From Page to Screen / Vom Buch zum Film. Группа авторов
this respect, some of the punishments Matilda inflicts on adults could be understood as excessive and her revenge considered far more violent than the actions that provoked it.
This could be the case, for instance, of the episode in which she hides the parrot in the chimney. This happens as a reaction to the negative answer of Matilda’s father when he denies her the possibility of having dinner alone in her bedroom so that she could read her book. It is true that his manners are objectionable and far from the regular treatment children deserve, but the action is not that serious for him to receive such a punishment. What is more, by hiding the parrot, Matilda eventually terrifies her whole family, not only the person responsible for the affront. In a similar way, it could be considered that the pain and humiliation his father had to endure when the hat with the superglue was stuck to his head is disproportionate and especially degrading for someone whose image is important for his job. Likewise, according to Hunt’s tenets, the punishment inflicted on adults and the protagonist’s behavior in this short list of events would depict Matilda gloating over others’ humiliations, an assumption that would add “sadism” to her inventory of attributes.
In line with the above, it can also be said that Matilda’s actions lead others to perform wicked vengeful acts and therefore, our protagonist may also be considered as a pernicious influence for other children. There is a clear instance in the book that proves this point. Placing the newt in the water is not Matilda’s idea even though it is her who moves the glass so that the newt goes into Trunchbull’s clothes. It is another child, Lavender, who comes up with the plan. Lavender’s wish to be a heroine like Matilda makes her catch the newt and premeditatedly put it into the jug: “She [Lavender] longed to do something heroic. (…) It was her turn to become a heroine if only she could come up with a brilliant plot” (Dahl, 1988; 2016: 130). It is then when she goes and catches a newt from the pond near her house and decides to put it into the jug the following day.
The aforementioned and other examples helped build the already-cited ambivalence of a character that apparently assumes the role of undisputable heroine whereas, at the same time, reveals a dark side that somehow qualifies her notable and laudable attributes. Conveying a clear portrait of this facet in the film would be a decision that may flout audience expectations of morality and innocuousness, thus jeopardizing the production’s global reception. In spite of the risk, the film decides to maintain these traits of ambivalence in Matilda’s character, albeit this feature is shown through different examples from those included in the book. Even though the newt scene is here portrayed as an on-the-spot decision that Lavender takes instinctively and without much thinking, or despite the fact that her father is just punished twice as the event with the parrot is omitted, the dark side of Matilda’s character and the negative influence she could exert on other children can be appreciated in the movie through other scenes that are not present in the book. As described in previous sections, it is Matilda the one who first and relentlessly encourages Bruce to eat all the cake, regardless of the boy’s obvious signs of distress and of what may happen to him if he goes on. Another example comes at the end of the film, when Matilda takes Miss Trunchbull to the school corridor so that the other children can throw food at her, being again the leader of the revolution against the tyrant.
Consequently, as opposed to what happened to the treatment of violence against children, punishment on adult characters becomes even more obvious in the film. This factor may make the result less politically incorrect, but it definitely helps perpetuate the debate about whether the protagonist should be considered a knight in shining armor or a little bully with an angelical face. The purpose of this paper is not to side with either one or the other standpoint, but to underscore a decision that, in our view and to a certain extent, clashes with the traditional parameters of the family film. As stated in previous sections, this genre tends to convey a very clear distinction between good and evil, and Matilda, the motion picture, blurs this line by featuring a protagonist that, at some points, mirrors the behavior of the villains she is allegedly trying to fight.
5 Conclusions
Since section 2 illustrated the struggle between the film industry and the will of the author and his family regarding the approach that Matilda, the motion picture, should follow, it may be interesting to conclude this paper by listing the points each party scored in this competition. At one end, Hollywood’s hand can be seen in decisions regarding the setting of the story, the abridged, less Dickensian past of Miss Honey, a brighter and less wistful ending, or in the fact that physical violence against children is somewhat backgrounded as the film foregrounds punishment on adult characters like Miss Trunchbull. As for the protagonist, the different use and relevance of her magic powers together with the addition of a short list of funny episodes triggered by her actions stand out as the main concessions to the film industry standards.
Nevertheless, team Dahl also got numerous victories in the movie-making process and the final product. At some points, the film is so close to the book that dialogues and narration practically overlap, and the characterization of main and peripheral characters has been profoundly respected. Besides, the core topics Dahl’s novel addresses are still there to be seen and analyzed by insightful spectators, and so is, even to a greater extent, the questionable behavior of the protagonist in certain scenes.
All things considered, our initial assumption has been only partly confirmed. The context of production and the multifarious contexts of reception have probably been decisive for choosing the setting and the introduction of American cultural references instead of British ones. In like vein, certain decisions (the increased relevance of magic or the modifications in the ending of the story being perfect cases in point) have helped tailor the motion picture to a more familial audience and to the age rating label which the producers were probably pursuing. However, other traits present in the movie somehow flout the parameters the audience may expect a family film to follow. Hard scenes (at least for a PG-rated motion picture) are maintained and most of the protagonist’s controversial actions are there for viewers to judge. All in all, Matilda may have moved to the United States, but she took heavy luggage with her and left few things behind.
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