(Paris) The adaptation of War Horse signed Steven Spielberg? “Poorly written,” says Michael Morpurgo. At 80, the British children’s author with millions of books sold worldwide says he is “finally” satisfied with the latest film adaptation of one of his works.
This film is The Kingdom of Kensuke, an animation directed by Neil Boyle and Kirk Hendry. In this beautifully aesthetic tale, the viewer follows Kensuké, a Japanese man who lives as a recluse on a desert island after losing his entire family during the Second World War.
“This is the first film in which I have participated and which I can honestly say is, in my eyes, better than the book,” assures the author in an interview with AFP.
“It is extraordinarily rich in emotion and suspense. Nothing is rushed, we let time take its course, it’s extremely beautiful,” continues the man whose books are on the educational program in France.
Hollywood clichés
The only times when the author, distinguished by Queen Elizabeth II in 2019, felt the same thing, it was during the theatrical adaptations of his texts, including War Horsehis first book rooted in the trenches of the First World War, which brought him global recognition.
But this novel, or rather its adaptation in 2011 by Hollywood legend Steven Spielberg, left him with a bitter taste. “Poorly written”, the film is “imbued with clichés about war and people”, he complains. “Spielberg failed to take into account that the soldiers came from poor rural backgrounds and found themselves in a conflict they did not understand.”
“Even the horses are fake!” “, he storms. “They are fine and aristocratic animals, while the horses that go to war are farm horses, big stocky animals. »
Wars, past or present, are present like a common thread in the work of this former teacher, passionate about literature. Especially the two world conflicts as in his novel Peaceful Soldieror Alone on the immense sea. In Anyathe author evokes the Holocaust.
“Child of War”
Michael Morpurgo also wrote a text which evokes the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It was in 2009, with The Kites are flying, never translated into French. The story of Saïd who lives in the West Bank and makes kites which he sends to a little Israeli girl with a blue scarf.
He had previously visited Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. “Children are the only hope we have for the future,” he said in reference to the war in Gaza, triggered after the bloody Hamas attack on October 7 in Israel.
For someone who defines himself as “a child of war”, because he was born in 1943, it is essential to talk to children about these conflicts. “My rule is to introduce these things slowly, in a way they can handle. Not too early, but not too late,” he advises.
“It took me years to understand what had happened (referring to his childhood in post-World War England, editor’s note), because no one was talking about it. I believe this should be avoided. »
At the head of a large British charity promoting literature among children, this tireless defender of words is worried about the decline in reading.
It’s what “makes you think.” Reading informs you and teaches you to discover the truth. It is dramatic to say that society is today, more than ever, divided in two: on one side, those who can think and, on the other, those who cannot.