This is a HUGE story!! Some of the storylines will have to be cut out.

What scenes do you think have to be included? Which scenes can be left out and still keep the overall feeling of Lin's saga? What say you?

This is a great pic pf a Colaba street, I thought I'd share it.

Thanks again to JohnnyLubber for the pic

I would very much like to NOT see Johnny get beaten to a bloody pulp, either in New Zealand or in Mumbai. I would wish to be spared that if at all possible, please. :bow

ps. I can't get the link to the pic to open... :unsure:

Yeah the bloody pulp parts make me a bit squeamish too. But how will they get around that storyline-wise?

I fed the link in wrong....sorry :shistle

Obviously a lot will need to be cut or trimmed. I think some of the slum situations can be trimmed or cut. Definitely his work as the slum doctor needs to be included, but some of the ones with the rats could be cut. I'm also not a gore fan so I'm with trimming the torture part in jail, but I have a feeling this will be included. I wonder if they will go into a lot of detail with the Afghanistan part; I could see that being cut or trimmed down a lot.

Scenes that must be there of course Lin's experience in the slumsand scenes with Karla(wish we would hear who would be playing that part). It just depends on Nair's and Johnny's vision for the film.

Yes it does really depend on what their combined vision is. And I think that the Afghanistan parts can be lost without messing with the story pretty easily.

I don't know...the bloody scenes...they're a real turn-off for me...maybe Bruce Willis could do them? :D

The only part about the Afghanistan segment that I love is Lin getting used to riding a horse! Otherwise, that whole gun-running piece holds not interest for me.

Definitely I'd like to see as much of the setting as possible - Mumbai's beautiful neighborhoods (great pic of Colaba!) and Goa. The slums also. Rats, no. Fire, yes. Standing Babas, yes. Prisons, no. Motorbikes, yes. Bollywood filmmaking, yes yes yes! And the people - lots and lots of the Indian people!

I agree with all of you about the gory parts and I really hope they lose the rat scene too but I think the time he spent in jail and how he survived both mentally and physically through the beatings, is something they are going to leave in.

I would also like to see all the scenes with Tariq. I think Lin found out alot about himself when he was with the boy.

I forgot about Tariq--yes, would love to see that kept in as it definitely would be the reminder of the family he has lost----they might even build it up more?

Well, I think some of the secondary female charachters/couples might be able to be left out. Are they really necessary? Mme Zhou...? COULD potentially be left out, although it would change the story some, I find it hard to say she's essential to the story. (a big cut, but her and the looong gut wrenching torture in jail have go to go.)

Nobody lay a hand on our Johnny, or they'll be :upinsmoke Grrrrr...Roar....

:angry:

The scene with the pack of dogs!

There is something about that scene that sends a message, which for me says, that as human beings we assume we are at the top of the chain, we are the best of all living creatures. But this just proves that given a situation where it's creature against creature, human beings really are not the best. The dogs had no weapons to defend themselves, but Lin, Tariq and finally Abdullah had to arm themselves to survive. In a fair fight the dogs would have won. Take us away from our houses and our numerous man-made defenses, we really are the weaker animal.

I feel the same, but I'm sure it will be there, it's an immensely powerful part of the story.

What would be even more powerful would be to suggest what happens and not show it. Remember how intense the ending of The Brave is to so many of us...and there is nothing to see...nothing! It only suggests and it tortures our minds.

I'd have to read the book again (yes, I know, repeating myself here :D ) to have a really strong opinion but off the top of my head...

Scenes to keep:

The meeting with Prabaker and the other main characters of the story (particularly Karla saving him from being hit by the bus)

The first look at the line of people outside his shack in the slum waiting to be seen by the "doctor" (I want to see how Johnny plays this part - I can picture an expression of disbelief on his face that would be rather funny!)

other scenes the show us the beaty and uniqueness of India (since I'll probably never get there!)

Scenes to cut:

torture/prison scene - I find these types of scenes to be difficult to watch - I skip over the part on the Flying Dutchman when Bootstrap whips Will Turner - and that is mild comparatively speaking. Although like Jesse says - the suggestion of it can be very powerful to watch (I haven't seen The Brave - but the shower scene in Psycho comes to mind!)

