O how I wept

This post is slightly off the yachting theme I suppose. I have a favourite childhood book; as I am sure many of you do too. Mine is Where the Red Fern Grows by "I forget the author". I remember reading it when I was five / six (I was an incredibly gifted child who soon started to read the dictionary age seven - where all that gift went in my later life I have no idea as my parents constantly kick my butt at Scrabble while I imaginatively create words like "moo" to get the double letter score on the "o"). 

So you can imagine my excitement when my mother found me a copy of the book and gave it to me as a christmas present. For the uninitiated, it is a wonderful tale of a boy and his hunting dogs who go out and murder coons. Full of daring, adventure, intrigue and heartbreak (spoiler alert!).

Cruisers memory sticks have been in and out of more computers then a Johannesburg rent boy has his clients on an average Saturday night. While I remain surprised at the lack of (obvious) viruses that we have probably accumulated over the last 18 months, I also did not expect to find my favourite book has been made into a major motion picture the last time we did a "virus swap" of movies.

Ever keen to impress upon Sally a little of my childhood we eagerly sat down to watch. With the faint waft of burnt popcorn in our nostrils we took our positions in the salon. Even the thought of having to spend a good hour or so in the future scrubbing the pot that Sally had insisted on using to chargrill the popcorn did not spoil my mood.

I have watched a number of movies after reading the books. I really appreciate how hard it must be for the directors etc to condense a couple hundred page novel into a 90 minute movie script. Of course they will have to cut a few scenes (chapters), spice up other scenes (maybe splice in a naked boob or two) and add the odd event that lends itself etc. Budgets in Hollywood are also tight and finding good actors (especially child actors) must be very difficult too. 

With these expectations in mind, you can imagine just how disappointed I was when the only part of the movie that stuck to the book was the title. I spent most of the film explaining to Sally that this is not a fair, accurate or even a mildly entertaining version of the tale. The holes in the story were larger than any howitzer could create. 

The end of the film is a little sad and I must admit I wept for I think the movie "Where the red fern grows" has ruined my childhood. I was so looking forward to reading the story to my children at bedtime. Now I don't know if i will be able too. Maybe with a little time, a lot of counselling and a few meds I may get over it. 

I have made myself a pledge. I will stop watching movies if I have read the book already, unless it gets rave reviews from other people who have read the book prior and can attest to its accuracy and greatness. 

PS: Everyone do yourselves a favour and read "Where the red fern grows" by "What's his face". It is a great story (just don't watch the bloody movie!)