Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil

It's good. Spacey is very good.

No, it’s absolutely terrible. Not even in a so bad it’s good kinda way.

I didn't think it completely horrible, but the film wasn't a great adaptation of the book. I think it would have worked better as a mini-series.

No, the movie sucked goat balls.

The film is TRULY TERRIBLE. Clint really fucked it up.

The two things he got right was Spacey as Jim Williams, and of course, Chablis.

But everything else is an absolute mess. He had no way to feature most of the colorful characters without it being miniseries length, but instead of doing his best on that front, he minimizes most of the townspeople and decides to focus the movie on a character not in the book (or not prominent), played by.....his daughter.

And THAT character is then featured in a romance with John Cusack, who plays the writer of the book. John is normally good but he's lost here. (Oh, and John Berendt, who wrote the book, was twice Cusack's age and gay, to boot.)

I have wished for many years that a streaming channel would get the rights and remake it, but sadly, Chablis is no longer with us, and I'm not sure how it would work without her.

The movie did, however, have a great soundtrack.

The book and the movie are not very accurate, the writer describes the book as a novel. There are many changes i facts and the timeline of events. In the movie the author has a different name and he is portrayed as straight, instead of gay.

Jude Law played a redneck rentboy rather well.

[quote] Jude Law played a redneck rentboy rather well.

Not a long walk from the page to the stage for that one, as it were.....

More about the creative license Berendt took writing The Book (as locals call it)

Clint Eastwood made the film, he is supposedly a notorious homophobe. Who made the decision to make the author character straight - either it was him or Cusack.

Which of the Ru Girls could play Chablis?

I agree that Spacey and Chablis are wonderful in the film.

[quote] "The movie did, however, have a great soundtrack."

Bingo, R6. I've also heard the book is much better (aren't they usually?). I've been told by someone who was there, that she couldn't walk into a D.C. bar or restaurant without seeing someone reading that book at the time of its release. It's on my list for Fall reading.

NO, OP

I loved the book and I liked the movie.

Spacey really was good in this. Playing a sleazy gay criminal . . .

One of the worst movies I have ever seen.

See the movie first then read the book. The movie is enjoyable but if you see it after you read the book it's a bit of a disappointment.

Chablis, Kevin Spacey, and John Cusack (and even a surprising turn by Irma P Hall) add up to many good moments. I liked the film.

I thought the film was terrible even before all the stuff with Spacey, but it does feature Jude Law at his most young & beautiful

[quote] Clint Eastwood … is supposedly a notorious homophobe

This is an oxymoron. The word 'supposedly' suggests the statement is undocumented gossip. The word 'notorious' suggests that it's 'generally known'.

R11 I think you need to stop mixing with gossiping people.

It was gay erasure.

Adapting the book is difficult as there's only a tiny thread of a plot. Most of it consists of observational scenes of various characters and situations in Savannah, with the murder and trial lurking in the background.

So any film version would have to invent a dramatic storyline using the novel's content. Unfortunately, Eastwood was a terrible choice for the project. He has a slow, deliberate directing style that sometimes works, but Midnight needed someone with a light touch and a mordant sense of humor, neither of which Eastwood posseses.

Yes, the Berendt character is presented as straight, which I suspect was the preference of both director and star. The Alison Eastwood character in the book was, I think, an older woman who knew Chablis.

And yes, Spacey, Law, and Chablis are the only saving graces in the film. The scene where Chablis testifies at the trial is not in the book, and makes no sense.

I 💕 This Movie !

I honestly think they needed a straight counterbalance to Chablis, Spacey, and Law otherwise it would have been classified as a "gay" movie.

I really nailed the role of "Old creep who chases after young hustlers"

I wonder if Spacey came onto Jude.

The title is worthy of Tennessee Williams.

LAMB: Who named "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil"?

Mr. BERENDT: Well, that's the title I came up with. Because I was an editor at Esquire, we always spent a lot of time thinking of just the right title for the pieces. And so I gave all of my chapters titles, just to add more atmosphere. Well, in one of the chapters I go with the murdered defendant and his voodoo priestess--I mean, a law--a very expensive lawyer, but he also hedged his bets and hired a voodoo priestess. Well, she took us to what she called the flower garden, because he wanted her to put a curse on a district attorney. So--there it is, Chapter 18, "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil."

