Adaptation Month - The Golden Compass

This one is an infamously bad adaptation, but is it as bad everyone claims it is?

Northern Lights was written by Phillip Pullman and was released in 1995, being an adventure story aimed at Young Adults, of course it was part of a trilogy, named ‘His Darkest Materials.’ The US name for the book was the Golden Compass, hence that being the name of the film adaptation.

Handling the adaption to screen, in both screenplay and directing is Chris Weitz, at this point in his career he’d written Antz, Nutty Professor II and About a Boy and this is his first project as a director without his brother, Paul helping him along. They also tended to work together on the screenplay side too.

The book had its share of controversies and they were carried over into the adaptation process, with criticism from both sides leading to the studio demanding massive changes in post-production. This is rarely ever a good sign.

The film had a $180m budget and made $372m at the box office, a strong international performance saving it from a dismal $70m performance in the US. The reviews were mixed, the film has a 42% Rotten Tomatoes rating with an average 5.61/10 score, and audiences gave it a 51% rating with a 3.22/5 average score.

Before we start, my thoughts on the book:

The Book

I’m going to have to argue against popular consensus and say I’m not exactly keen on the book. It’s about half way through the book before the plot actually gets started and it doesn’t really end more than just stop. It felt like the end of a pilot episode to a TV series. There’s also points where I find the language uncomfortable to read. There was a bit about Africans owning slaves that made me shudder.

The Film

I know this won’t surprise anyone but the film isn’t very good. Some of the book’s dialogue did not translate well onto screen, particularly with Lyra. With some minor exceptions, the aesthetic is pretty good and aside from a no f*cks given performance from Daniel Craig, the rest of the cast are decent. Most of my issues come from the plot, so let’s talk about said plot shall we:

What they kept

The overarching concept of the world, where every human on Earth has a dæmon companion that has a fixed form as an adult and can change shape as a child is true to the book (+10) Lyra and her dæmon Pantalaimon sneak into the retiring room at Jordan College, and hide in a wardrobe when others arrive (+10) she sees a drink being poisoned ahead of the arrival of ‘Uncle’ Lord Asriel (+10) he arrives and Lyra stops him from drinking it (+10) he gets her to go back in the wardrobe and view a meeting, where he asks for funds for an expedition to explore effects of ‘dust’ which he is granted (+10)

Her friend, Roger, who works in the kitchens being kidnapped by the ‘Gobblers’ (+10) the arrival of Mrs Coulter, a friend of the college who requisites Lyra as her assistant, promising a trip to the North (+10), Lyra being given an alethiometer, a device capable of answering any question and being told not to tell Mrs Coulter about it (+10) her keeping the device in a shoulder pack, and not foreseeing that Mrs Coulter might ask her to remove it. (+10) Mrs Coulter’s dæmon attacking Pantalaimon when she refuses to, forcing her to concede (+10)

Her reconciling the General Oblation Board with the Gobblers, the people responsible for disappearing children (+10) and running away. Her running into the care of gyptian people, who are about to mount a northern expedition with the intent of saving the captured children (+10) Mrs Coulter sending machines that do ultimately spot Lyra, although the gyptians manage to capture one (+10)

Lyra getting increasingly proficient in reading the alethiometer during the journey (+10) them meeting the armoured bear Iorek Byrnson who had lost his armour when tricked by townsfolk (+10) Lyra using the alethiometer to find his armour and allow him to regain it, with Lyra only barely able to stop him attacking the guards (+10) Him agreeing to follow them on their mission (+10)

The alethiometer telling Lyra to visit a village being supposedly haunted (+10) Iorek offering to take her and upon arrival discovering a boy begging for his dæmon (+10), the attack on the Gyptians that results in Lyra’s capture (+10) Lyra tricking Iofur Raknison into fighting Iorek alone by pretending to be Iorek’s demon, and saying that if he defeats Iorek in single combat, she will become his (+10) Iorek being highly impressed at her deceitfulness (+10) The fight between Iorek and Iofur plays out pretty much how it did in the book with Iorek coming out victorious (+10)

