Nightmare Alley Exploring Fidelity in Adaptation
Intro:
The general Idea of Fidelity in Adaption is as simple as it gets. In this case between the 1947 and 2021 version of Nightmare Alley are focusing their main ideas off a book made by William Lindsay Gresham back in 1946. Fidelity in adaptation reflects a faithful understanding of its source material. Author Robert Stam offers some helpful insight here: "Fidelity discourse asks important questions about the filmic recreation of the setting, plot, characters, themes, and the style of the novel. When we say an adaptation has been 'unfaithful' to the original, the very violence of the term gives expression to the intense sense of betrayal we feel when a film adaptation fails to capture what we see as the fundamental narrative, thematic, or aesthetic features of its literary source. "
This blog will explore the fidelity of both films to their source material and the different ways each adaptation reflects the concerns and appreciation of its respective period.
Guillermo del Toro's 2021 adaptation of Nightmare Alley presents a unique case of a revisiting a noir drama classic first adapted into a film in 1947 by Edmund Goulding. Both films draw from William Lindsay Gresham's 1946 novel of the same name, and both approach its dark, psychologically complex material in different ways. The 1947 version leans heavily into the film drama genre, focusing on atmosphere and moral ambiguity, while the 2021 version draws on del Toro's fascination with the grotesque and the Gothic ideas throughout the film.
About me
My name is Dominic Pellegrino and I'm a sophomore in my 2nd year at COD.
2021 Del Toro's Nightmare Alley
In the Nightmare Alley article, I found a quote that generalizes the ideas of Guillermo del Toro's 2021 vision of the movie, "When people talk about noir, people think immediately of a cliche, if you've seen the [original] movie, don't see it again because we're not doing a remake of that movie. We're doing our own version.'" Some people may take this quote the wrong way, but Guillermo is trying to make a drastic movie that takes his own imagery ideas in his head to create a great movie in its own world.
Guillermo del Toro's adaptation of Nightmare Alley offers a striking contrast to the 1947 version in my opinion, both in its fidelity to the source material and in its approach to the novel's darker themes. Del Toro is known for the grotesque way of portraying a story, and he takes a more faithful approach to Gresham's novel. Unlike the 1947 film, del Toro's version does not shy away from the novel's more disturbing elements, including its portrayal of mental illness, substance abuse, and the darker aspects of human nature. This movie got into the depth of their lives very deep and quickly.
Differences:
As you can see in these images, the carnivals are the same look, but the drastic color change and brightness brings you more in life with the 2021 version and the 1947 was just not in the time to do so.
One of the most significant ways in which del Toro's adaptation differs from Goulding's is in its portrayal of Stanton Carlisle. Del Toro remains truer to Gresham's original vision of the character as a deeply flawed human and ultimately doomed figure. In the 2021 version, Stanton's decline is presented as inevitable, driven by his own greed and inability to escape his past. Watching him tear away at his life was truly hard to watch, but it made the story a lot more impactful in my eyes. The ending as Stanton's downfall continues to destroy him. He fully embraces his fate as a geek in a carnival, succumbing to the same alcoholism and despair that destroyed his father. This ending is drastically different compared to the ending of the 1947 movie because the ending was more hopeful for Stanton.
This Screenshot below shows the deep world that Stanton Carlisle was going through. His world is on fire.
In the Last Detail article, it talks about the beginning of the movie in the 2021 version, "Cooper's Carlisle burns right into the action. He's tossing a bagged body under floorboards and torching the house over it. He takes a bus to its last stop and follows Major Mosquito to the carnival, which will be his deliverance, no questions asked." Compared to the 1947 version, where it doesn't start as dark and stays a little more faithful to the plot, but both portray the same ideas.
Del Toro's Own Take:
This car scene just shows the brightness of the screen yet the deep, dark, and scary vibes the shot throws at us.
Del Toro is known for his unique and creative visual style, and he really shows it in this movie. Unlike the black-and-white, dark look of the original, this version is filled with so many bright colors and detailed sets that make the story feel more alive and gets to you. But that is what the different ideas of Del Toro which makes it question its fidelity. blending elements of Gothic horror with the lurid, fantastical imagery of the carnival. The result is a visually stunning film that captures the surreal and nightmarish qualities. Truly freaked me out a little bit watching these parts of the movie. This attention to detail helps to create a more immersive and faithful adaptation of the novel, one that fully embraces its dark and disturbing themes. As he took his own spin on the novel itself, the way he added the themes and elements to the movie, makes it all work out perfectly.
1947 Goulding's Nightmare Alley
Edmund Goulding's 1947 adaptation of Nightmare Alley is, in many respects, a product of its time. This movie felt more advance that I would assume a 1947 movie would be. The film adheres to many of the film adaptations that were prevalent in the 1940s, with its chiaroscuro lighting, moral uncertainty, and cynical tone.
One crucial Fidelity in Adaptation difference that I found in my research was the "Hays Code". The Motion Picture Production Code heavily influenced how filmmakers could portray sex, violence, and moral transgression. As a result, many of the novel's darker themes were softened or omitted entirely from Goulding's version. I found this out after watching both movies and it makes sense why the 2021 version seemed a lot more intriguing in the aspect of violence and portraying the mind of Stanton Carlisle.
Differences:
Stanton is a deeply flawed character and a conman who rises to fame through deceit and manipulation only to fall back into ruin and despair as shown at the end of the movie. The novel's depiction of his downfall is brutal, unflinching, and pessimistic. However, in the 1947 film, the depiction of Stanton is somewhat more sympathetic in my eyes. At the end of the movie, it seems like he is going to get a second chance at life and get out of the moral hole that he was in, unlike the 2021 movie where he dies from alcoholism.
The 1947 adaptation also downplays the content and the more explicit depictions of mental illness. The elements that were considered too controversial for the screen at the time. The Hays code took a big part in the reasoning of the non-addition to the explicit contention unlike the 2021 version. As a result, while the film retains the basic structure and plot of Gresham's novel, it ultimately sacrifices some of the more complex and disturbing aspects of the story, which in my opinion after watching both movies, makes the movie not as good as the 2021. It lacked a little bit of density in the brutal life that Stanton Carlisle was in.
Goulding's film translates these descriptions into the stark, shadowy aesthetics of film noir. This visual approach captures the bleakness and despair of the themes of Nightmare Alley in itself. The dark nightmare they were going through.
Conclusion
The two film adaptations of Nightmare Alley represent two very different approaches to the same source material, each shaped by the cultural, aesthetic, and technological contexts of their time. Goulding's 1947 version, constrained by the Hays Code and the conventions of film noir, offers a more sanitized and morally acceptable version of novel in reference to Fidelity in Adaptation. While del Toro's 2021 adaptation is a more faithful and unflinching portrayal of the novel's darker themes. But its twists and turn on the movie in ways makes the Fidelity in the movie in question. But Both films succeed in capturing the essence of Nightmare Alley in their own way, reflecting the concerns and Appreciation of their respective periods. Both movies had great portrayal of what Nightmare Alley was all about. In the end, the question of fidelity in adaptation is hard one to grasp in my opinion, as both versions of Nightmare Alley demonstrate that there is no single "correct" way to adapt a work of literature to the screen. Instead, each adaptation reflects the unique vision of its creator, as well as the cultural and historical moment in which it was made. This is what makes films great and dissecting each part to understand that ideas behind these directors.
