When a different rendition of a story or play is made many times the characters and plot are slightly changed because of the directors take on the story. In the movie She’s The Man the director, Andy Fickman, creates a modern version of the Shakespearean play 12th Night. The main character is Viola who takes on the role of a man to achieve her goal. Viola is a very ambitious person in both the play and the movie who is willing to risk everything she has for her ultimate goal but is stopped by the infamous love triangle.
The movie She’s The Man takes place in a modern world where the main character, Viola, disguises as her brother at his school. In the original play the setting is in 17th century England where the same main character, Viola, wants to infiltrate the duke Orsino’s palace. The overall plot of the play is the same as Viola disguises herself and gets trapped in a love triangle, but in the adaptation of the play Viola’s brother is known to be alive but Viola wants to be a part of a soccer team instead of not knowing if her brother is alive or dead like the play.
This change isn’t extremely significant, but it makes the story less tragic and more compelling to an audience. The more modern setting makes everything much easier to understand and makes the characters and events more relatable to people. Teens watching the movie can easily relate to many of the actions that many of the teen characters take rather than relating to a Shakespearean play that is read in class. The classroom setting portrays situations that many students can relate to while the setting of the original play is something no one in this time has experienced.
Overall the setting of the movie is more effective at relating to the audience than that of the original play. Even though the movie was more relatable to a teenage audience, the play was more effective at creating a developed plot that, even though was harder to understand, made more sense. In the movie She’s The Man Viola seeks a new soccer team because her old one is cut so she takes her brothers place at school in order to be a part of the team. In the original play Viola disguises herself in order to have a place in society because she thinks her brother is dead.
The original version makes more sense because Viola is desperate for a place to stay. In the movie version Viola is desperate for a soccer team which is not as tragic or as big of a motivation to go through all the struggles that she did in the movie. The point that the director was probably trying to make was that Viola wanted to be a greater part of something like in the play. In the play Viola had to find a way into society so she disguised herself in the duke’s castle. In the movie however, Viola becomes part of a soccer team because her old one got cut which is definitely not as bad as her situation in the play.
The movie was meant to be relatable but it ended up lacking in a believable plot that had a worthwhile meaning at the end. Overall the play was better making a well developed plot that, even though unrelatable, had a worthwhile ending to it. In the play a lot of the scenes and actions of the characters were well thought out and followed the social norms of England at the time. In the movie Viola is a teenage girl who is obsessed with love and if she was in England at the time of the play her actions would not be appropriate.
In the movie Viola is disguised as a boy so she cannot confess her love to those around her just like in the play. To make the movie more interesting though some of the scenes show Viola acting weird and almost blowing her cover because she loves the character Sebastian. In the play Viola goes about her actions carefully and tries not to make sure she is found out by the king, for if she is she would be thoroughly punished. As a high school girl Viola has a hard time controlling her emotions in the movie but in the play she is a little bit more grown up and is able to keep herself under control for the most part.