Preview

"The Most Dangerous Game": Short Story vs. Film

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
486 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
"The Most Dangerous Game": Short Story vs. Film
"The Most Dangerous Game": Short Story vs. Film

“The world is made up of two classes—the hunters and the huntees. Luckily, you and I are the hunters.” Thus states Sanger Rainsford, the hero of Richard Connell’s masterful short story, “The Most Dangerous Game,” to his hunting partner as they prepare to stalk jaguars in the Amazon wilderness. Ironically, Rainsford is soon destined to experience the fear of the huntee as he must desperately elude his rival, the demented, man-hunting General Zaroff. A lethal contest of what Zaroff refers to as “outdoor chess” rivets the readers’ attention and leads us to question the ethics of hunting. No wonder the much-anthologized and often-imitated tale continues to thrill as much as when it was first published. But when directors Irving Pichel and Ernest B. Schoedsack worked with screenwriter James Ashmore Creelman to adapt the Connell story for their 1932 film, they were doubtlessly looking for a script that would appeal to a wide range of cinema goers. Seemingly they hoped to make a great story even better. The Hollywood version of The Most Dangerous Game turns a focused, mano a mano duel for survival into an ambitious romantic action drama through three major alterations: an explosive shipwreck, the addition of a female lead, and a raucous conclusion that leaves little to the imagination.

In Connell’s short story, Rainsford arrives on Zaroff’s treacherous island after falling off a steamer and swimming ashore, but the filmmakers decided to make the scene far more spectacular. After Zaroff’s bogus channel markers lure Rainsford’s vessel onto a reef, the boat explodes into flames while crew and passengers are tossed into the water. But rather than settle for simple drowning, the filmmakers have a bevy of merciless sharks attack the hapless humans, and after the obligatory blood-curdling screams (“Ah! He’s got me!”), only Rainsford survives to struggle on to the island. No doubt the filmmakers knew their screen

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    “The Most Dangerous Game,” by Richard Connell, is a narrative about Mr. Sanger Rainsford, a celebrated hunter, who finds himself on a secluded island after falling overboard a yacht. Rainsford locates a large building on the island and meets General Zaroff, who invites him to rest and replenish his health in his home. After Zaroff explains that he also enjoys hunting, he also reveals that he has discovered a new, more dangerous animal to hunt: humans. Zaroff forces Rainsford to become the hunted in order to win his freedom and return to the mainland. Connell’s central idea suggests that instinct does not always yield to reason.…

    • 558 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In the short story titled The Most Dangerous Game written by Richard Connell brings a dark and evil twisted story of murder and chaotic change. The psychological environment and metaphorical surroundings will leave one man dead and the other breathing a sea of relief. This seventy-two hour hunt will forever shape the life and direction of the animal who frees himself of the dark, cold, impenetrable fortress of rocky shores, tangled forest, and unforgiving terrain called Ship Trap Island or the mind.…

    • 1439 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Most Dangerous Game, by Richard Connell, is an original nonfiction story about two hunters who take themselves into the Amazon to hunt down animals. Rainsford, one of the main hunters, ends up finding himself on a mysterious island after an accident occurs. Comparing to the film, the characters throughout the scenes differentiate in many ways. Although, the short story itself is entertaining. The changes such as the shipwreck, a love interest, and character development that the director produces a much more dramatic plot, placing the audience on the edge of their seats.…

    • 521 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the story “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell, Sager Rainsford, is faced to fight against general Zaroff by being an animal. To understand the suspenseful tone Connell conveys in “The Most Dangerous Game”, you have to look at the three settings of the story, the yacht, the jungle, and the mansion through diction, details, and sensory imagery, that help the author reveal the danger of the game.…

    • 563 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The most dangerous game

    • 533 Words
    • 3 Pages

    People have always sought to escape their mundane realities through fantastic stories. Richard Connell “The most dangerous game” provides this type of reprieve from reality. Through hyperbolic, stock protagonist and antagonist, a simplistic conflict, and a happy end “The most dangerous game” presents itself to be purely commercial fiction.…

    • 533 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In The Most Dangerous Game, Connell describes Rainsford, the protagonist, as a renowned hunter. Connell uses the opening conversation between Rainsford and Whitney, Rainsford’s companion on the yacht, to enlighten the reader to Rainsford’s attitude of indifference concerning the prey that he hunts. As fate would have it, Rainsford is marooned on an island where he meets another hunter, General Zaroff. As the story progresses, Rainsford begins to see the façade of civility disappear and the real nature of the General come to surface. The General explains how hunting man is the logical progression of their art and that they are actually kindred souls. Rainsford is appalled by the comparison of their two natures and clings to the moral high ground. That is until the General forces Rainsford to now become the prey. Rainsford, now the prey, calls upon not only his vast knowledge and experience of the hunt but also his primeval instinct of survival. Connell takes the reader through many twists and turns giving hope for Rainsford around each corner only to take it away. Due to the cunningness and resourcefulness of Rainsford, the General is given literally the best hunt of his life. In the end, Rainsford outsmarts the General…

