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Holes (film)

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Holes
Theatrical release poster
Directed byAndrew Davis
Written byLouis Sachar (novel & screenplay)
Produced byAndrew Davis
Lowell D. Blank
Teresa Tucker-Davies
StarringShia LaBeouf
Jon Voight
Khleo Thomas
Tim Blake Nelson
Sigourney Weaver
Byron Cotton
Patricia Arquette
Dulé Hill
Henry Winkler
Nate Davis Rated: PG
CinematographyStephen St. John
Edited byThomas J. Nordberg
Music byJoel McNeely
Distributed byBuena Vista Pictures
Release dates
April 18, 2003
Running time
117 min.
Country United States
LanguageEnglish
BudgetUS$20 million

Holes is a 2003 film based on the novel of the same title by Louis Sachar, who also wrote the screenplay. The film was produced by Walden Media and released by Walt Disney Pictures.

Plot summary

Stanley Yelnats IV (Shia LaBeouf) is a somewhat unpopular teenage boy who lives in an apartment in Houston, Texas with his entrepreneur father (Henry Winkler), mother (Siobhan Fallon Hogan), and grandfather (Nathan Davis). The family, while rich in spirit, has no luck at all. They believe this was caused many years ago, when their first ancestor Elya Yelnats tried to win the hand of the lovely Myra Menke. He is helped by the elderly Madame Zeroni, however she asks him as payment to remember to carry her up the mountain and sing to her as she drinks from a stream. If he fails however, he and his family will be cursed "for always and eternity". When he tries to woo Myra, Elya becomes disgusted at her inability to make a decision between him and an old disgusting man. So Elya leaves for America - forgetting to fulfill his promise to Madame Zeroni. As a result, the family has been plagued by various forms of bad luck. Misfortune strikes Stanley himself, when he is falsely accused of stealing a pair of sneakers that baseball star Clyde "Sweet Feet" Livingston (Rick Fox) donated to an orphanage (his defense, that the sneakers just fell out of the sky, is not believed). When given the choice of going to federal prison or Camp Greenlake, he chooses the latter. He arrives to find the "camp" is a dried-up desert where the boys there must dig one hole every day to "build character". The camp is run by the mysterious Warden (Sigourney Weaver), Mr. Sir (Jon Voight), and counselor Dr. Pendanski (Tim Blake Nelson).

This isn't the first time that a Yelnats family member has been to Camp Greenlake. Many years ago, when the lake was still full of water, there was a small town built near it. The lake was owned by Charles "Trout" Walker (Scott Plank), an arrogant man who tries to unsuccessfully court the lovely schoolteacher, Katherine Barlow (Patricia Arquette). Instead, she begins to feel an attraction to Sam the "onion man" (Dule Hill), who is famous for using onions as a cure-all, as well as a repellant for the dangerous Yellow Spotted Lizards, which plague the area. Paying him with her famous spiced peaches, Katherine gets Sam to fix up her schoolhouse so that he can be near her. When everything was fixed, she tells him that her heart is broken and he kisses her to fix it. Because he is black and she is Caucasian, the law decrees that Sam must be killed, which happens. Furious, Katherine kills the sheriff (Eric Pierpoint) and becomes an outlaw called "Kissin' Kate Barlow" (known as this because she kills a man then kisses him). One of the people she robbed was the first Stanley Yelnats, who she left to die in the desert. Instead, he climbed a mountain and found water and food. Kate died when she was threatened by Charles Walker and his wife, Linda, both of whom believed that she buried the money in the lake, which dried up when Sam was shot. She responds by letting a Yellow Spotted Lizard bite her and tells them to start digging.

