What is so bad about the RENT movie?- Page 3

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 5/17/13 at 10:20am

They really messed up Roger's character. So much of his mistrust of Mimi came from how he found out he was sick . . . from a note left by his girlfriend as she killed himself. Also this is why he doesn't leave the apartment.

I never cared for how this was white-washed in the final movie. I mean, I could live with them finding out at the same time and then she kills herself because she's not so strong that she can live with the disease and what it's doing to her and Roger (as it was in, I believe, Columbus' draft dated 9/21/2004, see link below), but completely removing the latter allowed the possibility that they still had time together. I can't fathom Roger being quite so much of an asshole if there was closure, know what I mean?

I also didn't like Columbus trying to shoehorn the gay marriage debate into the movie as a subplot well before its time. Can't Maureen and Joanne just have a relationship that would be a psychoanalyst's nightmare without needing to throw a potential marriage into the mix?

Columbus' draft

Updated On: 5/17/13 at 10:20 AM

[Jane2]

Posted: 5/17/13 at 10:31am

Thanks Kad. So you were concerned with the visuals (I remember there were more than a few films in which the image of the towers was removed for PC reasons) rather than the storyline. Got it!

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 5/17/13 at 10:49am

For comparison purposes, here is Stephen Chbosky's first draft screenplay, dated April 14, 2000. It deviates a lot (and I mean a lot) from the actual text of the play, but the spirit of the East Village and the people who inhabited it is there. I may not have been perfectly happy with every aspect of it were this the film that was made, but you couldn't say it's not true to the spirit and feel of the play and the times it came out of.

(Also, as this is SendSpace, be sure to un-tick the option that will install a program on your computer. Un-ticking it will take you to the normal download page.)

The first draft

Updated On: 5/17/13 at 10:49 AM

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 5/17/13 at 10:49am

I also didn't like Columbus trying to shoehorn the gay marriage debate into the movie as a subplot well before its time. Can't Maureen and Joanne just have a relationship that would be a psychoanalyst's nightmare without needing to throw a potential marriage into the mix?

Ditto. I also hated how Joanne's parents were totally cool with it when in the stage show they were clearly not happy with her dating Maureen. Also, for all of the RENT couples to get married, Joanne and Maureen are probably the worst choice (okay, maybe slightly ahead of Mimi and Roger).

Setting the film in the 80s instead of the 90s also made no sense and created a lot of anachronisms (the availability of AZT, the Thelma and Louise reference, etc).

I agree that the biggest problem for me was the actors' ages. When people who are in their 30s are complaining about not having rent money, you just want to shout "GET A JOB" at them. A lot of the film critics expressed this sentiment as well.

Honestly, though, I think another big issue is that RENT has a lot of storyline issues that are easy to ignore on stage but are obvious and cause a lot to fall apart in a film. Kind of like the Les Mis musical.

Updated On: 5/17/13 at 10:49 AM

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 5/17/13 at 11:02am

Once I realized Pascal's wig made him look like Skimbleshanks, the railway cat, the cat of the railway train, I knew it was over for me.

[OperaBwayLover]

Posted: 5/17/13 at 11:33am

Well, I don't think I'm retarded, but I like the movie. It serves as a decent enough introduction to a newcomer as far as getting the basic plot across; my (ex) boyfriend and I watched it, and afterward he listened to the OBCR and caught on to a lot of the plot-holes that were in the film. Make of that what you will.

Me, personally, I wish they hadn't cut the argument of "Goodbye Love" and "Halloween." "Christmas Bells" should have appeared in some form (although I can see how that might be tedious on film), although I didn't miss "Contact." I get the point of that song, but on the recording it's just awkward all around. And of course, the little moments that were cut that really added to the story.

But yeah, in spite of my complaints, I do like the Rent movie.

[Rainbowhigh23]

Posted: 5/17/13 at 11:56am

"Did anyone here actually lived in the Alphabet City?"

Yes, I did, 7th Street and Avenue C in 1991. Tompkins was closed and the surrounding neighborhood was nasty. The Life Cafe had great coffee and did not have a Rent omelet on the menu. I was never mugged thankfully but on my way to work one morning there was a big drug bust next door - the cops run out their cars yelling, "FREEZE! UP AGAINST THE WALL!" with guns drawn and they take away Lord knows how many people involved in the operation. Fun way to start the day!

We also had the Shish ke bob woman, the junkie who played a fish guitar, the various crusties and punk rockers who slept in the park, and a number of other characters who were way more interesting than anyone in Rent. Don't forget the multitudes of homeless people that originally inhabited the park leading to the riot and eventual closure. There were Mimis galore and you did not want to get close to them. I used to laugh at guys like Mark because their films were terrible and they were always acting so arty.

