Bobo's view on Walker/Spielberg

I think 'scapegoat' would be a somewhat strong term for the way Bobo dissects Spielberg's film in her piece. Primarily, she does not resort to anything resembling a personal attack, but a thoughtful comparison of elements from the novel and the film which do not seem to present similar representational messages. Spielberg's status as the director of the film and his unique clout in the film-making industry make him the necessary target for any perceived disjunction between source text and filmic text to begin with, but I think also that his admitted attempt to provide a 'Dickensian' structure gives her plenty of leverage to introduced problematic aspects of the film's creation of meanings, stereotypes and structural progression. I tend to agree with her analysis because transplanting elements of Victorian literature into cinematic adaptations of African-American works depicting the turn of the century is pretty bold, if you ask me. I also agree that juxtaposing scenes of serious emotional content with characters that recall traditional cinematic stereotypes is distracting at the very least. With Spielberg's reputation, directing style and 'auteur'-esque status it would be hard to believe that even elements of the screenplay (not written by him) and editing would be free from his influence and perhaps direct control.