Emotion, Beauty, and Rhythm: Music in MTV’s Wuthering Heights
“If somebody goes out to make a movie that isn’t designed primarily to entertain people, then I don’t know what the f*** they’re doing”
-Coen Brothers
One element of this film that makes it super modern (and Hollywood-like) is the use of music written by Jim Steinman: music which enables Heath to become a rock star overnight! While this music seems out of place for Heath when comparing him to Heathcliff in the novel, it works to make the film appealing to a teenage audience. It offers an addition to the sentimentality of this film, while at the same time adding to its cheese factor. Besides, what MTV movie would not have music in it? What is more appealing than when the camera pans in on a “hot” male actor sitting playing a guitar with his shirt off? Hutcheon reminds us that
The context in which we experience the adaptation—cultural, social, historical—is another important factor in the meaning and significance we grant to this ubiquitous palimpsestic form (Hutcheon 139).
Therefore, we expect this kind of musical soap-opera for a 21st century adaptation. The further and further we get away from when the novel was written, the more the adaptation is fitted to culture. Stam notes in his book that “an adaptation that updates the text for the present is upbraided for not respecting the period of the source, but respectful costume dramas are accused of a failure of nerve in not “contemporizing” the text” (8). From cultural influence we’ve come to appreciate and want drama, sex, beauty, fast-paced action (note how this adaptation utilizes quick cuts and alterations to the scenes to make it so we see about five minutes of Cate and Heath’s childhood—speeding the film up in attempts to pack a 200+ page novel into 88 minutes), partying, drinking, murder and swearing in films: everything that makes a movie so picturesquely Hollywood. However, there is no easy way to make a film from a classic piece of literature…think about it! Either way, someone is going to be upset with the result.
Despite their cheesiness, listen closely to the lyrics in the film and you’ll realize that they are actually self-reflective and very important to understanding the use of natural imagery in the film and the connection between Cate and Heath in the setting. Take for example, these lyrics in the main song in the film “I Will Crumble.”
If you want to sleep I’ll pull the shade
If you should vanish I’m sure to fade
If you should smolder I’ll breath in your smoke
If you should laugh I’ll smile and pretend that I made the joke
And if you should ever leave me
I will crumble
That’s just the way I am
I hope you never leave me
That is to say
If you should sink I don’t want to swim
If you lock the door I’ll beg to come in
If you should sing I won’t make a sound
If you should fly I’ll curse the ground
And if you should ever leave me
I will crumble
That’s just the way I am
I hope you never leave me
That is to say
I will crumble(4 times)
If you’re an explosion I won’t search for shelter
If you’re the sun I’ll sit here and swelter
If you’re the moon I’ll stay up all night
If you’re a ghost I’ll be haunted for life
And if you should ever leave me
I will crumble
That’s just the way I am
I hope you never leave me
That is to say
I will crumble(8 times)
This song works to enhance the strong bonds of love between Cate and Heath. However, since we know that Heath is the poor “other” in the novel, this portrayal of him as a rock star is very unrealistic and purely meant to take the film out of its 19th century context and make it more geared towards a 21st century audience. The music is used mostly in sequences of montage, where the camera flashes to the young lovers exploring the “Heights,” or of the characters thinking about each other and experiencing flashbacks of the past.
Music is important in this film because it attaches emotion to the superficial characters, (and not to mention, their mediocre acting) and adds to the drama that makes this a teenage soap-opera. According to Elliot, the type of music also parallels in Heath, who is the “big rock star, his lyrics serving as an open window to his tortured heart”, and Edward who plays the classical orchestra instrument, the cello. While most of us can probably say this isn’t the best film we’ve seen, the music does add to the Mike Vogel “hotness” factor and gives this film the pop-culture flair that is entirely fitting for an MTV movie.
I think the discussion of adaptations is very interesting here, especially the point that in the 21st century, we are increasingly distant from the 19th century novel of Wuthering Heights. This being true, it is interesting to think about the way the passage of time affects the mode the adaptation will have.
Kate Blair
While making changes is necessary for the creation of an adaptation. In this case, I feel that the changes are a little too strong. I’ve never seen the MTV version of Wuthering Heights (or any of the other two, realy), but I think it’s too much of a departure from the novel. Even in adaptations, the object of the novel must stay the same. When the themes change, it becomes a tribute, or perhaps something loosely related. Much in the same way that 10 Things I Hate About You is based on Taming of the Shrew, I think for this adaptation to be effective it should at least have a different name.
While the music used (from what I’ve read and seen on YouTube) takes some steps to pass on the deeper themes of Wuthing Heights, I don’t think it’s enough. To me, this adaptation is almost making a mockery out of the novel.
Rachel Lindenberger
While I do agree that many of the changes made in this film are not consistent with even the tone or goals of the novel itself, I find that labeling Heath a rock-star is less of a departure than, oh, say, turning the moors into a lighthouse. Classic connotations of the American male rockstar include violent emotional tendencies, as the original Heathcliff had in spades, as well as near Byronic blend of dark sexuality, and, often, a sort of artistic loneliness. He may not be a racial other, but his status is still something set apart. It recalls certain aspects of the ‘male mystic,’ as explored in Douglas Anderson’s Philosophy Americana — this, one could argue, is how dark Heathcliff must be translated into our individualistic culture.
But I digress.
I find that the music, as I’ve understood from the youtube videos available, does make certain steps to reconcile the poor scripting and seeming superficiality of Cate and Heath’s relationship. At the same time, I must agree with Rachel Lindenberger. Though the casting of Heath as a rockstar does, in my personal opinion, work well with the novel’s Heathcliff, it does not close the gap between the story as portrayed in the original text.
- Sophia Derugen-Toomey