Brighton rock: the film versus the movie.

Brighton Rock.

I am going to look at the opening scene of the novel Brighton Rock and compare and contrast this with the opening scene of the film. I am mostly interested in the way Ida and Pinkie are presented and the run up to the murder. I want to see how similar or contrasting events are leading up to this and how the novel and film build tension.

The novel ‘Brighton Rock’ was written by Graham Greene between the wars. The opening lines immediately introduced a dark feeling to the novel. When introducing the first character Hale it is already quite a sinister meeting as we realise that ‘they meant to murder him’ (Greene, G. Brighton Rock. Pg 5) Whilst describing Hale, the ‘inky fingers and his bitten down nails’ (pg5) portrays quite a dirty nervous man. This contrasts with the picture we are painted of Brighton as the ‘new silver paint sparkled on the piers’ (pg 5). By mentioning the pier this early on, we conjure an image of Brighton in holiday season, ‘a b...