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shamanicshayminI finished Mauriiiiiiiiiiiiiice! And I immediately jumped on the chance to watch the movie too. I THINK IT'S TIME FOR A REVIEW.
"Set in the elegant Edwardian world of Cambridge undergraduate life, this story by a master novelist introduces us to Maurice Hall when he is fourteen. We follow him through public school and to Cambridge, and on into his father's firm, Hill and Hall, Stock Brokers. In a highly structured society, Maurice is a conventional young man in almost every way, "stepping into the niche that England had prepared for him": except that he is homosexual.
Written during 1913 and 1914, immediately after Howards End, and not published until 1971, Maurice was ahead of its time not only in its theme but in its affirmation that love between men can be happy."
- I can't tell you how much I'm pleased with E.M. Forster's Maurice. ;; Admittedly, it does have its flaws (which I will discuss), but waaaaaah, it left me with a good feeling inside and that's what a good book/film should do. Those final scenes. Just... gdhskgjdhgkjd. "And now we shan't be parted no more, and that's finished." *fangirl sigh* No, my edition of the book doesn't have the epilogue, which isn't needed for the story anyway~ ♥
- Is it bad I still feel a teeny bit of sympathy for Clive? I know he ends up being an obnoxious upper-class twit, but he was also scared as hell of being found out (especially more understandable in the movie, due to Risley's trial and arrest) and in the end decided to abide by society's standards, and to do that, he's going to be miserable for the rest of his life. Which sadly happens to who knows how many people, though thankfully today it's improving. All the same, Clive gave up being true to himself for the sake of sterile stability. So I'm really glad that Maurice decided to let go of him for good, 'cause clinging to him would've been unhealthy and it wouldn't be fair for himself or Alec. Maurice explicitly told Clive so:
"Maurice, Maurice, I care a little bit for you, you know, or I wouldn't stand what you have told me."
Maurice opened his hand. Luminous petals appeared in it.
"You care for me a little bit, I do think," he admitted, "but I can't hang all my life on a little bit. You don't. You hang yours on Anne. You don't worry whether your relationship with her is platonic or not, you only know it's big enough to hang a life on. I can't hang mine on to the next five minutes you spare me from her and politics. You'll do anything for me except see me. That's been it for this whole year of Hell. You'll make me free of the house, and take endless bother to marry me off, because that puts me off your hands. You do care a little for me, I know"--for Clive had protested--"but nothing to speak of, and you don't love me. I was yours once till death if you'd care to keep me, but I'm someone else's now--I can't hang about whining for ever--and he's mine in a way that shocks you, but why don't you stop being shocked, and attend to your own happiness?"
"Who taught you to talk like this?" Clive gasped.
"You, if anyone."
This, and "By the way, I had sex with your gamekeeper. Alec and I got busy in the Russet Room while you and Anne were away. :D" "GHSKJGHKJDGHDKJG" Win. 8)
But yeah. TOO BAD CLIVE. YOU MISSED OUT. GOOD RIDDANCE.
- One of my gripes that may or may not turn people off the book/movie... Maurice himself, particularly during the first half, acts like a total douche. He's "mentally torpid", very hoity-toity and shallow like his Englishman peers, and is mean to his mother and sisters (though thankfully, he apologizes to them after a particular blow-up. Understandably, his sisters are still pissed off at him) In fact, I wasn't surprised Clive broken up with him, 'cause aside from their strictly platonic relationship, it didn't seem they had anything in common at all and were just there for the artificial "intimacy." Later on, Maurice makes some insulting comments about the working-class (particularly before he falls in love with Alec and eventually freaking out because "OH NOES I LOVE A GAMEKEEPER!!!1!1" Alec later calls him out on it and it's awesome.), but at least it was more in tune with what people thought at the period than him just being an outright jerk to the women in his family. Yeesh.
