Liz Lu

Writing 39 B
Professor Haas
7
th
June 2014
Narrator Changes, but Conventions Remain
In his book The Reader and the Detective Story, literary scholar George Dove categorizes
a number of conventions found in detective fiction, especially those found in the classic texts of
Conan Doyles Sherlock Holmes canon. One thing he points out is that the readers compulsion
to see how the story turns out is much stronger than in other fiction (18). This desire is often
satisfied through Holmes didactical speeches after he has examined the crime scene. The
primary audience for those speeches is John Watson, who represents the original audience of
Victorian Era middle class gentlemen. As literary scholar Jerome Delamater claims, the
detective genre seems to recreate itself every decade, finding in contemporary life the sources of
inspiration that attract millions of readers worldwide. Conan Doyles stories and the
conventions in them have stood the test of time and the genre is still as popular today as it ever
was. While some of the main conventions have remained, some conventions have changed to fit
the new time period and audiences. People from different age groups and cultural backgrounds
may not all form empathy with Watson or accept his unquestioning worship of Holmes. In order
to appeal to a broader audience, both Stephen Moffatts television series Sherlock and Guy
Ritchies Sherlock Holmes films depict Holmes pure mental process to make the narrative more
objective and convincing. However even though these two cinematic texts make several updates
for modern audiences, some classic conventions are still closely followed. For example, the
recreational value is confirmed by Sherlock through crime scenes shot from Holmes perspective
and in the film Sherlock Holmes through scenes that feature Holmes pre-cognition of upcoming
fights.
In Moffatts Sherlock that stared by Benedict Cumberbatch, crime scenes are presented
through Holmes eyes, which invites audiences to investigate cases with Holmes more directly;
but the recreational convention of the story that emphasized by Conan Doyle remains because
Holmes thinking process that depicted in Sherlock is too quick for audiences to compete with, so
the magic trick is not spoiled until Holmes explains his deductions after he carefully scanning
a crime scene. In the classic Conan Doyles texts, Watson plays an important role as the narrator;
and it is ironic that CD depicts most of the crime scenes through this doctor eyes. According to
literary scholar Leroy Panek, the pieces of the evidence are intentionally provided in fragments
by Watson, because inviting readers to make the wrong guesses [heightens] the surprise at the
end of the story (94). When Sherlock Holmes walks out from the book to the big screen, the
narrator of stories inevitably changes from Watson to the camera. Stephen Moffatt, writer and
show runner of Sherlock chooses to frequently shoot crime scenes that match Holmes point of
view so the camera allows the audience to see into Holmes mind. This Cinematic technique is
called eye line matching, through which audiences could sense the importance of what a single
character is seeing. The first crime scene investigated by Holmes and Watson is in the first
episode of the series, A Study of Pink, which is loosely based on Conan Doyles first novel, A
Study in Scarlet. In the episode, police are confused by serial suicide cases which are apparently
related. Holmes assumes they are all murders, but there is no evidence to confirm his hypothesis
until a clever victim intentionally leaves her phone with the murderer. By tracking the missing
phone, Holmes finds the killer and makes him confess. While Holmes examines the crime scene,
Stephen Moffatt uses the eye-line-match technique. Basically, the camera is angled from
Holmes perspective to demonstrate his process of investigating a crime scene. At 24: 30, the
shot switches to Holmes point of view as he gazes at the victim and then quickly cuts to extreme
close-up shots of the victims body parts with Holmes thoughts displayed as text superimposed
on the frame. Although he does not say anything, his focus, which is demonstrated by a series of
extreme close-up shots, implies the significance of the evidence that he examines. In one scene,
the camera is focus on the victims fingers and her wedding ring. A superimposed annotation on
the screen indicates this woman is unhappily married 10+ years. And a sound of metal friction
is edited in when the jewelry appears in the screen. This presentation of the crime scene is quite
different from what have presented in the novel, where the reader usually receives the raw
evidence as observed by Watson who has a hard time to identify the most important clue in a
victims body. However, directly providing key information through Holmes eyes does not spoil
the surprise when Holmes explains his magic trick later because the camera perfectly imitates
Holmes sight through very fast editing of the shots. Even though the audience gets a full look at
what Holmes has seen and what he has thought as he has observed each piece of evidence, they
still have no time to make further inferences. Unlike reading a novel, TV audiences may find it is
harder to examine the part when Holmes examines crime scenes again and again. As a result, the
director creates an illusion that even though we audiences are provided with same evidences and
same time as Holmes has, we still fail to catch up with his brains functioning. This direct
comparison effectively idolize Holmess deductive ability and approves that even without the
Watson-perspective convention, Stephen Moffatt did a good job in preserving or even enhancing
the Conan Doyles original purpose of legendizing Sherlock Holmes.
