How modern Little Women adaptations keep erasing Laurie´s temper
In many ways, the 1933 film is loyal to the books but it shows the characters through the 1930s lens. This happens with every Little Women film. They are always bound to their time. Both Jo and Laurie lack the aggressive outbursts they have in the books. Douglas Montgomery´s Laurie and Peter Lawford´s Laurie from 1949 both have a bit of a temper which is what you can see in the proposal scene but in all adaptations, after them, Laurie´s temper is missing. In the 1949 version, Laurie played by Peter Lawford is one of the most idealized Lauries. He has run away from the school. Lied about his age to get into the army where he got wounded (we can´t see any wounds). He is also extremely kind and charming. The film does not either show Laurie´s and Amy´s time in Europe together. Little Women fan Dana Parra has criticised Laurie´s casting choices.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjRgyjYk4Z0&ab_channel=LittleWomenChannel
“I think another issue I have with Gerwig´s film and really any film with fans that do this is how the cast is put upon these pedestals. There are fans of the fandom and there are fans of the actors and the director. I feel that Gerwig´s film suffers from fans that love either her or her work or the cast and know little about the original story and I feel Laurie is a prime example of having fans that love his actor and not the original character. Timothee Chalamet is a popular up and coming actor. I haven´t seen him in much, so I couldn´t tell you how good of an actor he is but I know he has a fan base and I know that fan base saw Little Women for him. Not just because they wanted to see the movie and we all do that with our favourite actors. When Jo refuses Laurie, because of this fan base you have to wonder are they mad Jo didn´t end up with Laurie or are they mad that Jo refused Timothee Chalamet because that is a huge difference and those are the fans that don´t care about the original story. They are just mad that their favourite didn´t get what they wanted. You could say the same with Peter Lawford too and Christian Bale because you know that the studios are going to try to put some heartthrob into the role of Laurie to appeal to the love story or to make the movie into more of a love story than a coming-of-age movie”.
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