The Shpilmans or the Corleones

In Chabon's fictional world of Sitka there are different families or sects of Jews that divide the district into neighborhoods. The Shpilmans are part of the Verbover sect. When we first meet this family, Landsman and Berko are met with heavy opposition. Even with Zimbalist with them, they have a hard time getting to see the Verbover rebbe. This is ironic since these people are supposed to be religious Jews, so why all the protection. Landsman and Berko must first pass three bodyguards, known a s Rudashevskys (another family), to get into the house. As if thats not enough, the two dectective must then face the family lawyer. In this scene, Chabon is playing with the fact that the minority races must stand together so they can hep protect each other. Through this network of Jews that are just trying to make it, Chabon has made many parallels to The Godfather. The Corleones are an Italian family trying to make it in New York. Similarly to Sitka, New York is divided into neighborhoods of families. The Corleones started as a respectable family, as I’m sure the Shpilmans did, but had to turn to crime for protection. By Chabon turning this religious group into a corrupt family of paying off people with influence and having power with in the precinct, he is playing with the reality that people will do what ever they have to do to survive.

The first thing that should comes to mind when putting a book on the big screen is what to cut. A book may be as short as a couple of days or a couple of year; its the job of the screen writers to make the book fit in an hour and a half of film. This is the single most important aspect of this process. There are so many tasks to consider like what scenes to keep or cut. After deciding which scenes to cut, they must make sure the plot will make sense and if not, they must determine how to add a scene to fix the problem. In Devil in a Blue Dress, the major sex scene between Easy and Daphne was left out. Without the scene the viewer doesn’t get an understanding of their relationship. The writers decided this wasn’t important and didn’t explain the gap. This scene was essential in the book because it showed how infatuated Easy was with Daphne. Later, when Easy discovers she is white he is no longer interested in her. Therefore, the decision to leave the scene out (and the one that reveals Easy thoughts after discovering Daphne’s secrete) removed a key point made by Mosley. Besides worrying about deleting the authors key points, the writers must also decide how much detail to put into each scene. In a book the author can spend as much time as they want on detail. With a movie, the time it takes the actors to deliver their line is as long as the writers have to express the detail. This can be easy or hard. In The Big Sleep, Geiger’s house is depicted very well. However, the writers failed in their depiction of the scene with Billie and the cotton in Cotton Comes to Harlem. Even though there are many more things that must be considered when converting a book to film, these two are key in producing a successful movie.