What do you think about the changes they made in the film?
At the end of the film, I got the impression that Clive had regrets or at least was sad for leaving Maurice. He had been pushed into fear by Risley's punishment. But in the novel, it was pretty obvious that he was disgusted with men and had actually started noticing women and their sexual appeal.
Thoughts? Likes?
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(¸.·´ (¸.·´Love is Magical
It's been a while since I read the novel. I imagine that the movie may take some liberties and emphasize things for a modern audience. Don't forget the novel was written a few years after Oscar Wilde was tried, imprisoned, publicly humiliated and died(which is why the Risley trial is in the movie). Even though the self-loathing closeted married man is cliche today, this novel may be the first time such character has been described in print. Reading between the lines of the novel I do think that Clive is so horrified by his feelings toward Maurice that he buries his true nature and, in a sense, brainwashes himself into finding women attractive. To him, women are the only logical and moral choice. Therefore, he LOVES women. I'm not saying he doesn't have feelings for his wife and children, but so did the politician who was tapping his toe in the men's room.
But perhaps you are right. In a world of "Brokeback Mountain" and closeted televangelists, people have spent much more time publicly debating why one man is afraid to love another man than was possible in Maurice and Clive's time.
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I read the book a while back so I don't remember Forster specifically gave a definitive opinion on the conversion of Clive whether it is genuine or not. However, to me, the so called "sudden" switch of Clive is not that sudden and actually rather realistic. Even nowadays, many people still repress their sexuality and get married and such. A person's upbring, religious belief, and community/peer pressure play a big part on the decision. You can imagine the pressure almost 100 years ago when it was a criminal offense. Besides, just the fact the Clive holds fast to this platonic love ideal shows me that he has always been repressing the expression of his sexuality. It is one thing to be in school, to have little responsibility and be a little rebellion such as his non-Christian declaration, etc. But it is another beast altogether when he is faced with the loss of his place in society, money, comfort, etc. Is he a coward, then? Of course, but the more one has to lose, the easier it is to fold. To me, it doesn't even need to have Lord Risley publicly tried and disgraced to establish the factors that turn Clive. So, I think the whole thing about his loving women is just another form of his repressive aned cowardly nature.
shareI read the book recently and, along with the additional notes written by Forster, it seems that Clive does actually begin to notice women. He is described as regretting the fact that his feelings have changed, which made sense to me, as he was the first of the two to accept his feelings. Forster doesn't write of a charcter who represses his sexuality, and he also says he believes what happened to Clive to be 'entirely possible'.
Gene Hunt: She's as nervous as a very small nun at a penguin shoot
Then that gets us into the issue of authorial intent versus what's actually in the text of the novel.
Personally, I think Clive had no idea what his sexual orientation was.
Holding out hope for The Front Runner.
Bsides the blonde Maurice? Someone told me (I don't remeber who) that it was an issue with fans at the time. It is true?
Sebastian Flyte from "Brideshead Revisited" also had black hair in the book, how curious.
I don't know if a blond Maurice was an issue with fans. When I saw it (in 1987), nobody I knew had heard of the novel. Perhaps it upset some people, but I'll bet most of the audience wasn't familiar with the novel.
Physical characteristics of fictional characters are often changed for movie versions. Hair color is rarely important to the story, finding a decent actor usually comes first. In movies, sometimes an actor's hair color is changes just so they don't resemble other characters on screen.
Having read the book ages before seeing the movie, I have to say I wasn't particularly bothered by Maurice's hair colour. James Wilby did an excellent job and despite the blonde hair still seemed to me to be a great casting of Maurice. Actually, the casting in the movie all up was quite wonderful (in particular Rupert Graves as Alec).
I think the idea in the novel is that Clive supressed his homosexual orientation and through psychological self-suggestion believed himself to be "cured" as such. However, while this came across in the book quite well (at least, to me), I don't think the idea would translate to the screen (due to us having a lot less insight into the minds of the characters). So their change in his reasons for marrying Anne make sense, conceptually, and are executed very well (that last scene of Clive looking out the window...)!
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We could release a single.
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In the movie, it's the other way around, which I prefer actually. As it means Maurice and Alec spending the night together and never parting again after that.
He wasn't disgusted, he was just a coward. There's a difference.
Other than that, Maurice is one of the few adaptions I am very confident with and love as much as the original novel. Nothing to complain about - from cast to settings.
Jarebear & Jennybunny
My impression from the book wasn't that Clive was really disgusted by men, I felt like it was more him trying to convince himself that he was not attracted to men, and trying to hide himself more by pretending to be someone who he was not. I have to read it again, but I let my uncle borrow it and he promised to give it back but that was a while ago.... :-(
shareI think that it is entirely possible to do as Clive does.
I agree that his yearning to fit with polite society provides a catalyst for his change, but he was young when he and Maurice had their relationship. Hormones could still be firing at his age, so it is entirely possible that he finally sorts himself out. After all, I came to terms with my own sexuality after it all just 'clicked' into place - I don't see why a professed homosexual couldn't finally click into his 'real' sexuality in the same way.
Part of the debate a while back about Maurice's hair colour - the point in the novel (E.M. Forster being fond of this sort of thing) is that, while Clive has blond hair, both Maurice and Alec have dark hair. It is a physical representation of how Clive and Maurice are incompatible, but Alec and Maurice suit each other perfectly. The film bins that entirely, but it does not really matter.
The book and the movie were so much alike. I don't think I've ever seen such similarities in any other movie/book. Even the dialogue was almost word for word in some places.
I thought it was a good choice to expand the Risley character and make that the reason Clive switched over. According to the book, he simply realized he was straight and went that direction. That would not have been as stimulating onscreen.
Another poster stated they switched the scenes at the end: Maurice looked for Alec after talking to Clive. I like to think the movie simply did a flashback, and Maurice did in fact find Alec before talking to Clive.
I love the idea of actually including a scene in which Mrs. Durham asks Alec to deliver her letter, then asks his name.
I was glad Maurice did not call out "Come" when he was at the window.
I did not like the fact they made Clive reject Maurice during their outing on the bike. In the book, he rejected Maurice later, not on their perfect day.
In the movie I never got the impression Maurice was unkind to his mother and sisters, nor that they disliked him. When Ada states this, I was surprised and wondered where that sentiment came from. I understood it after reading the book.
I liked the way they made the butler, Simcox, a little more menacing and unlikeable.
Hmm, actually the impression I got from the book is that Clive is probably not really gay. He always insisted on their relationship to be platonic, didn't he? His inclination is never explicit in the book, I think.
The movie though gives a much stronger impression of Clive being repressed.
But in EM Forster's note, it does seem that he meant Clive to be the one repressed as opposed to Maurice who accepted who he was.
Accumulation of small victories may lead to big defeat.
I just reread the book over the weekend.
It still seems to me that Clive may not really be gay. Perhaps as a Helenistic scholar, he thought he has the "unspeakable vice of the Greeks". But as soon as he got into more contact with women (which wouldn't happen in Cambridge), he changed.
Accumulation of small victories may lead to big defeat.