|
The new Sherlock Holmes is the original
31 January 2010
Robert Downey Jr.’s current portrayal of the immortal detective Sherlock Holmes appears to me the most accurate
in all movie history. When I say accurate I mean that his on-screen character resembles Conan Doyle’s famous Englishman
perfectly.
Although Sir Arthur Conan Doyle did not invent the detective novel he did create (possibly) the most famous detective in literature. Edgar Allan Poe’s Murders in the Rue Morgue started the detective novel craze back in the 19thCentury. But it was Conan Doyle who created Holmes first as a series in the Strand Magazine and then with several novels. He based his character on a Scots doctor who was working at the time with rudimentary forensic science to solve crimes. The London Doyle set his stories in was at once sophisticated and dreary, smog-bound and intensely dangerous. Criminals were a mainstay of the real world and much attention had been given to The Ripper murders, still unsolved to this day.
We’ve all seen the most famous movie portrayal of Sherlock
Holmes by Basil Rathbone, a wonderful English actor with a deep
resonant voice and strong screen persona. For many generations
he WAS Sherlock Holmes. Others included John Barrymore, Michael Caine, Peter Cushing, Stewart Granger, Ronald Howard (on TV), Leonard Nimoy, and Peter O’Toole’s voice, to name a few. But now we have a remarkable movie, complete with great special effects, that has created the London that was home to Holmes and his creator. From wealthy country mansions to the slums of the East End and South-of-the-Thames, we enter a time where most British citizens lived in dire poverty and disease. The Industrial Revolution had transformed London into the center of world commerce a scant 60 years or so before Holmes inhabited the City.
We have a brilliant, eccentric man living in the midst of all
this turmoil and growth; amidst poverty, crime and death. He’s so brilliant he can barely tolerate any friends or neighbors who are so obviously less intelligent than he. He has a mild tolerance for London’s famous police force, the Bobbies or Peelers, named
after The Home Secretary, Robert Peel, who created the first police force in 1829. Only one person is allowed into his dark world:Dr John Watson, a physician. Holmes takes drugs, lives like a disorganized slob, dresses well below what he could afford but
allows himself to be hired as a “consulting detective” by the
police when needed. He observes everything minutely and can
cite chapter and verse on practically any subject.
I alwaysthought that Holmes had a photographic memory which he usedto full advantage gathering clues within an instant at a crime scene. His methods, documented by Conan Doyle, will be seenover and over again on current crime dramas like NCIS, CriminalMinds and Cold Case. Making sense from various clues and placesHolmes was the first detective who combine observation (“walking the grid”) at crime scenes with forensic sciences usingmedicine and chemistry.
Robert Downey Jr. has captured these qualities and brought Sherlock Holmes to life in the latest film. We see how he lives, how he thinks, how he acts and reacts to real and imagined
dangers; how his friendship with Dr Watson makes him a little
more human and likeable. He reluctantly finds himself in the
middle of dangerous situations, confronting the villains of his
day, trying to out-think and outwit them. There’s a new female
character, Irene Adler, who he must deal with in this movie. She’s beautiful and as smart as Holmes. If there was a chance for Holmes to fall in love she’d be the obvious choice in my book. But then there’d be no reason for a sequel in a year or two.
Mr. Downey is one of my favorite actors, having done a
splendid job in creating Ironman last year and Chaplin. He can display both ironic humor and strong dramatic portrayals in his on-screen characters. He has always been a skillful actor in my opinion despite recent personal problems. His talent is the only thing that interests me and we are all lucky for his films’ successes. He seems to accept the challenges that comes with making famous fictional names come to life. As an actor myself I know how difficult this can be. But Downey makes it look easy. His Tony Stark in Ironman is both abrasive and brilliant. The similarities to his Sherlock Holmes are all there. All we have to do is simply sit back, munch some popcorn and enjoy them.
Jon Schuller
Charlotte, NC
1/31/2010
|