Stanley slowly gains the respect of his fellow diggers. When he finds a golden bullet casing and sees the fuss the Warden makes over it, he begins to suspect that they are digging holes to actually find something. Meanwhile, he begins to teach Hector Zeroni (Zero) (Khleo Thomas), a lonely boy at the camp, how to read and write. When the adults begin to insult his intelligence however, Dr. Pendanski gives Hector a Shovel & tells him what is D i g Hector hits Dr. Pendanski with the shovel on the part of his Face & tells him dig Hector runs off into the desert. Stanley follows to help him. The two climb the same mountain that Stanley's ancestor climbed. Along the way, Hector becomes ill from "Sploosh", a jarred food that he ate (most likely Kate's spiced peaches). Stanley carries him up the mountain, gives him water, and sings to him. At about that time, it is revealed that Stanley's father invents a cure for foot odor, using peaches and onions, implying that the curse has been broken. Stanley and Hector decide to return to the camp to find whatever is hidden there. They dig throughout the night and find a chest. Unfortunately, they are trapped by both the Warden and a nest of Yellow Spotted Lizards. The lizards don't attack however (as the boys lived off of onions on the mountain) and they are rescued by a lawyer that is hired for Stanley. She takes Stanley, Hector, and the chest home. The chest holds the valuables that Kate stole from the Yelnats family, and it is revealed that the Warden - Ms. Walker - is Charles's descendant, the camp is a legal sham, and both her employees are criminal goons she hired. It is also revealed that it begins to rain again in Camp Greenlake. Using the money, the Yelnats family moves into a bigger house and Hector is able to find his mother. It is also mentioned that Hector Zeroni was Madame Zeroni's great-great-great grandson via Shia's narration, meaning the curse on the Yelnats family was broken when Stanley gave water to Hector from the mountain stream while singing to him.

Reception

The movie made a US$71 million at the box office against a modest $20 million budget, making the film at least a moderate financial success. It was consistently lauded as an excellent movie, because of its strong plot, deep characters, and family friendliness. It received a 77% Certified Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes

Musical Soundtrack

File:Holes soundtrack.jpg

One of the most appealing facets to the movie (particularly to the kid audiences) was the film's music which included the Grammy winning single "Just Like You" by Keb Mo', and "Dig It" by The D Tent Boys (the actors portraying the D Tent group inmates), which was exceptionally popular with child viewers and had a music video which played regularly on Disney Channel. The soundtrack also included contributions by Eels, Devin Thompson, Dr. John, Eagle Eye Cherry, Fiction Plane, Little Axe, Moby, North Mississippi Allstars, Pepe Deluxé, Shaggy, Stephanie Bentley, and Teresa James and the Rhythm Tramps.

The movie's score was written by the famous Hollywood composer, Joel McNeely.

Differences from the book

Although the movie is very much like the book, there are some differences. It should be noted that Louis Sachar, who wrote the novel, also wrote the screenplay.