On the other hand, Maurice was normal and that's what I found refreshing. E.M. Forster and the movie go out of their way to show he is flawed while acknowledging a few strengths, showing him as a human being. He's not a Poster Child on a pedestal, but he's capable of growth and change, and becomes a better person capable of true "tenderness." Superficiality--not homosexuality--was the true vice all along. It gives me another reason to love the happy ending... if it ended with Maurice and/or Alec dying (or even Clive!), it would've wasted Maurice's character development and ruined the entire point of the story. I looked forward to seeing that development in Maurice and was not disappointed. I felt genuine sympathy for him and rooted for him and Alec all the way, and they totally earned the happy ending they deserved. :)
- Alec Scudder is my favorite character. ;; It's frustrating though, 'cause he doesn't really show up until the end of Part 3, and by then, you're getting close to the end of the book. Noooooooo. X( He shows up a little more in the movie though. Rupert Graves does a fucking awesome job as him. 8)I think I'm in love. His presence in the book/movie is extremely powerful and helps make up for the lack of screentime. Like his conversation with Maurice at the British Museum and their night at the hotel. Just... ouch. :( ALEC SCUDDER I FEEL FOR YOU.
- So what do I recommend, the book or the movie? While I think the movie's the best, I think you'll get even more enjoyment out of it after you've read the book first. :) The movie leaves out some things in the book, namely the inner monologues, philosophical conversations, and some of the scenes (Thank you, movie, for leaving out the scene with Dickie. X( No, I haven't seen the deleted scene, nor do I want to) that don't really make much difference to the plot. But since the novel is a completed first draft (or something like that) it can be confusing to read sometimes, particularly certain passages or subtle details that were too vague or hard to follow unless you looked it up on Wikipedia or TV Tropes or something. Particularly bad with dialogue since I've been having trouble who is saying what. :o (Me: *pages later* "Wait a minute, Maurice and Alec slept together their first night? And Maurice and Clive didn't? Now I feel like an unobservant derpface. D: Wait, what happened? Alec didn't get on the ship? Where does it say that? How did Maurice suddenly get so happy when he had been brooding two paragraphs ago? I'M LOOOOOOOST.") Overall, the movie was just edited better and flowed much more seamlessly than the book. That, and it's hard to argue with performances like that from James Wilby, Hugh Grant and Rupert Graves. Oh bby.
What do you know? The entire movie is up on YouTube! It gets slow-paced at times, it being a period film and all, and a little long (2 hours and 20 min) but if you've got plenty of spare time, check it out. :o I do warn you though, while it's a relatively tasteful film (kisses and men sharing a bed, nothing too scary), there are a rare couple scenes where there's male frontal nudity, so... not entirely SFW. ("Ahhh, just getting comfy after 70 minutes in the Edwardian life of uppity British people... HOLY DANGLING PENIS BATMAN")
Here's Part 1. You can easily find the rest of the movie on the sidebar. :3
"Set in the elegant Edwardian world of Cambridge undergraduate life, this story by a master novelist introduces us to Maurice Hall when he is fourteen. We follow him through public school and to Cambridge, and on into his father's firm, Hill and Hall, Stock Brokers. In a highly structured society, Maurice is a conventional young man in almost every way, "stepping into the niche that England had prepared for him": except that he is homosexual.
Written during 1913 and 1914, immediately after Howards End, and not published until 1971, Maurice was ahead of its time not only in its theme but in its affirmation that love between men can be happy."
- I can't tell you how much I'm pleased with E.M. Forster's Maurice. ;; Admittedly, it does have its flaws (which I will discuss), but waaaaaah, it left me with a good feeling inside and that's what a good book/film should do. Those final scenes. Just... gdhskgjdhgkjd. "And now we shan't be parted no more, and that's finished." *fangirl sigh* No, my edition of the book doesn't have the epilogue, which isn't needed for the story anyway~ ♥
- Is it bad I still feel a teeny bit of sympathy for Clive? I know he ends up being an obnoxious upper-class twit, but he was also scared as hell of being found out (especially more understandable in the movie, due to Risley's trial and arrest) and in the end decided to abide by society's standards, and to do that, he's going to be miserable for the rest of his life. Which sadly happens to who knows how many people, though thankfully today it's improving. All the same, Clive gave up being true to himself for the sake of sterile stability. So I'm really glad that Maurice decided to let go of him for good, 'cause clinging to him would've been unhealthy and it wouldn't be fair for himself or Alec. Maurice explicitly told Clive so:
"Maurice, Maurice, I care a little bit for you, you know, or I wouldn't stand what you have told me."
Maurice opened his hand. Luminous petals appeared in it.
