Death and the Maiden--Melissa Hurley

I have a lot of disconnected feelings and opinions about Death and the Maiden so I think I will just list them and then try to tie them all together at the end of this post once I get my thoughts sorted out.

1.     I enjoyed the film more than the play only because I read the play very quickly. I have trouble focusing on reading when I am stressed or very busy (reading is definitely a summertime activity for me—during the semester it is too hard for me to concentrate…I need to work on this flaw)

2.     However, I did make connections back to the play as I watched the film. Small details such as the behavior of the characters or the tone of Paulina’s voice as she described the horrific events that happened to her gave me those little “aha!” moments because it solidified what I had read because I was able to see and hear it in action.

3.     I didn’t notice this as I read the play, but as soon as they said “Dr. Miranda” in the film, I started thinking about a person’s Miranda Rights. The web definition for Miranda rights is: “that prior to the time of arrest and any interrogation of a person suspected of a crime, he/she must be told that he/she has: ‘the right to remain silent, the right to legal counsel, and the right to be told that anything he/she says can be used in court against’ him/her.” Dr. Miranda did not get any of these rights, because he was forced to confess, he did not have the right to remain silent or else he would have been shot, he did not have proper legal counsel and there was not even a proper court system going on. I wonder if this was just a coincidence, but it seemed almost intentional, to emphasize the fact of the ridiculousness of the situation.

4.     I loved the orchestral music Death and the Maiden. This was one thing in the play that I could not fully appreciate until hearing it in the film. I found it to be eerie and haunting. It gave me chills when the film opened and I could finally imagine what it sounded like to Paulina.

      Although I tried to search for comparisons to The Reluctant Fundamentalist, I had to really stretch to make them. The film had flashbacks, a lot more action, different locations and in my opinion, a lot more drama. Death and the Maiden took place in one room, with a lot fewer lives at stake.