This may feel a little disconnected and there’s a reason, but that’s for the next section

Lyra blending in the facility of trapped kids by giving a cover name Lizzie (+10) and her reunion with Roger (+10), her being caught eavesdropping and being subjected to a process that would’ve removed her demon, but Mrs Coulter stopping it (+10) her explanation that the process is yet to be perfected and her having realised that Lyra has an alethiometer (+10). The combined forces of the Gyptians and witches, along with Iorek raiding the facility, rescuing the children. Lyra discovering that Lord Asriel was being captured and about to be sentenced to death (+10) and the revelation that Lord Asriel was in fact her father and Mrs Coulter her mother (+10)

Other details true to the book are Ma Costa, Father Coram and Lord Faa (+5) are the gyptian folk who Lyra interacted with most. The witch Serafina Pekkala (+5) and her background with Father Coram are true to the book (+5) Mrs Coulter’s dæmon being a golden monkey is true to the book (+5) as is the indication that the Northern Lights show parallel universes within (+5).

So, 295 adaptation points, a solid number actually, but it’s not just they kept that determines whether it’s a good adaptation

What they Changed

The Magisterium is changed to be less of an obvious religious allegory (-5) the religious aspects are kind of fundamental to this story, so this makes the film make less sense. Billy Costa’s introduction playing with Roger and Lyra (along with Lyra’s first lies) are film only additions (-5). Billy Costa is abducted in the book, but in the film it’s him Lyra finds with his dæmon removed. Ratter is not his dæmon in the book (-5) it belonged to Tony Makarios, who Lyra found in the book but he later dies from the trauma having his dæmon removed caused him (-5) Billy in the book is among those Lyra rescues.

It’s the Master at Jordan College that poisons the drink in the book, a visiting Magisterium member does this in the film (-5) not sure what he was doing in the meeting but… It was during this meeting Lyra overheard about Iofur wanting a demon of his own in the book, while Mrs Coulter tells her in the film. (-5) Mrs Coulter’s dæmon discovering the alethiometer whilst Lyra was staying with her is film only (-5)

In the film, Serafina Pekkala visits the gyptians directly, in the book she sent her dæmon to communicate, being busy leading her own clan (-5). In fact the idea that witches' dæmons can travel further from them than for others is never really explored in the film. Lee Scorsby isn’t the one to tell Lyra about Iorek in the book (-5), he’s just a pilot that the Gyptians managed to get to work with them after the expedition he was expecting to join had lost funding.

Iorek’s origin is altered to be less bloody than it was in the book. It’s true Iorek did face someone in combat but it wasn’t Iofur. His opponent had been drugged by Iofur and despite being defeated wouldn’t surrender, Iorek ended up killing him and this is what got him banished. (-5) Iorek’s attack on the guards was a bit more violent in the book, in the film, Lyra had stopped him before any damage was done at all (-5), also they made it so Lee Scorsby and the other Gyptians helped out here too (-5) Iorek doesn’t serve Lyra directly in the book, he served Lord Faa, it was only though his instruction that he followed Lyra (-5), also, Lyra didn’t sneak out to the 'haunted' village, she told everyone what she was up to (-5)

We actually see Lord Asriel’s capture in the film (-5) he calls Mrs Coulter ‘That Coulter Woman’ – dude, you had a child with this woman, show some respect! There are a couple of scenes at the Magisterium that are film only (-5) Lyra uses the alethiometer in plain view of Iofur in the film to prove her connection to Iorek, in the book she insisted on hiding to do this so he doesn’t see the alethiometer (-5)

The order of certain events is changed in the book. They had no encounter with the Witch until after they’d made landfall (-5), and the events with the Ice Bears and the battle at Bolvander are in reverse order to what they are in the book (-5). I guess the idea is to save the more climactic battle but in doing so it makes a few odd changes. In the book, the attack had her sent to Bolvander where the battle ended up, then they went to the Ice Bear Kingdom to rescue her father and she ended up captured en-route (-5).