"You care for me a little bit, I do think," he admitted, "but I can't hang all my life on a little bit. You don't. You hang yours on Anne. You don't worry whether your relationship with her is platonic or not, you only know it's big enough to hang a life on. I can't hang mine on to the next five minutes you spare me from her and politics. You'll do anything for me except see me. That's been it for this whole year of Hell. You'll make me free of the house, and take endless bother to marry me off, because that puts me off your hands. You do care a little for me, I know"--for Clive had protested--"but nothing to speak of, and you don't love me. I was yours once till death if you'd care to keep me, but I'm someone else's now--I can't hang about whining for ever--and he's mine in a way that shocks you, but why don't you stop being shocked, and attend to your own happiness?"
"Who taught you to talk like this?" Clive gasped.
"You, if anyone."
This, and "By the way, I had sex with your gamekeeper. Alec and I got busy in the Russet Room while you and Anne were away. :D" "GHSKJGHKJDGHDKJG" Win. 8)
But yeah. TOO BAD CLIVE. YOU MISSED OUT. GOOD RIDDANCE.
- One of my gripes that may or may not turn people off the book/movie... Maurice himself, particularly during the first half, acts like a total douche. He's "mentally torpid", very hoity-toity and shallow like his Englishman peers, and is mean to his mother and sisters (though thankfully, he apologizes to them after a particular blow-up. Understandably, his sisters are still pissed off at him) In fact, I wasn't surprised Clive broken up with him, 'cause aside from their strictly platonic relationship, it didn't seem they had anything in common at all and were just there for the artificial "intimacy." Later on, Maurice makes some insulting comments about the working-class (particularly before he falls in love with Alec and eventually freaking out because "OH NOES I LOVE A GAMEKEEPER!!!1!1" Alec later calls him out on it and it's awesome.), but at least it was more in tune with what people thought at the period than him just being an outright jerk to the women in his family. Yeesh.
On the other hand, Maurice was normal and that's what I found refreshing. E.M. Forster and the movie go out of their way to show he is flawed while acknowledging a few strengths, showing him as a human being. He's not a Poster Child on a pedestal, but he's capable of growth and change, and becomes a better person capable of true "tenderness." Superficiality--not homosexuality--was the true vice all along. It gives me another reason to love the happy ending... if it ended with Maurice and/or Alec dying (or even Clive!), it would've wasted Maurice's character development and ruined the entire point of the story. I looked forward to seeing that development in Maurice and was not disappointed. I felt genuine sympathy for him and rooted for him and Alec all the way, and they totally earned the happy ending they deserved. :)
- Alec Scudder is my favorite character. ;; It's frustrating though, 'cause he doesn't really show up until the end of Part 3, and by then, you're getting close to the end of the book. Noooooooo. X( He shows up a little more in the movie though. Rupert Graves does a fucking awesome job as him. 8)
- So what do I recommend, the book or the movie? While I think the movie's the best, I think you'll get even more enjoyment out of it after you've read the book first. :) The movie leaves out some things in the book, namely the inner monologues, philosophical conversations, and some of the scenes (Thank you, movie, for leaving out the scene with Dickie. X( No, I haven't seen the deleted scene, nor do I want to) that don't really make much difference to the plot. But since the novel is a completed first draft (or something like that) it can be confusing to read sometimes, particularly certain passages or subtle details that were too vague or hard to follow unless you looked it up on Wikipedia or TV Tropes or something. Particularly bad with dialogue since I've been having trouble who is saying what. :o (Me: *pages later* "Wait a minute, Maurice and Alec slept together their first night? And Maurice and Clive didn't? Now I feel like an unobservant derpface. D: Wait, what happened? Alec didn't get on the ship? Where does it say that? How did Maurice suddenly get so happy when he had been brooding two paragraphs ago? I'M LOOOOOOOST.") Overall, the movie was just edited better and flowed much more seamlessly than the book. That, and it's hard to argue with performances like that from James Wilby, Hugh Grant and Rupert Graves. Oh bby.
What do you know? The entire movie is up on YouTube! It gets slow-paced at times, it being a period film and all, and a little long (2 hours and 20 min) but if you've got plenty of spare time, check it out. :o I do warn you though, while it's a relatively tasteful film (kisses and men sharing a bed, nothing too scary), there are a rare couple scenes where there's male frontal nudity, so... not entirely SFW. ("Ahhh, just getting comfy after 70 minutes in the Edwardian life of uppity British people... HOLY DANGLING PENIS BATMAN")
Here's Part 1. You can easily find the rest of the movie on the sidebar. :3
