the Harrison Bergeron story vs. year of 2081

In the story of Harrison Bergeron, both in the written form (Harrison Bergeron) and the mini film (2081), Harrison Bergeron is the 'main' antagonist towards the government. Harrison is extremely strong and intelligent, his appearance is appealing and he's a giant.  Since the government has become so corrupt following the 213 amendments, in the year of 2081 nobody is legally allowed to be above the standardized 'average'.  The average in the story is considered quite weak, un-intelligent and not as good looking. This point tells us that fourteen year old Harrison Bergeron cannot be able to walk around as a normal citizen.  Harrison and many others become disabled with ear pieces that scatter their thoughts every twenty seconds wearing bird shot weights around their necks or waists, and masks to cover themselves.  Harrison escapes from jail, and takes off his handicaps, on television.  Meanwhile, his father is watching the T.V.  Harrison tries to overthrow the US government but gets executed, and his parents don’t remember a thing.

The movie and the book had the same general idea.  In both versions of the story, they had the same antagonists of the whole country, the Government (or the Handicapper Generals).  The parents of Harrison also had no idea about the fact that their son had died in front of them on the television.  There were a few significant differences between the film and short story.  Harrison wasn’t a giant or a fourteen year old in the movie.  While in the book, he was a giant and fourteen years old.  In the movie Harrison had escaped from jail after having been in jail for over five years!  The breakouts out of jail had been different.  Also, I’d imagined that the movie would have canvas bags full of bird shot, as handicaps to the citizens. Instead, the movie had straps dangling off the people, and metal rectangular weights hanging from them. There were some smaller differences that weren’t very important. In the book, after there was an interrupting news flash, a reporter struggled to read his assigned bullet. As he finally gave up, he handed his bullet to a ballerina, which I suppose was probably a female. I think the movie missed an important point like this, because the ballerina had a beautiful voice, comparing to her monotone correction (which she was supposed to use on television). The movie passed this important point, not showing how disabled everyone in America is, changing the ballerina’s position to another man’s monotone voice. Harrison’s speech on stage had a different point in both the movie, and the book. In the short story, Harrison tells the camera and the studio, that he is the new emperor. He also chooses his ‘empress’ and they dance to defy the laws of gravity, floating off the ground. In the movie, Harrison tries to create a revolt in a ‘life or death’ way, threatening the audience at a theatre that there was a bomb beneath them. There were quite a few differences, but the general ideas of both the movie and book were the same.

Overall, I preferred the book much more than the movie. The fact that Harrison is only a child and gets executed; the audience of the presentation would be much more disturbed than an adult being killed. In our society, it’s much sadder to see a child die (even though it’s sad that an adult dies too). This is part of the reason why I prefer the short story more than the film, because the audience gets in different emotions throughout the story. This made me extremely sad when Harrison gets killed, as opposed to the film, when there wasn’t as much exaggeration, and an outlaw of an adult lay dead on the floor. The costumes in the film didn’t work out as well as I thought the movie would. Harrison had eye liner on, and was scary looking from the start to the very end. In the book, Harrison starts his part with as a terrifying figure on the stage, but is supposed to look at least pleasant in the end, and not as rough. Another minor disappointment in the movie was that Harrison and his empress (to supposed to become) didn’t end up defying the laws of gravity as they danced together on stage. I thought this part of the book could be very interesting in a movie, flying around the stage.  In the movie, they just got shot in front of the camera. In the end, I enjoyed reading the book more than watching the movie.

After the film, my favorite part of the movie was when Harrison’s father hallucinates. While Mr. Bergeron watches television, during a twenty second limit of time, he sees his own son being captured through the doors of his house, by the government, in bits and pieces. But as Harrison’s father’s ears beep and scatters his mind, he began to mix up and mess up his memory as he looks at his front door.  I think the film makers did an excellent job doing that part of the movie. The bits and pieces of Harrison’s arrestment really described how Mr. Bergeron was trying to remember his son, but his memory didn’t last long until he forgot everything!

I enjoyed reading the book, because it changed up the feel of th story many times, between feeling sorry, angry or sad. I enjoyed watching the movie, but not as much as the book. I find that the book was more expressive, very descriptive, and easier to follow.