No mention that it was the ice bears, and Iofur in particular that are holding Lord Asriel captive (-5) and we’ll get to everything else about this particular element in the next section

The nature of dust is changed slightly to account for the lack of religious symbolism. In the book the church believes that Dust is original sin. It settles on adults at the time their dæmon stops shape-shifting, and doesn’t affect children because all children are innocent in the eyes of God (-5) in the film, it amounts some guys did a bad thing and that’s why there’s dust. You could have made a bit of an effort than this.

110 points lost in this section, bringing us down to 185 adaptation points, let’s take a look at our final segment

What they left out

There’s a lot of in-between bits left out. We don’t see much of her time with Mrs Coulter and her studies there (-10), we don’t see the Gyptians prepare for the voyage (-10) nor was the idea that Lyra was coming along ever in doubt in the film (-10) in the book, she only ended up coming along because her knowledge of the alethiometer was so invaluable.

We don’t see her and Father Coram visit a Dr Lanselius, to get a message sent to the witches. It’s where we see Lyra successfully demonstrate her mastery of the alethiometer (-10) we miss a couple of things that happen at Bolvanger including Lyra discovering several captured dæmons who had been cut from their hosts (-10) or the witch’s dæmon coming to inform of her of the coming attack (-10) (her alethiometer was hidden at this point)

We don’t see much of Lyra, Roger, Serafina Pekala, Lee Scorsby and Iorek in the airship. Lee is uncomfortable with being dragged into a war without knowing it (-10) and discusses the nature of destiny with Serfina (-10) and we find out a bit more about Iorek’s origin, which I’d covered in the previous section. The ship is attacked by Cliff-Ghasts which leads to Lyra being separated and captured again (-10) leading to her bit with Iofur

Jotham Santelia is also absent, he is another captive of Iofur’s reign and seems slightly mad (-10) a lot of Iofur’s sense of grandure is absent from the book. He felt very human, in the worst possible ways, wanting glory, and a palace made of gold and that sort of thing (-10)

OK, onto the ending, a sizeable chunk of the end of the book was cut entirely, partly because of the studio’s desire for the film to have a happy ending. Spoiler alert, this book does not have a happy ending. I should point out that Lord Asriel was even less of a nice guy than he was in the book (-5) I could cite examples, but I feel this ending will speak for itself.

Iorek takes Lyra and Roger to the prison where her father is being held. (-10) In defiance with the magisterium, he’d been allowed access to materials to continue his research and this is why they’d marked him for death (+5) he is immediately horrified to see Lyra but calms down when he sees Roger, something that confuses them both (-10) Roger feels uncomfortable around him.

Lord Asriel explains much of what I’ve said about the nature of dust and his plan to build a bridge to another world, find the source of dust and destroy it. (-10) Lyra works out overnight that Dust may not be such a bad thing, but is worried to find Roger missing (-10) she follows the trail of her father who has gone to the source of the aurora to make that bridge, he removes Roger’s dæmon, so the energy could form the bridge. Roger dies in Lyra’s arms (-10)

Mrs Coulter confronts Lord Asriel and the two talk (-10) Lord Asriel wants her to join him but she refuses, but clearly showing signs that she still loves him (-10) Lyra follows her father through to the other world (-10)

It feels like a very ‘to be continued’ type of ending to the point where I do kinda understand why it was cut from this film, especially since the sequel wasn’t guaranteed and ultimately didn’t come to be anyway. 

190 points lost, leaving the adaptation score of -5

Conclusion

This was an adaptation shrouded in infamy and studio interference that I’m not entirely convinced was well-deserved. I don’t think it’s a good film, by any stretch, but I’ve seen far worse adaptations, it isn't a great one and breaks the margin of bad but there is enough of source material for it to be recognisable.