate the melodrama that irked me. Furthermore, some of my problems with the Edward-Bella relationship are resolved. Edward has more personality, including a sort of dry humor and appreciation of irony. He also is not as peremptory and controlling as his novel character is. I can see the couple as equals, rather than the parent-child feel I got from the book. They also are delightfully high-schoolish at times, as a couple of seventeen year olds should be.

In addition, the film had to cut out much of the book to fit the story into two hours. Finally, I don't get as tired of close-ups on people's faces as I do of the words "smoldering eyes." However, I have heard from people who have not read the book that the film is a bit confusing, and a few clarifying details did get left out. Still, New Moon is likely on my horizon.