The movie that best represents the East Village period is Joe's Apartment. It's a movie musical, too!


Updated On: 5/17/13 at 11:56 AM

[broadwaydream]

Posted: 5/18/13 at 6:36am

Jessie Martin was the only thing I liked about the movie. I enjoyed the Live on Stage version much more. Loved the cast. I love Idina; but Eden was fantastic, and I'd take Will Chase over Adam Pascal any day. The movie was just a Hollywood production. The energy was stronger in the 2008 version.

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 5/18/13 at 10:54am

"Did anyone here actually lived in the Alphabet City?"

I lived right on the cusp...12th Street and 2nd Avenue from 1994-1998. It was the year RENT opened at The New York Theater Workshop.

I still have family who live in the Jacob Reiss and Lillian Wald Housing projects which are off Avenue D.

Back in the 70's when we were kids we weren't aloud to go past D. We were only allowed to hang out along Houston Street.

When I was in high school the East Vill and Alphabet City were my stomping grounds...this was in the mid 1980's...it was nothing like it is now...there was a sense of mystery and danger about it...it was definitely edgy...and it also had a lot of history...I loved going to The Pyramid...Nuyorican Poets Cafe...so many memories.

My cousin still gets his haircut on 2nd Street and Avenue B...when I moved back from Miami two years ago I was floored at how much Alphabet City, The Bowery and it's surrounding areas have been transformed. Yes, you still have the creeky five story tenement walk-ups and then two doors down a nice new glistening high rise condo...it was truly a W-T-F moment for me.

But the East Vill, Alphabet City and the whole Loisaida will always have a special place in my heart...

[Platypus]

Posted: 5/18/13 at 11:22am

Once I realized Pascal's wig made him look like Skimbleshanks, the railway cat, the cat of the railway train, I knew it was over for me.

It wasn't a wig.


Updated On: 5/18/13 at 11:22 AM

[all that jazz]

Posted: 5/18/13 at 11:56am

Wow!! Those are some really great stories! It's really great to hear them from people who actually lived through those times.

Carlos, it's so cool that you were able to attend the Nuyorican poets cafe during the 80s.

[Mark_E]

Posted: 5/18/13 at 12:17pm

I quite like the film, but can't watch it without going onto the deleted scenes and watching the proper version of Goodbye Love. Cutting that scene out was a completely moronic decision.

[lovebwy]

Posted: 5/18/13 at 1:52pm

Quick! Someone start a thread about how "The Chorus Line movie isn't so bad after all". :EYEROLL:

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 5/18/13 at 1:54pm

You're banned from starting threads yourself? :ONE EYEBROW RAISED:

[lovebwy]

Posted: 5/18/13 at 2:39pm

It was a rhetorical statement, silly goose!

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 5/18/13 at 3:09pm

It seemed more like an imperative. :NOSE TWITCH:

Posted: 5/18/13 at 3:25pm

Small directorial choices about that film really irk me:

**Having the cast speak the dialogue when it should have been unapologetically treated like a rock opera the way it was intended to be.

**Opening number- having these cold, struggling bohemians throw the fires outside their windows instead of hanging on to every source of heat possible- added for dramatic effect- in RENT.

** Sending off Roger to Santa Fe and recreate the Bon Jovi Blaze of Glory Video with hair flowing and mountain climbing--- priceless

** No one there looked 19,20 or 30.

** getting rid of Contact or omitting anything else really...

** the look of the cheap LA set lot that is used for EVERY SINGLE movie to replicate New York was annoying. and then when they shot certain things in NY, you can really tell the difference. During that film- we kept pointing out Fake NY and Real NY .. and it was obvious. Most of it was shot in Fake NYC and it looked too Disneyfied.


there's plenty more- but i don't want to get upset.

Updated On: 5/18/13 at 03:25 PM

[YouWantitWhen????]

Posted: 5/18/13 at 3:51pm

It has moments that I liked, but most have already pointed out the WTF moments.

Casting wise, they all played a bit too old (except for Dawson and Thoms), but I thought Adam really came across as too old for the part. Rapp and Mezel I did not have a problem with.

And, Jesse L. Martin seems to almost be ageless, and of the orginal cast, he and Heredia seemed most believable and were the strongest performances. I always thought Angel could be a bit older anyway (like Collins).

It just did not seem dirty (as in everything seemed to have a layer of antiseptic over it, cleaning away the grit) and desperate enough to capture how I always viewed the show. Instead, it came across like a Lifetime Movie.

I wanted Drugstore Cowboy, and I got the Client List.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 5/18/13 at 4:23pm

This movie introduced me to AutoTune or whatever it was called then. I was so vexed by Mimi's voice turning robotic over and over.