Wednesday, December 07, 2011

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo



I'm so torn about seeing/reading "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo"! On the one hand it seems really cool with a left-wing spin. On the other hand there's all the violence. I was both intrigued and repelled by the novels/films thanks to the New Yorker article about Steig Larsson from early this year.

This in particular made me want to read the books:
A final drawing card of the trilogy may be its up-to-dateness, particularly of the technological variety. Other mystery writers—Patricia Cornwell, Henning Mankell—have introduced computers into their arsenal, but no one I know of uses computers as extensively as Larsson to build plot and character. Lisbeth and Mikael find each other online, solve crimes online, acquire their glamour online. (Lisbeth has an “Apple PowerBook G4/1.0 GHz . . . with a PowerPC 7451 processor with an AltiVec Velocity Engine, 960 MB RAM and a 60 GB hard drive.”) Lisbeth’s only friends are fellow-hackers. Her colleague Trinity has infiltrated the computers of the BBC and Scotland Yard: “He even managed—for a short time—to take command of a nuclear submarine on patrol in the North Sea.” One of the sweetest moments in the whole trilogy comes via an electronic device. Mikael has been separated from Lisbeth for almost the entire length of “The Girl Who Played with Fire.” Finally, he breaks into her apartment, looking for evidence that might help her (the police are after her). His entry activates the apartment’s security system. Lisbeth, driving up a country road, is alerted by her cell phone. The system is wired so that after thirty seconds a paint bomb explodes on any intruder. There are six seconds left. Mikael, guessing the machine’s code, turns the system off. Lisbeth taps into her security camera and sees who is standing in her foyer. She smiles—a rare event. She knows now that Mikael is still on her side.


But after reading some of the descriptions of violence discussed in the article I decided that I really didn't want to read/watch the trilogy. But the trailers for the new version of the movies are great. One of the trailers has a version of Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song" playing over it, which is awesome. And the trailer above has some great great moments especially when the Lizbeth Salander character is introduced - she's been hired to investigate the other protagonist Mikael Blomkvist and in the movie she's reporting on him:
LIZBETH

He's had a long-standing sexual relationship with his co-editor of the magazine. Sometimes he pleasures her. Not often enough in my opinion.

HER BOSS

No you're right not to include that (in her report).

Another great moment. Lizbeth is looking at Mikael's computer:
MIKAEL

What are you doing?

LIZBETH

Reading your notes.

MIKAEL

They're encrypted.

(She shoots him a look of contempt.)

LIZABETH

Please.


This week's New Yorker has a review.

Some people have complained that it was wrong to cast Daniel Craig as Blomkvist because in the book the character is an out-of-shape slob, but since he has a sexual relationship with Lizbeth, well, if you have to have a young woman hook up with an older man, at least let him be an attractive older man like Craig!