There was a little bit of nervousness on my part when my mom suggested that we all go watch The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo together as a family. Knowing of course the film involved copious amounts of sex, rape, and violence (not necessarily in that order), I raised my hand in objection. Sitting next to my parents and sister watching a woman get tied down and sodomized didn’t exactly fit in with the Christmas spirit. But when the other choice, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, was mentioned, I backed away from my objection and agreed to sit through Dragon Tattoo with my parents (my sister, for reasons unbeknownst to me, decided to sit this one out).
I discovered that watching Dragon Tattoo with them wasn’t as uncomfortable as I thought it would be. I’d seen all three of the Swedish films and read the books (as had my parents); it’s not like we didn’t know what to expect. So when it came time to watch the film’s heroine Lisbeth Salander get brutally raped, I wasn’t as uncomfortable as I thought I’d be. Not because the scene itself isn’t horrible (it is, maybe even more so in David Fincher’s version), but because by now the Millennium series has become sort of redundant.
Both the Swedish and American interpretations are mostly faithful to Stieg Larsson’s books, with minor exceptions that don’t add or detract much from either film. It’s hard to really go in to these movies and come out totally surprised. Unlike the film adaptation of books like A Clockwork Orange, there was very little in Larsson’s trilogy that might necisitate a radical interpretation.
Fincher’s version changes very little in terms of the level of violence and depravity. Salander (Rooney Mara) and her partner/lover Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) still go up against the same malevolent family, with their Nazi, serial killing past intact. My fear that this version would be more sanitized never came true, thankfully. I think the major difference with this film is the script gives more importance to the libel case that bookends the novel, something the Swedish version, to its credit, didn’t really dwell on.
Still, credit where credit is due: Fincher’s version is by far more outstanding visually and musically. From the wicked opening credits, to its snow-drenched backdrop, Fincher definitely captures the cold texture of Larsson’s Sweden. And the Trent Reznor/Atticus Ross produced soundtrack gives the film the appropriate industrial score, particularly that cover of "Immigrant Song" in the title sequence.
I don’t know if Fincher plans on directing the remaining books in the trilogy, which are less interesting than the first, but if he does I hope he doesn’t remain too faithful to the source material. My problem with this series is that in his determination to show the horrors of violence against women, Larsson has to make his villains the most violent, sadistic creatures on earth. What motivates these men’s crimes - a Nazi-past and some vague Biblical references in the first book, some Cold War intrigue in the second and third books - is the closest they come to subtext. But I suppose this makes their comeuppance all the more satisfying (I got the same jolt of excitement when Salander got revenge on her rapist in all three versions). These aren’t works of great subtlety, but escapist fantasies, big on wish-fulfilment and a badass heroine with a kickass tattoo.
