Bah Humbug! and a pox upon your houses, Guy Ritchie. You have messed with The Man and he didn't need 'messin with. Haven't you ever heard of the quote, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it?" Evidently not, as you have tarnished and trashed the cherished image so many of us carry in our hearts and minds about Sherlock Holmes. There are plenty of stories out there that are available for you to jazz up for 21st Century film fans. Why did you have to twiddle with Sherlock?
Conan Doyle's first novel, "A Study in Scarlet" was published in 1887 and his work earned a respected place in history with numerous actors reflecting his talents. In Conan Doyle’s books, Sherlock Holmes gained a place in the hearts of Londoners and the rest of the world and stands as one of literature’s most vivid and fascinating creations.
The Holmes image has met with enthusiastic acceptance when played by Basil Rathbone, 1939; Jeremy Brett, 1984-94; John Cleese, 1973 and Michael Caine, 1988. In these films our hero has put forth his talents with careful deductions and unusual manipulations of people and places. And in this careful representation it was comforting to see him use whatever Victorian applications were available and suited him. We didn’t need mixed metaphors having Sherlock operate in that era then suddenly be surrounded by wildly imaginative 21st century computer graphics.
To give the “Devil his Due”, Robert Downey, Jr. as this 2010 Sherlock and Jude Law as Dr. Watson deliver interesting performances that the 18 to 54 demographics finds appealing. Speculations can be made that this population segment probably never knew much about Sherlock Holmes or Conan Doyle until they showed up to pick up this late Christmas gift to this year’s holiday film goers.
To hard core Holmes fans, there is a universe of folk dedicated to keeping the flame alive. The Sherlock Holmes Society of London has more than 1,000 fans that hang out at London’s Langham Hotel where according to their publicist, “ the worlds of Sherlock Homes and Conan Doyle come together.” Dallas has a dedicated group of fans called the Diogenes Club of Dallas. They meet the first Sunday of every month according to the Web site: DiogenesClubDallas@earthlink.net. To find out more about the group across the Pond you can link to them at http://www.sherlock-holmes.org.uk/.
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