Well, she said to me and to him, `We're going to go to the garden,' she said, which is the graveyard. And she said, `We have to go at dead time. Now you know about dead time. Dead time lasts one hour--half-hour before midnight to a half-hour after midnight. First half-hour's for doing good. Second half-hour's for doing evil. Seems like we need a little bit of both tonight. We best be on our way.' So that's in that chapter. And I sat down, I wrote the chapter, I thought, `OK, title. I should call it "The Garden." "The Garden's" a wonderful image. She called it sometimes the flower garden, but "The Garden"'--loved the word `garden.' And midnight--I mean, `And at the stroke of midnight,' she said, `you can scoop up graveyard dirt. It's powerful stuff to throw on someone's porch to put a curse on them.'

So I thought, `Well, we were there at midnight. "Midnight --Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil."' I mean, all of this seemed to have come from what she had told me. And I put that down as a title for a chapter and I thought, `Ooh, wait a minute. You know, that's--Savannah is a garden city of these wonderful squares, and it's got good and evil.' And I thought, `What could be better? I mean, `midnight's' also a very evocative word.' It's an eight-word title, very long--longer than most others. I thought, `Well, this may not be commercial.'

So when I sold the book to Random House, I said, `I'm not going to be a prima donna. If you don't think "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" is commercial, it's too long, tell me and I--and we'll--I'll try to think of another word,' and they said, `Don't change it on our account. We think it'll work.' And on top of that, my editor said, `You're going to have to have a subtitle to explain what this is about.' So I said, `That's easy, "A Savannah Story."' And originally, that was going to be on the cover. That would've made 11 words. But the designer of the cover, Carole Carson, who's utterly brilliant, decided it didn't need to be on the cover. "A Savannah Story" is inside on the title page.

I had a crush on John Berendt around the time the book came out. Handsome daddy.

He's 81 (!) now.

Lady Chablis is the only redeemable thing about it

I had so much respect for what she made out of nothing. I was a fan.

It makes me sad she's gone. Miss seeing her face.

[quote] Chablis was shocked when they asked her to audition for the role of herself. In an interview with NPR, Chad Darnell, the film’s casting director, recalls that she informed him “there’s nobody else who can play me but me”. When he suggested Whitney Houston, she slapped him so hard she drew blood – and got the role.

YES HUNTY!!!!!

There's a documentary, Midnight in Savannath, featuring the real people behind the book that's much better.

Not as good as the book

Fantastic book,terrible movie. To be fair about it,Berendt never actually implied in the book he was gay. Spacey was brilliant in his role,and Chablis was just icing on the cake.

Clint Eastwood somehow managed to get his hands on one of the gayest novels ever written, & turn it into a hetero rom-com.

Haven't read the book, because I figured it was better than the film. The move was a box office flop and drew mixed reviews. Regardless, it and the book gave a boost to Savannah tourism. The movie doesn't quite get the character of the place, although Savannah itself doesn't live up to its hype. Spacey is alright. Law is good in a small part. Lady Chablis sometimes appears to be in an entirely different picture, although not in a bad way.

💃 Lady Chablis owns this movie.

Back when trans women looked like trans women, not science fiction plastic surgery freaks.

Once I've read the book, I never bother with the film, because the film is very often atrocious in comparison. In this case, the atrocious casting of Londoner Jude Law as a southerner.

[quote]not science fiction plastic surgery freaks

As opposed to freaks being injected with female hormones to replicate socially-dictated female stereotypes?

[quote]In this case, the atrocious casting of Londoner Jude Law as a southerner.

Fiddle-dee-dee.

R43 The south during the 1860s was still largely first- and second-generation Irish/English. Leigh's casting was far more accurate/appropriate than Law's.

Well, Leigh did OK as Blanche DuBois too...

It was just OK, although I love the scene where Chablis shows out at the debutante ball.

The film could hardly have been worse.

Behrendt's book has a quite cinematic style, and while to my mind it was in need of a substantial trimming down, it seems a lot of effort was spent changing so many things for no good effect at all.

It's a mystifying case of having thrown so much that was good away in favor of all the wrong storylines.

Who was the screenwriter that adapted the book for the screen?

That's who the culprit is for shittying up a good read into a bad film..

I was so disappointed the first time I saw the movie. (I read the book first.)

Now I can enjoy the movie as something separate from the book.

The movie is pretty bad, but has some good moments.

I wish Robert Altman had made the movie.

If Robert Altman made the movie it would be two hours longer and have inappropriate appearances by Bob Balaban.

But I love Bob Balaban! Hdd we could have played the weird fly guy.

Bob Balaban could have played the trash can guy.

The book really is terrific, I just re-read it because of that damn Murdaugh double murder case, and it holds up. On the first read it's a gripping real-life murder mystery, decorated with hilarious stories of the eccentric life of Savannah and its cast of characters. But upon subsequent readings, you realize that the author is also describing the town's dark side, the stagnation and inequality, the systemic racism, the way the upper class are above the corrupt local law... something that surfaced again with the Murdaugh murders.

