FREE ESSAY ON SIMON BIRCH

SIMON BIRCH

"I'm going to be a hero."
"Pretty vague job description, isn't it?"
These lines of dialogue are a spoken between the lead character, Simon Birch, and Ben
Goodrich, who is played by Oliver Platt. This proclamation sums up the driving force
behind Simon's actions. His quest to be a hero is Simon Birch's 'maguffin'. It is the
thing that drives him forward through the film. Throughout the film he is constantly in
search of a sign from god that will tell him when the time has come for him to be a
hero.
This most recent adaptation of a John Irving novel, "A Prayer for Owen Meany", is
filmmaker Mark Johnson's Simon Birch. What needs to be understood by the viewer is that
the movie is an adaptation and not the book. Reviewers repeatedly said that the movie was
not like the book and the reason for that is it is not the book. This seems to be
something that critics lost sight of, the movie was judged against the book and not for
its artistic merit. 
Although the film "...premiered to cheers from the audience..."(17.), most critics seem
to agree that there was no justice done to the Irving novel. Variety said that Simon
Birch yet again showed that, "capturing Irving's mercurial tonal shifts in another medium
is not so easy." The article goes on to point out that "Irving himself demanded a
character (and hence title) name change. As well as "suggested by" rather than "based on"
credit" (13.). 
Irving is quoted as saying, "The story is significantly different from my novel and it
would be unfair to my readers to mislead them to think they'll see 'A Prayer for Owen
Meany'. It's not 'A Prayer for Owen Meany', but I liked it. And I'm happy with the way I
was treated" (13.). This quote leads you to believe that Irving approved of the film, but
his insistence on a name change and it having to be referred to as 'suggested by', rather
than 'based on' shows just how dissatisfied he was with the adaptation. A writer for The
Washington Post states that the movie's "emotional payday is stolen, not earned, in the
Disneyfied, dumbed down adaptation of John Irving's "A Prayer for Owen Meany" by writer
director Mark Steven Johnson" (18.).
Ian Michael Smith, an 11 year old with Morquio Syndrome, plays the film's title character
(7.). Simon is a Christ-like figure who, as the movie's tag line suggests, destiny has
big plans for. Knowing he is living on borrowed time Simon tries to make the most of his
time. He does this by looking for signs from God that will help him fulfill the destiny
he knows is waiting for him. 
Joe Wenteworth is Simon's best friend, and on one level the film involves the friendship
of the two boys. With both of them being considered outcasts in their small town they, of
course, find each other and form a strong friendship. "The destinies of the two boys are
linked as both seek to find what's missing in their lives: Joe wants to find the identity
of his father and Simon wants to find the special purpose for his life, since doctors
proclaimed his birth a miracle" (10.). Throughout the course of the movie the boys
uncover the answers to all of their questions.
Joe's mother, played by Ashley Judd, is suddenly killed as a result of being struck in
the head with a baseball. Oddly enough hit the ball that delivered the fatal blow was hit
by Simon. Though saddened by the tragedy Simon claims that he cannot help that he is an
instrument of God.
In addition to Simon being a Christ-like figure the story is filled with examples of
symbolism. Examples of this are the two deer that are seen by Joe after the untimely
deaths of the two most important people in his life, his mother and Simon. Shortly after
the death of his mother, Joe spots what looks to be a mother deer grazing in the woods.
The way the scene is shot suggests that Joe realizes what the deer represents, his
mother, and this enables him to begin to cope with the death of his mother. 
