Would G. K. Chesterton have liked Robert Downey Jr.’s depiction of the great detective in Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes? A Chesterton admirer suggests the answer is yes.
Key passage:
It looks like my former conceptions of Sherlock Holmes came, not from the stories, but from the old movies and the countless caricatures. It turns out the new movie seems to nail it much closer than any of the typical depictions I’ve seen before. Which just makes me love the stories and the new movie even more.
For example, take this scene with Holmes from the pen of Arthur Conan Doyle:“’Oh, yes you do, McMurdo,’ cried Sherlock Holmes, genially. ‘I don’t think you can have forgotten me. Don’t you remember the amateur who fought three rounds with you at Alison’s rooms on the night of your benefit four years back?’
‘Not Mr. Sherlock Holmes!’ roared the prize-fighter. ‘God’s truth! how could I have mistook you? If instead o’ standin’ there so quiet you had just stepped up and given me that cross-hit of yours under the jaw, I’d ha’ known you without a question. Ah, you’re one that has wasted your gifts, you have! You might have aimed high, if you had joined the fancy.’”Now who does this passage seem better to describe?
