Waiting for Godot Film Version

     If you were to make a film interpretation of Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett, how would it be? How would the characters look like? How would the setting be depicted? Because this is a play, it was obviously meant to be acted out. With so many different interpretations that one can have, it was exciting for me to see how other people viewed the play.

     When reading the play, I first imagined the two protagonists, Vladimir and Estragon, to be like "tramps" -- people who wore oversized clothes that were ripped, falling apart, and plain dirty. I imagined Estragon full of bruises and scars due to the beatings he gets every night. I imagined them old, smelly-looking, and simply exhausted. Because all they've been doing in their lives is wait and wait for Godot, I thought they would look practically dead. Their eyes? Lifeless. Their skin? Pale. However, in the film, I saw something completely different. Although I won't necessarily describe them as "wealthy-looking," their suits, their hats, and just their aura made them seem anything but poor. They looked clean and proper, almost full of life. I felt like through this, the message of the play was not conveyed as properly because the two men's hopelessness and the fact that they had nothing to lose was not shown. 

     In addition, the dialogue (although the exact same words) was too different from what I had in mind. The actors were TOO good of actors that they tried their best effort to ACT. The whole point of this play was to show the meaningless of life. These actors put emotion in their words; they expressed their emotions through it. They ruined the message. These words that were suppose to have no meaning, these words that were not a mean of communication, these gibberish words suddenly became the main form of expression between the audience and the characters. The dialogue was NOT meant to be a form of communication in the play! 

On top of their tone of voice, their body language and the camera shots were all ways to show off EMOTION and MEANING to these words. In the beginning of the play, Vladimir is shown doing hand gestures, standing up, walking around, shifting eye contacts, all in an effort to put significance to what he's saying. The camera would zoom in the characters' faces to emphasize the emotions and the facial expressions they show. Once again, this defeats the whole purpose of “meaningless.”

     However, one thing that seemed to be perfect was the setting. The setting was exactly what was described in the play -- empty, barren with one tree. I especially liked the colors that were laid out. They were all dull colors -- mostly brown -- with a gray sky. It truly represented this "hopelessness" and the "dullness" of life.

     I believe the play (the written form) itself by Samuel Beckett did a better job in conveying his message about the meaningless and absurdity of life. Although the film was much more entertaining as it included emotion, some type of action, etc, the written play had a more profound way of connecting with the audience/readers.