THE WORST SCREEN ADAPTATION EVER
The movie AMERICAN PASTORAL, based on the fantastic Philip Roth novel of the same name, is the worst adaptation of a novel I’ve ever seen.
The novel is detailed, human, perceptive, descriptive of a place in time, so beautifully observed and written it
touches parts in me that literature – and the rare film – can only do.
Unfortunately, the actor/director Ewan McGregor took this full and detailed examination of family and time and butchered it.
He lost the voice of Nathan Zuckerman (Roth) and added nothing.
The screenplay was seemingly blind to what makes the novel great and made a movie of everything else.
Adaptations aren’t easy, but the writer of this one should be ashamed to have eviscerated such a wonderful work of art.