By presenting Holmes analysis of upcoming fights through a first person perspective, the
movie Sherlock Holmes: a game of shadows effectively decreases the emotional distance
between Holmes and audiences. Having Robert John Downey Jr. who is credited by his pre-
existing screen image as Ironman cast as Sherlock Holmes, a lot of people criticize that this
movie injects Sherlock Holmes too much masculine blood that almost twists a detective story to
a superhero film. However, in his book The Reader and the Detective Story, literary Scholar
George N. Dove claims detective genre is always recreational and less stressful (7). It could
explain why Guy Ritchie employs superhero elements to a large portion of fighting scene. From
27:20 to 28:04 of the movie, a fight between Holmes and a Cossack assassinator is played twice.
The first one is purely happening in Holmes mind and his voiceover is didactically explaining
ever possible moves to audiences. And the second fight is a mirror image that happens in real.
Guy Ritchie adopts a mix of real-time action and slow motion for those fights. The slow motion
refers to a cinematic effect, though which time in the movie seems to be slow down. In a normal
sound film, the frame rate is usually 24 per second. However, with slow motion effect, the
number of frames exposed in each second is increased and thus the action appears to move
slower than normal. In the mental practice, audiences could see the assassinators dagger
extremely approaches Holmess throat and hear the metal rings while it moves across the whole
screen. At the same time Holmes calmly explains his defense strategies, and amusingly compares
them with cooking techniques. Two different sound resources are used in this scene. The metal
ring happens onscreen, but editors use postsynchronization dubbing to add it latterly in order
to make it more striking and more dangerous. On the other hand, Holmess explanation is added
by a voice over technique, through which audiences could tell that the speaker in the screen is
not actually speaking. Directors often use these sound tracks to emphasize characters current
behaviors. In this example, Guy Ritchie is trying to emphasize Holmes calmness and clear
reasoning under high pressure. The compression of the dangerous situation and Holmess calm
attitude persuades the audiences of Holmess overwhelming confidence. So with the help of
sounds tracks, the visualization of Holmes thinking process, drag audience even closer to
Holmes, giving them an implication that they can always count on Holmes. As a result Guy
Ritchie effectively confirms with Conan Doyles expectation of idolizing Sherlock Holmes as a
Hero. The difference is that Ritchie accomplishes it through a more objective method without
Watson. During an interview of the Sherlock Holmes movie, the director Guy Ritchie said when
he uses the slow motion technique, time becomes relative rather than absolute. In other words,
adrenaline plays games with you in your mind as to how long an experience takes (n. pag.)
When people are in danger, human bodies release adrenaline to turn them to an instinctual
survival model, by which everything around becomes slower, and brains lose some
consciousness. That is why people report dizzying when their bodies are in danger. It is this
presence of danger makes Sherlock Holmes story more close to adventure genre. However, by
adding an adventure element, Guy Ritchie is not intended to make it a superhero film. The movie
is actually bring Sherlock Holmes out of the genres parodic stage, where the conventions of the
genre have become well-known and predictable to a revisionist stage, where the establish
conventions could be twisted.
Conan Doyles Sherlock Holmes series are the father of todays most detective stories,
but when Stephen Moffatt and Guy Ritchie update them to the fit the modern audience, some
conventions like Watson as a narrator loses its importance. Nonetheless, most conventions like
intellectuality and recreational of the stories stay the same to confirm with Conan Doyles
original intention of inviting audience to participant and enjoy the adventure with Holmes. And
these two directors accomplish the goal through directly depicting both Holmes psychological
and physiological activities.
Work Cited
Delamater, Jerome and Ruth Prigozy, eds. Theory and Practice of Classic Detective
Fiction. New York: Praeger, 1997. Print.
Dove, George N. The Reader and the Detective Story. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State
University Popular Press, 1997. Print.
Panek, Leroy. An Introduction to the Detective Story. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State
University Popular Press, 1987. Print.
Murphy, Mekado. Guy Ritchie Discusses a Scene From Sherlock Holmes: A Game of
Shadows The New York Times. 15 Dec. 2011. Web. 18 May. 2014.
<http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/15/guy-ritchie-discusses-a-scene-from-
sherlock-holmes-a-game-of-shadows/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0 >