I'll have to think some more about these - probably the time in Prabaker's village and much of the time in Afganistan could be cut as well.

I think most all of the scenes with Prabu are essential..or they are to me. I'd love to see the train station scene when they are on their way to visit Prabaker's village. This was a really hard question as it's one that I do wrestle with myself. Truth be known, that's how I formulate these questions...the things that puzzle me. lol

Yes. A person could possibly just keep Lin, Karla, Lisa, Khader, and Prabu.

If Vikram and Lettie are cut, then Vikram isn't there to bail Lin out of jail, so Lin doesn't have to go to jail anymore! Yay! :snoopy

Ah, a happy ending! How sweet!! :P
However, I loved Vikram in his Wyatt Earp outfit and Lettie with all her tough-cookie hard edges. So I'd keep those two in and lose Ulla and her ilk (Modena and Maurizio).

There are some scenes that, instead of being cut out, could be consolidated/abreviated or put in montage with voice-over. There are characters that are non-essential, I hate to say, like some of the slum dwellers (I don't need to see the scene with a drunken Joseph beating his wife and being forced to drink till he is near to death from it.)

I don't need each and every member of Khader's mafia portrayed. Sections can be greatly abreviated, such as going to Prabu's village, life in the slum, working his way into Khader's mafia, Afghanistan. There only needs to be one or two scenes set in Leopold's.

I do think it matters how he meets Prabaker and Abdullah, and how they die.
I do think we need to see some of Lin's suffering and triumphs portrayed.
The jail, the romantic love and the father love, a brief scene in Prabu's village, treating the sick in the slum, getting involved in the mafia, getting strung out and getting clean, etc.

There is lots that are not essential to Lin's story: Vikram and Lettie's story, for example. Lisa needs to be there in regards to portraying The Palace.
Above all, I need the climax to Madam Zhou's demise. That will be sweeeeeeet.

I just posted the exact opposite in the what scene I would fight to keep thread :lol:
For me that scene is very important in context of the slum and the way India as a whole functions. I mean not so much the bit where Joseph beats his wife, but definitely the bit where he's punished for it (which of course is hard to do if you don't show at least the results of the wife beating). Despite the violence and primitivity of the punishment there is a strong trust in the goodness of people in it and I really think that is important to the book. In a way that's why Lin is likable - despite being a violent man he believes in people.

As for what I would cut, I hope they cut Afghanistan. Even in the book I found that a bit long and actually I wouldn't mind so much if they completely chucked the whole war section, except that I don't want to lose the developments between Lin and Khaderbhai that the war causes (how Lin was used with the medicine and Lin's feelings about Khaderbhai's death).

I don't really want them to cut Ulla and Modena, but then that's mainly because I love their ending. But I guess I can live with it if they do.
I wasn't that keen on Lettie and Vikram in the book, but on the other hand I can imagine Vikram turning out much better on film than on the page. There's so many Indian actors who could make a really strong and funny part out of that IMO. And I guess that's why I want them to stay.

Erm... yeah so I guess I'm mainly hoping they cut as much as they can of the war. Maybe they can just move Lin and Khaderbhai's argument to before they set out to war and then just have news of his death or something like that. On the other hand I guess seeing the dead body of Khaderbhai would be quite a strong moment, so I'm not sure I want that ditched... but maybe it can be done in a flashback...
The war is quite a large part of the book, so maybe if they ditched it completely there would be enough room for most everything else... I mean especially that a lot of the book is not just visuals and dialogues, but feelings and thoughts and philosophies. Many of these clearly won't be expressed in such a detailed way in the film.

Come to think of it, it's a good balance , this.

ULLA/MODENA are love gone wrong..puts Lin INTO jail.

Lin reaches his pivotal point in the movie, and learns to forgive.

VIKRAM/LETTIE have HEART of India...get Lin OUT of
jail.

Hmmm... :ph43r: then maybe these four charachters ARE necessary
in the movie...what say you? Without Ulla/Modena and Vikram/Lettie, what would stay the same/change? :captain

Very good question!!!