Gabriela Daniels 11/26/13 A 1/2 The Heart of the Mystery

In Conan Doyles novel The Hound of the Baskervilles, Holmes plays a self-obsessed hero with his sidekick, Watson. In the beginning of David Attwoods film, both the movie and the film share the same similarities. Then, when you get towards the end you see that Watson is the hero, while Holmes is just self-obsessed. Both the book and the film, The Hound of the Baskervilles, focuses on the codependent relationship of Holmes and Watson through the difficult case of natural and supernatural occurrences.

Conan Doyle tells of the codependent teams work on one of their difficult cases through the words on a page. He creates images in the readers head from the language in his book. His great diction expressed how the hound was an enormous coal-black hound (Doyle 201) with its eyes [that] glowed with a smoldering glare (201). Unlike the film, the book lets the readers mind run free on how things like the hound, could look like or could even sound like. All these differences make the story interesting and make the reader want to read more of the novel. Its not only the diction that makes the novel great; its the characters, too. The two main characters, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, made the novel the best it could be. Although these characters are mentioned in both the film and the novel, they have different ways of interpreting them. In the novel, Sherlock Holmes is a selfish hero and Watson is the sidekick that backs Holmes up. Holmes is the one that figures out the whole the mystery in a hut, while Watson is out trying to prove to Holmes that he can do it on his own. Holmes can also be seen as the hero because he is the one who shot the hound, killing it. Speaking of the hound, in the book and as well as the film, the hound played an important role. They both show how frightening it could have been to be eye to

Gabriela Daniels 11/26/13 A 1/2 The Heart of the Mystery eye with the foul thing, a great, black beast (23). Another similarity that they both share is that they both achieved the creepy and mysterious that Baskerville Hall portrays. The tone that the book sets is what makes the book so great. Even though there are some differences, the choices made by Conan Doyle still make it as great as the film. All these differences actually make the story interesting and make the reader want to read more of the novel.

While Conan Doyle used words in a book, David Attwood shows the codependent teams work through a visual on a television. He transformed Conan Doyles words into actions while keeping most of the details in the book. In the film, Attwood makes the story more upbeat with more people being abused, injured, and even killed. All these things bring out more emotion in the characters. Unlike the book, the film shows more of an understanding of relationships through the emotions seen in the characters faces and attitudes. The suspicious ways of the people in Baskerville Hall is also another way we can see relationships of people like Mr. Barrymore and Seldon. These characters contributed a lot to the film, but not all characters did. In Doyles book he included two characters named Laura Lyons and Mr. Franklin, which were not included in the film. Even though these characters were left out, Attwood was still able to make the movie great. The two characters, Holmes and Watson, made it into the film though most likely because without them there wouldnt be any detectives. Sherlock Holmes was still considered as the egotistical one and Watson was still known as the lowly apprentice, but in the end something was different. The Watson became the hero, while Holmes stayed an egotistical detective. Holmes seemed almost like the bad guy in the end, especially when he was told that Watson could not trust him. Although this may be true, in the middle it didnt seem to be like

Gabriela Daniels 11/26/13 A 1/2 The Heart of the Mystery this. In both the film and novel, Holmes kind of seemed like the hero when he figured everything out. While in his little hut, he figured out whom the murderer was and had evidence to prove it just like a great detective would. He was also the one that figured out Stapletons plan of killing Sir Henry. So though it was expressed a little differently, both the film and book showed how Holmes pretty much disregarded all of Watsons ideas and figured out the case by himself. The choices made by Attwood were actually effective while trying to recreate Doyles book. The changes that he made actually made the story a little bit better because of all action that was put in it. So with all of his changes he made the film mysterious with lots of drama and action, which makes a perfect movie.

The book and the film focused on the codependent relationship of Holmes and Watson through the case of Sir Charless death. They both had their own way of telling the story while keeping the basic details the same. Attwood made the story a little more violent, while Doyle kept it calm. Doyles vision for the story was very good because its one of those books that make you want to keep reading. While Attwoods vision makes you jump out of your seat because of the action scenes in it. They both make the case of Sir Henry seem like a great adventure. References The Hound of the Baskervilles. Dir. David Attwood. WGBH, 2002. DVD.

Doyle, Arthur Conan. The Hound of the Baskervilles. New York; Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc., 1959. Print.

Gabriela Daniels 11/26/13 A 1/2 The Heart of the Mystery