Sherlock Holmes..

For those of you who read this, all maybe three of you? :) you may or may not know that I Have had a iterary crush on Sherlock Holmes, pretty much since I was about thirteen years old. I find myself fascinated by the whole enigma. What can I say, I go for brains over brawn any day. And with a brain like Sherlock Holmes' it's almost porn.

When I was tweleve and reading the stories for the firstt ime, certainly that wasn't even in the vocabulary, I just knew I liked it. I loved the stories. I loved that for once the smart people won. It didn't hurt that the smart guy was also a bad@$$. It was all the things I wanted to be. It was like I had found my own people.

I am nowhere near that smart though if there was a class based on the Science of Deduction, r a way to train my brain to do some of those things, I might just attempt it. Minus the cocaine, morphine and opium. (I don't think he was a heroin addict.)



This time of year, around Halloween, I always start to yearn for certain movies. One of them is Young Sherlock Holmes. Directed by Barry Levinson, written by Chris Columbus, and produced by Speilberg (I think), it's quality from the get go. There's no one that you'll recognize. Absolutely no one. (But Nichaols Sebastien Rowe who plays Holmes has extremely curly hair, and I think that is where I can trace my attraction to guys with curly hair comes from.)




The film takes place at a boarding school. Sherlock is there as a young man, John Watson is a transfer student from a school in the country. They meet and Watson is brought into the world of Sherlock Holmes, especially when there's a series of disappearances and unexplainabale murders. There's human sacrfice, chanting, Egyptian Cults, revenge, hallucinations, lost love, murder... And a whole score with moments that echo back to Carmina Burana by Karl Orf.



This is made in 1986, and was nominated for an Oscar in the category of best visual effects. But it was also 1986. So those amazing effects then may seem common place now. But they enver seem hokey.



An excellent story, with great acting, and a wonderful imaginative beginning to the Holmes and Watson world, Young Sherlock Holmes is perfect for a cold autumn night...



Here's a scene. (funny how it hearkens to the new Robert Downey Jr Sherlock Holmes....)





That's just one scene...Then of course, the next Sherlock Holmes was the Jeremy Brett incarnation from Granada TV. This is the version you probably watched in Middle School when you read Sherlock Holmes. Nothing at all attractive about this guy. Just Jeremy Brett is awesome, and that's all there is, these stand as classics. He still stands as one of the most respected and beloved portrayals of Sherlock Holmes. He passed away, sadly, some years ago, while portraying Holmes...

He's more of the well refined, almost extravagent, theatrical, closest to the literary depiction. While there's nothing to garner attention sensually or attractively, he's still classic.

This is a clip from the Empty House, when Holmes returns. (of course it's a youtube thing, so someone has made a montage with pretty music and slow motion at parts of it.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-MPy13b2IA

Then we have Laurie King's Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes series. I've already blogged about that. So I'll pass on that except that they're fantastic reads.

But my new love is the BBC Sherlock Holmes.

A reimagination, placing Holmes and Watson in the 21st centur. JOhn Watson is a British soldier/dr vetran, wounded in Iraq. Holmes is a scientist who works at a univeristy of some sort? and freelances witht he police. Lestrade is there and calls on him, while ther est of the force views Holmes with disdain and call him Freak. The interpertationi s excellent. That keen deduction is all there. The rapid fire shooting of intellect, adventure and mystery is all over the place. But unlike Jeremy Brett's portrayl which is almost at points a little too saintly, we see this Holmes with all his warts. (when Lestrade decides to harass him and pester him, they call a Drug bust on his flat. Watson, newly moved in is certain it's all unfounded, while Holmes is sweating bullets..)

Now this is viewable on Masterpiece theatre Mystery. The dvds are available for preorder via amazon.com or pbs.org I wouuld include al ink but they are rapidly getting pulled which is fine. So go watch it on Masterpiece theatre.com or Netflix it. TOTALLY WORTH IT!