Home » Film & TV » Movies of the 90s » ADAPTATION: THE ADDAMS FAMILY, BILLY BATHGATE, V.I. WARSHAWSKI

ADAPTATION: THE ADDAMS FAMILY, BILLY BATHGATE, V.I. WARSHAWSKI

© Sean Gallagher

To adapt another work to the screen, there are all kinds of things to consider. Since most movies are around two hours, for example, there's the question of either condensing the material (if it's a TV show or long novel) or expanding it (if it's a short story, novella, or article. There's also the determination of what in the original source can be made cinematic or not (especially an adaptation of a play). Finally, there's a question of how faithful to the original the movie is; too faithful, and it can seem dead and inert, while not faithful enough will draw the ire of those who loved the original. Generally, you try and capture the spirit of the original work to make it work. Barry Sonnenfeld's THE ADDAMS FAMILY, Robert Benton's BILLY BATHGATE, and Jeff Kanew's V.I. WARSHAWSKI are all adaptations from well-known sources that attempt to deal with this problem. While the latter is a textbook example of how not to do it, the other two, despite problems, are pretty good efforts.

When we think of THE ADDAMS FAMILY, most of us think of the TV series of the mid-60's co-produced by Nat Perrin. Before that, however, were the cartoons drawn by Charles Addams for The New Yorker. Sonnenfeld, best known as the cinematographer for the Coen Brothers (MILLER'S CROSSING) and writers Caroline Thompson and Larry Wilson (with uncredited help from Paul Rudnick)make this an odd hybrid of the cartoons and the TV show. The result was many critics complained there wasn't really any story to the movie. But I think they were forgetting those original cartoons, and therefore didn't see Sonnenfeld et al were going after mood and texture rather than story (sort of like if a more controlled Tim Burton directed it).

Not that there isn't a story. The Addams clan - father Gomez (Raul Julia), mother Morticia (Anjelica Huston), children Wednesday (Christina Ricci) and Pugsley (Jimmy Workman), Grandma (Judith Malina), and faithful servant Lurch (Carel Struycken) - live in a mansion that supposedly has hidden treasure underneath. Abigail Craven (Elizabeth Wilson), a con artist, is scheming with her lawyer Tully (Dan Hedaya), who also happens to be the Addams' lawyer, to get the fortune. To that end, she has her son (Christopher Lloyd) pose as the long-lost Uncle Fester. By coincidence, Gomez has been missing his brother and trying to find him.

Okay, it's a thin story, and Lloyd is pretty stiff in his role as Fester, except for the swordfight he has with Gomez (he tries to kill Gomez early on by stabbing him in his sleep; Gomez, naturally, thinks it's a brotherly greeting). But again, it's not really the point. If there's one connection with the TV show, aside from the theme song, it's how the family relates to each other. Sure, their idea of spreading holiday cheer is to pour a cauldron of hot water on carolers. And while Wednesday and Pugsley play tricks on each other just as normal siblings do, electrocution may be taking things too far. But aside from those morbid impulses (or maybe along with them), the Addams family love each other, support each other, and treated each other well. That was the whole point, and the movie reproduces it well. And while some people complained there wasn't enough interaction with the outside world, we do get scenes like Wednesday and Pugsley performing at a school talent show - doing the swordfight scene from HAMLET, death scene and all.

The copyright of the article ADAPTATION: THE ADDAMS FAMILY, BILLY BATHGATE, V.I. WARSHAWSKI in Movies of the 90s is owned by . Permission to republish ADAPTATION: THE ADDAMS FAMILY, BILLY BATHGATE, V.I. WARSHAWSKI in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.