Of course Clint Eastwood can't appreciate anything that made the book so much fun to read! No sense of humor, no appreciation of eccentricity, no clue about gay life or the fabulosity of drag queens or the wierdness of Voodoo practitioners, and of course, no appreciation of the dark underside of life in a conservative town. Jim Williams spent his post-shooting years resenting that the police hadn't hushed up the murder he committed the way they'd hush up the case if someone from an Old Family murdered a whore, but Eastwood probably thinks it's right and proper for the police to hush up the crimes of the 1% and to hell with anyone else in town needing an honest police force or the rule of law.

I think Jaida Essence Hall might be able to do a passable Chablis. Or the sparkling Heidi N. Closet.

I would really enjoy this as a mini-series.

[quote] I loved the book, does the film do it justice?

Just like Pumping Iron, the answer is no.

Film ok, but could have been better. Clint's daughter is one of its manor flaws. She couldn't act her way out of a paper bag. And her old man is so much prettier than she is, you can't help noting it in every frame she's in. Not to mention every time one catches a glimpse of the young and staggeringly gorgeous Jude Law, as Spacey's murdered toy-boy.

^* major (not manor) flaws

I took the Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil tour in Savannah. Lady Chablis was out of town, dammit. I did get to see the piano lady perform, though. The cemetery is truly beautiful and had pink azaleas in full bloom. It was one of the few cemeteries that I didn't find scary.

I know someone who deals in antiques who used to get calls from Jim Williams when he was in jail. He was still conducting business despite being locked up.

R59: A mutual friend took me to meet Williams at his house. This was between his third (mistrial) and fourth (acquittal) trials. By then there wasn't much spark to the man who seemed a much bigger character in my friends' stories and those of John Berendt; he was friendly but seemed pained, a bit sedated possibly, only occasionally clever or quick, and clearly a bit off form. The brashness that I think must have been a form of both defense and self-mockery for the Old Money/Old Name set in Savannah was there only in a some rote responses. Unfortunately he was more interesting in the stories of people who knew him before the murder than he was in person.

It's a wonderful house and he showed us all around, alluding to the stories he fabricated about some pieces while retelling some rather dubious stories of other pieces as he believed them or forgot his audience. It was a very odd mix of things in the house, a bit of Old South randomness and the spoils of some playboy's safari with some bits of Chinese Chippendale tossed in the mix. His shop was still in the carriage house, fairly full but you could see he'd neither added nor sold much in a while; he wasn't up to entertaining shoppers who by then might have been curiosity seekers. The house could have been really splendid, as it was it was more a stage set (which a lot of Southern houses are), but not with a great deal of quality to anything. I could see he liked to be outrageous and shock, but rather understandably he'd had some of that beaten out of him in the many trials and two life sentences; and he had what sounded (and looked) like a pile up of health concerns as well.

On the tour, we just saw the outside of Jim's house. Through the front window, we could see a woman walking around inside the house.

Clint Eastwood knows all about gay for pay. I seem to recall a male prostitution ring operating out of a house he owned.

Someone once complained to me about the art direction on this film. She said that Eastwood’s medium budget filmmaking was fine for crime dramas but when dealing with the lush, decaying scenery and interiors of Savannah it looked cheap.

Clint Eastwood directed - that should tell you all you need to know.

The Lady Chablis did a good job hiding her candy.

As good as Kevin Spacey was, I think Steven Root would have been ever better.

I like the film, but have not read the book, if its that much better I must read it

I can't watch anything with Spacey the same way anymore.

Everything about that movie is wrong, and half of it is taken up with boring scenes in a courtroom....such a shame. Clint Eastwood was wrong in every way, but whatever Clint wants....I guess the music drew him to the material. The Lady Chablis is its only saving grace.

two tears in a bucket, mother fuck it

Both were shite

[quote]The Lady Chablis is its only saving grace.

Worth watching for her alone.

Lady Chablis absolutely walked away with the film.

John Cusack used to be so hot especially in the 90s.

Berendt doesn't specifically portray himself in the book as gay or straight. Kinda neuter, from which it's easy to infer that he is actually gay.

Cusack was too young for the role (I envisioned Kevin Kline in the part while reading the book) and Alison Eastwood's role as Mandy Nichols is also an older woman in the novel (not a romantic interest - just a friend, which is another reason you can infer Berendt is gay), something I think Jean Smart could have played.

I have to stan for Berendt's other book, The City of Falling Angels, which is about Venice. It suffers because Good and Evil was such a smash, but it's quite interesting.

She stole the movie; she was delightful.

Coco Montrese could do the Lady Chablis role.