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March 2, 2010
Marcy Shieh
Great American Novels don’t necessarily make Great American Movies. These are words to ponder for long-time advocates of a Catcher in the Rye movie.
Since J.D. Salinger’s death on Jan. 27, questions of a Catcher movie adaptation resurfaced. In a 1957 letter now being sold on the Moments in Time website, Salinger contemplates to a Mr. Herbert the possibility that he would leave the unsold movie rights of Catcher to his then-wife and daughter as insurance. In the letter, he called his work “can’t legitimately be separated from [Catcher’s protagonist, Holden Caulfield’s] own first-person technique.”
ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) News reports that, according to Salinger’s agent Phyllis Westberg at Harold Ober Associates in New York, he did not change anything in terms of licensing rights, but the future remains unclear.
According to The New York Times, Salinger was disappointed with the Hollywood version of his short story, “Uncle Wiggly in Connecticut” and refused to ever again sell movie rights for any of his other works. Yet Salinger was fond of movies. According to his ex-lover Joyce Maynard’s memoir Looking Back, Salinger collected 16 mm prints of classic movies. Salinger may have been stubborn, but he probably knew what made great movies tick: Catcher doesn’t possess that quality.
A Catcher film adaptation is destined to join the ranks of forgettable films, such as The Great Gatsby and Lord of the Flies. Literature allows symbolism and stream-of-consciousness to thrive on paper, but on film, most details get lost in translation.
Holden’s narration in Catcher is sometimes relevant, sometimes random. For a movie to grasp attention, what is said must directly relate to the actions on-screen. Catcher’s episodic plot is too sporadic for a film narrative.
Imagine Holden’s fractured relationship with Mr. Antolini with a filmmaker’s bias; that would simply destroy Salinger’s intentional ambivalence. The touching scene where Holden watches his sister, Phoebe, ride the carousel, may feel silly.
As Salinger rejected offers from directors Billy Wilder to Steven Spielberg, he continued to inspire filmmakers through his literary works. The Royal Tenenbaums and Igby Goes Down have Salinger touches without being a blatant adaptation of a Salinger work. Loneliness, angst, heartbreak, comedy, vulnerability. And of course, New York. The movies paint classic Salinger strokes in the glow of cinematic acuity.
Perhaps someone can make a brilliant Catcher film, with the right script, director and actors, but Catcher, like many other novels, truly belongs on the page.