  • In the book, Stanley is overweight and loses weight during the course of the book. However, in the film he is of average weight throughout the entire film. Many of the issues in the book stemmed from Stanley looking down on himself for being overweight. However, in the bonus features on the DVD, it is explained that global issues forced this change.
  • The movie much more dramatically depicts the excavation efforts by the boys after the discovery of Kate Barlow's lipstick tube. In the book, it is basically described as three holes being widened until they meet. In the movie, we see an entire network of huge trenches and dug walkways perhaps over six feet deep.
  • Some early scenes showing Stanley at school are not in the movie; however, they are seen as deleted scenes on the DVD.
  • In the book, Stanley's father was experimenting on how to recycle old sneakers, and the creation of the foot-odor cure was an accident. It is also unclear what was used to make the concoction. In the film, he only experiments on how to eliminate foot odor which he accomplishes using peaches and onions.
  • In the book, the motorboat collides with Sam's rowboat, whereupon Sam is shot in the water. Katherine is with him in the boat. In the movie, Katherine watches helplessly from land while Sam is alone in the boat, and he is shot by those in the motorboat, rather than their colliding with it. A final scene in this segment shows his boat floating alone in the water; he is presumably collapsed within it.
  • In the book, Squid/Alan asks Stanley to tell his mom he's sorry; in the film, Armpit/Theodore asks the favor.
  • In the book, there is a different counselor for every tent; in the movie Mr. Pendanski seems to be a counselor for every tent.
  • In the book, Kate Barlow returns to Green Lake and lives in a house alone for three months before being found by Trout Walker. They break into her house and search the house for the loot. They also tie her up and subject her to torture to try to make her reveal the location of the money. There is a long time before she is bitten by the lizard. In the movie, she is simply seen lying against Sam's overturned boat (having a vision of him) when Trout and Linda Walker approach her demanding the money. She plays dumb, knowing that they won't be able to find the treasure on their own ("Go ahead, kill me; the lake goes on for miles.") Only a minute or so after encountering Trout, Kate grabs a yellow-spotted lizard and uses its fatal bite to commit suicide.
  • In the book, Kate Barlow did not attempt to be bitten by the lizard, but in the film, she provoked it, intent on it killing her.
  • In the film, the second line of the pig verse is "the bark on the tree was as soft as the skies." In the book, originally, the second line was "the bark on the tree was just a little bit softer," but when Elya Yelnats came to America, his wife Sarah (who is not in the film, in which the backstory ends while he was on his ship to America), changes the line to "the bark in the tree was as soft as the skies" because the second verse only rhymed in Latvian, and not in English. Also, on the last page of the book, there is a second verse which was not mentioned in the movie.
  • The book segment about Stanley, Hector, and Stanley's lawyer in the car driving back to civilization does not appear in the film. Instead we cut directly from Camp Green Lake right to Stanley's family opening the trunk.
  • In the book, Elya Yelnats is 15 when he falls in love with Myra Menke. In the film his age is unknown, but he appears about 25–30.
  • In the book, Madame Zeroni is friends with Elya Yelnats, but this is not revealed in the movie.
  • In the book, when Stanley and Zero decide to return to Camp Green Lake and search for the treasure, the book describes them hiding in their respective holes for hours waiting for the camp to empty. In the movie, they arrive at the hole at night and get directly to work.
  • In the book, Sam and Kate Barlow kiss while outside on a rainy day, and Hattie Parker (one of the townsfolk) sees them kiss while walking out of the General Store. In the film, they kiss in Katherine's schoolhouse and Trout Walker sees them kiss while riding on a horse by the schoolhouse.
  • In the film, Stanley and Zero become neighbors, which is not stated in the book although it is possible.
  • In the book, Louis Sachar clearly downplays the value of the contents of the trunk. He states that each family got a bit less than a million dollars after taxes - "though not much [less than a million]." In the movie, the value of the trunk is portrayed as being much higher. The individual bonds are valued at "millions" and we see at least four of them being handled (not counting the jewels and other items found in the trunk) making the trunk at least worth $20 million. Also in the book the trunk is a described as a "suitcase", whereas in the film it is more like a chest.
  • In the deleted scenes on the DVD, Magnet is stabbed by the Warden with a pitchfork after leaving the site to go to the bathroom; in the book, it was Armpit who was.
  • In the book, it says that Stanley Yelnats I was left in the desert with no water or food for 17 days, but in the movie, Stanley Yelnats II tells his grandson that it was 16 days (though he might have been mistaken).
  • In the book, Sam says he will fix Ms. Katherine's schoolhouse roof in exchange for 6 jars of her spiced peaches. In the film, he fixes the roof for three.
  • In the film, when the attorneys arrive, they find out Mr. Sir is actually a paroled criminal named Marion Sevillo. He apparently committed a crime in El Paso and his possession of a gun is violating his parole.
  • In the film it is revealed that Mr. Pendanski is not a real counselor, but this is not mentioned in the book.
  • The yellow spotted lizards in the film are reddish in coloring (they were portrayed by bearded dragons, except when they were shot running on their hind legs, when they were CG) while in the book, the lizards were green.
  • In the book the Sheriff is in his office alone when he is killed but in the film he isn't (there were prisoners watching).
  • In the book Mr. Pendanski was said to have a buzz cut, almost bald. He does not appear this way in the movie.
  • In the book, the water truck is red, but in the movie it is blue.
  • In the book, it says there are only two trees in the camp, but in the film, several trees could be seen behind the tents.
  • In the book, it is claimed that Mary Lou, Sam's mule, is around fifty years of age, but in the film, Sam says she is over 100 years old.


Cast

Camp Green Lake

Yelnats' Home

Latvia

Old Green Lake

Stefan Cambell as the anal sex king

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