Recently, I read a blog post about the hair/make-up for his role in TFE.  They used a bald-cap and wig because Benedict was growing his hair for Sherlock.

Am I a bad person for being happy because that wretched white hair was a wig?

Tinks wrote:

yes, I bet the book sales increase now!
I'd be interested to know what those of you who read it think of it?

I am halfway through. In case I forget to tell you what I think of it please remind me. 

SusiGo wrote:

Tinks wrote:

yes, I bet the book sales increase now!
I'd be interested to know what those of you who read it think of it?

I am halfway through. In case I forget to tell you what I think of it please remind me. 

When you finish, you can give us a review/preview of Sterling's role.
 

Warning - this post contains spoilers.

So, I am keeping my promise. I finished the book today and was very moved and impressed. I never so read about war in such poetic yet unsentimental voice. It is definitely worth reading. But I will not give away the whole story and tell you about Benedict's character. 

He is one of three major characters: Bartle (the narrator), his friend Murph and their sergeant Sterling. 

Sergeant Sterling is 24 (yes, I know) but he seems much older and I was surprised to find out late in the book that he is so young. 
How shall I describe him? He is a complex character. Brutal in way, sometimes obscene, disillusioned, but he cares deeply for his men, maybe too deeply. He understands them well and sees things in them long before they themselves realise what is happening to them.
I think they will enlarge his character because there is much interior monologue in the novel which somehow has to be translated into action. He is very often in the mind of the narrator who tells about their harrowing experiences in the Iraq and I suppose that most of these reminiscences will be dramatised in the script. 
But I think it is best to have the author himself tell you something about Sterling: 

"He was harsh, but fair, adn there was a kind of evolutionary beauty in his competence. (...) The way he'd remove his helmet slowly, showing his cropped blond hair, his blue eyes scanning the brush at the wood line."

And I love this passage:

"Thinking about him now, I've come to realize that Sergeant Sterling was not one of those people for whom the existence of others was an incomprehensible abstraction. He was not a sociopath, not a man who cared only for himself, seeing the lives of others as shadows on a thinly lit window. (...) The truth is he cared nothing for himself. I'm not even sure he would have realized he was permitted to have his own desires and preferences."

Warning:
He dies. Again. 


 

Last edited by SusiGo (May 20, 2014 7:53 pm)

It has been translated into German but I cannot remember that it was very successful. I had never heard about it which is a pity. The story is quite universal. 

Hmm - some aspects remind me of another character of his ;)
Thanks so much, Susi for the info.
I'm not sure how I feel about this one, honestly. It seems it could be another of his projects that takes a while to get off the ground? It also seems it might be quite brutal which is something I can't take too much of in Movies, so I'm not sure I could handle seeing it (a selfish point to make, I know).
And also - another peripheral character? Albeit an interesting one.
He'll be great in it, I know he will, but I still think he's not getting what he deserves; a director having the confidence in him to give him a brilliant part in something that's ready to go!
Sorry if this sounds like I'm putting this down - I don't mean to, I just think things should be really moving for him right now.

That's something I've noticed too, Susi.
Martin is actually the one who seems to be working constantly, while Benedict is still takng on small supporting roles and parts in indie films that are still looking for finance, etc.
Even with Hamlet, there is a wait of over a year, yet Martin's Richard III was announced with a date just months away.
This isn't to moan about Martin, but in some ways Benedict doesn't seem to have done as well from Sherlock as he has; he still seems to be slogging away waiting for that big break where the work comes flooding in.
But back to topic; if and when this film gets made, I'll try to be brave enough to watch it!

Zatoichi wrote:

Thanks for your review, Susi! From the character description I would never have thought of Benedict as the ideal cast, I can´t easily see him as an obscene and brutal soldier..

Obscene: have you seen 'Atonement'? Smarmy, disgusting, obscene pedophile rapist sums up the character. Hated that movie, but couldn't get the smarmy %&%*$ out of my head and was rather amused when I later fell for Benedict and realised that he played Paul Marshall.

Brutal soldier: have you seen 'Little Favour' and 'Star Trek Into Darkness'? Benedict can kick %&@%!

Benedict can play anything! This sounds like another interesting role that I can look forward to.

Mary
 

Zatoichi, you and I seem to have similar sensitivities when it comes to Movies - I can't even watch Atonement, and I really struggle with War Movies!
Solar, I agree with all you say, and especially about the kind of roles he chooses.
I know I go around in circles on this, and I'm finding it hard to adequately explain what I mean, but I feel there must be roles out there that he'd love and that don't have to be delayed for months.
I do agree though, that this could be an important Movie - I just hope his character has enough presence for people to notice he's in it, if you know what I mean?

Tinks, I agree with you that "there must be roles out there that he'd love and that don't have to be delayed for months." We'll probably never know why it seems to be more complicated for him than, let's say, for Martin to do stuff almost back-to-back. But maybe it really is of Benedict's own choice... and maybe he is very picky and takes his time to find the perfect role in the perfect movie.

And since you've mentioned "Atonement": I might be weird that way, but it's actually more difficult for me to watch a movie like this than an anti-war movie. I mean, both types of films often are difficult to bear, but for different reasons. Both types of films deal with the human condition to a certain extent, and as perverted as conduct of war certainly is... what we see in a film like "Atonement" to me feels even more perverted and unbearable, because you just don't expect things like these to happen in such an environment.
Does that make sense?