The Lottery: The movie

Plot

For this movie, I would have to add a significant amount of plot to the film. The short story and the storyline of the short story is not enough to keep a movie going for a hour and a half. Becuase of this, I would have to nearly transform what happens with everything before the lottery or what happens after the lottery...or probably both. With this in mind, I would make this movie into a horror movie and have a man mistakingly come into this village. The village would appear to be normal, but after a while, the villagers and the village itself then become stranger as the movie progresses. I would keep the same characters as the short story has, and have each one keep their points of view about how they feel about the lottery. In the film, we would find out how each person feels about the lottery due to their private conversations with the stranger who enters the village. Because this man has entered the village, the villagers will not let him out which will eventually cause him to partake in the lottery. I would probably have him become attracted to a woman, and the woman would be the one chosen for the lottery. The man would be like Mrs. Hutchetson in which he is the one screaming out, "it's not fair." Becuase this element would remain, I could do the best I could with keeping the meaning of the work.

Point of View

The point of view would have to drastically change for the film. Instead of having the ominscent point of view like the short story has, I would have to change to a limited point of view where the whole story focuses on the man who enters the village. There wouldn't be a scene that would occur where he was not relatively present. I do not think this would change the meaning of the work becuase since I have more time with the film, he would be able to maybe talk to people about the lottery before it happens like Mr. Summers or Old man Warner and still get different approaches about it from different people. Because it is possible for me to do this, the meaning of the original work can easily remain with the film. All the film would have to do is incorporate anything that is described in the story with interactions with the man and the other people in the village.

Characterization

For the film, I would definitely use an indirect characterization, similar to how the short story does this. In the short story, the conversations between the villagers is what illustrates their feelings about the lottery and the author never directly describes how each person views the lottery. For the film adaption, I will be able to do this through the man's interactions with other people. They never really will directly talk about the lottery becuase they are either restricted to or maybe its just tradition not to. By doing this, the villagers may indirectly show their feelings about the lottery and whether or not they have their doubts about it or whether they think it is necessary. When he becomes trapped in the village in the film, this is where we will find out more about the other characters. In the short story, we never really know that much about each character except for their feelings on the lottery. But in the film, we will be able to go deeper into the lives of the villagers.

Setting

The setting for this story would pretty much be identical to the story except for the setting before the man gets to the village in the film. With this setting at the beginning of the film, I may be able to hint at and enhance the meaning of the short story by maybe showing how society is similar to the reactions of the villagers during the lottery. But other than that, the setting for the film would remain primarily in the village. However, I would be able to show more detail about the village than the short story because the short story took place primarily in the village square where the lottery took place. But I do not think that slight changes in the setting would diminish or enhance the meaning of the work enough to matter. As long as the theme of the story is kept constant, then that is what is important.

Theme

Keeping the meaing of the original work would be my main focus if I were to make The Lottery into a film. The meaing of this work in my opinion would be how people do not let go of tradition easily which can make us close minded about things. Also, comparing the reactions of the people participating in the lottery to society is another theme to make note of. These themes would definitely be able to remain in the film which would be my main priority. There is no reason that the meaning of the Lottery should be diminished. In showing how people sometimes do not let go of tradition, I would make some of the villagers really creepy building up to the creepiness of the lottery. His woman he recently began a relationship with would be chosen and he would then be the one to resemble society and shout about how its not fair.