The second deer, one of very small stature, appears before him in the same manner shortly
after Simon's death. Both scenes are shot using a wide-angle view. This point of view
allows the Joe's feelings of finally being able to come to terms with the experiences by
letting him know that no matter what those whom he loved and have since passed on will
always be with him. It is exactly this type of obvious sentimentality that provoked a
reviewer from The Washington Post to write: 
Okay, I admit it. The blubbering idiot in the front row at a recent screening of Simon
Birch was me. No I didn't have something in my eye, and my allergies were not acting up
that day. I was sobbing and bobbing like a baby in the back seat of a car-jacked sport
utility vehicle on a rocky mountain road. And I was growing increasingly resentful with
every maudlin, manipulative minute of it (18.). Also symbolic in the movie was Simon's
red sport coat. It was this red sport coat that caused him to stand out and causes him to
stand out more than he already does. The first scene in which Simon dons the jacket takes
place in church. The rest of the parish is dressed in colors that are dull in comparison
to the bright red. In the scene there is a public exchange between Simon and Reverend
Russell, and the red jacket only aides in establishing Simon as different from everyone
else. The jacket is then seen in the scene in which Ms. Wenteworth, Joe's mother, is
being buried. Although set off in the background and blurred, his red jacket is spotted
and can be immediately identified as belonging to Simon.
Faith is a theme that runs throughout this movie. Constantly the characters faith is
tried and tested. They endure many emotional tests on their faith that they repeatedly
pass. In the beginning of the movie an older Joe Wenteworth explains to the audience that
he owes his faith to Simon Birch and this is explained throughout the course of the
movie. It is evident within the exchanges between the boys, and those between Simon and
everyone he interacts with, that he is wise beyond his years. The conversations are
profound and this is owed to the fact that what he says has strong roots in his faith.
Simon Birch, in the same fashion as Citizen Kane, used a deep focus style of shooting, in
certain scenes. When Johnson employed the deep focus, the characters were dwarfed by
their environment. Johnson's motives, however, were quite different from those of Orson
Welles. The reasoning behind this type of shot was to suggest to the audience just how
small we all are in the world. That like Simon we all have a purpose and things happen
for a reason. Images shot in deep focus showed a character after an important point in
the movie, or against a larger than life shot of the church, forest or horizon.
Another dramatic effect applied to the film was the use of slow motion. This effect was
used twice during the course of the movie. The employment of this technique took place in
the two critical scenes within the film. The first time we see the use of slow motion is
at the baseball game where Ms. Wenteworth's life is cut unexpectedly short. Not only is
the scene shown in slow motion, but there is no volume except for the sound of the impact
of the ball and the bat falling to the ground, and then suddenly, as if a dream, the
sound comes swirling back in a mass of chaos. 
Slow motion is used a second time when the bus has sped out of control down an embankment
and into a lake. In slow motion, from Simon's perspective we see the children panicking
and Joe yelling frantically. The film then cuts to a shot of Simon. Then Simon takes a
deep breath speaks to the children on the bus commanding their attention and respect.
Personally I feel that this use of slow motion was a good choice, an almost obvious
choice. This obviousness, however, does not seem to appeal to all critics. It is this
obvious choice that Dennis Harvey, from Variety, adds to his list of complaints about the
movie (94).
Critics seems to agree that the movie did no justice to the book and was nothing like it,
they neglect to take into consideration that for those who have never read the novel the
movie seems very well made and a good choice. A writer for the Christian Century writes
that if this movie sends a new generation in search of "A Prayer for Owen Meany" then he
is all for it. The opinion is pretty much unanimous, throughout the reviews, that the
book was extremely well written, but not so much in favor of the movie.
Although the majority of reviewers stated their dislike for the movie, there were those
who wrote reviews commenting on how much they enjoyed Simon Birch. These pleasing reviews
mostly appeared in magazines like Cosmopolitan, People Weekly, and other magazines along
the same line.
It would seem though that those who reviewed the movie positively had either not read the
book, or took into consideration that the movie was not the book, but rather an
adaptation. Whether or not you enjoyed the movie seems to rely a lot on if you had read "
A Prayer for Owen Meany." Unfortunately critics do not seem able to get passed
discrepancies between the John Irving novel and the film, and by letting this affect
their view of the movie so much they miss out on a truly good movie.