    • 715 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Most Dangerous Game

    • 801 Words
    • 4 Pages

    To hunt is to search for animals in hopes of killing them. To murder is to kill another human being. In the story “The Most Dangerous Game”, Richard Connell combines these two for a stunning and unpredictable plot. It tells the readers how the topic is introduced, displayed, and comes to a climax before the resolution. “The Most Dangerous Game” should be read next year, for it was different than the other stories and convivial to read.…

    • 801 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Most Dangerous Game is a story and a film. They have similarities and differences. Some similarities are the setting, the château, most of the characters, and the island. The island is very mysterious and adventures in both features. General Zaroff and Rainford go in war with each other. The film follows the book in a flow. Although they seem very similar, they have many differences. There are more characters and more horror.…

    • 405 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the short story, “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell, Sanger Rainsford and General Zaroff are distinct characters who share a passion for hunting big-game, but disagree on the value of human life. This disagreement leads Rainsford to kill Zaroff and end…

    • 614 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Most Dangerous Game

    • 763 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The short story “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell is composed of character, setting and conflict. One of the critical themes in the short story is irony, which plays a major role in the story. There is irony in the setting, a remote jungle island, the conflict, murder verses hunting, and the characters, General Zaroff who is a crazed man-hunter and Mr. Rainsford, his prey.…

    • 763 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Imagine a jaguar trapped on a desolate island. Suddenly, a gunshot is heard. The jaguar turns around and sees a hunter pursuing him! It runs for cover and hides behind a bush, out of the hunter's eye, or is it? The hunter stares straight at the bush in which the jaguar lays and then walks away. The jaguar knows it's going to be hunted each day until the hunter succeeds. Its life is in jeopardy. This is exactly how Rainsford feels when he is hunted by General Zaroff. Suspense, setting, and irony make Richard Connell's "The Most Dangerous Game" an electrifying short story.…

    • 655 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    "The Most Dangerous Game" is a short story about a hunter named "Sanger Rainsford" who is marooned on an island after accidentally falling off a yacht and is a highly anthologized story. As the film industry has done many times before and will continue to do so, very popular short stories, such as this one, and books get remade as movies. Traditionally when Hollywood does this, a few liberties are taken and some elements of the original work are changed or eliminated. "The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell is no exception.…

    • 570 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The exciting suspense of action of Richard Connell's " The Most Dangerous Game" brings in a dark, mysterious, and evil setting as it takes us to a young man's storm of thoughts about the game of hunting and the instinct to survive. Rainsford was his name, and he was a proud hunter full of wit and reason. He loved hunting and did not care nor know about the feelings of the "huntees". He eventually meets up with another hunter named Zaroff who gives him the feeling of being hunted and changes his ideas of hunting. Zaroff was bored with hunting because his intelligence exceeded the animals' instincts. Therefore, he set his eyes on the most dangerous hunt ever, the hunt between him and Rainsford.…

    • 630 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Richard Connells short story, “The Most Dangerous Game”, Sanger Rainsford is thrown from a yacht and finds himself on an island. The story focuses on a celebrated hunter, Sanger, who meets General Zaroff, who hunts a different type of game. Sanger learns how animals feel as prey by using his excellent eyesight, courage, and ability to calculate, when he becomes the hunted.…

    • 589 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Richard Connell’s short story, The Most Dangerous Game, is based around a famous New Yorker hunter who fell off a boat and swims to an isolated and much feared island, called the “Ship Trap Island”. Rainsford, a famous hunter in New York was travelling to the Amazon forest to hunt the Jaguar. While on board passing the much-feared Ship Trap Island, he heard three gunshots. Trying to get a better look, he went on to the deck but unexpectedly drops his cigar. Trying to reach for it, he fell into the sea without anyone responding to his cries for help. He decides to swim to the island where he finds a Chateau, with two Cossacks living in there. One was General Zaroff while the other was his mute and deaf giant assistant, Ivan. General gave Rainsford a dinner and some clothes, where General told Rainsford a little of his background and that hunting no longer excite him. Over time, he told Rainsford his “Game”, which is to basically hunt humans. Sailors of boats that were damaged would be sent off to the jungle with food, a knife and some clothes. If he can resist capture from Zaroff, Ivan or his hounds for 3 days, then he wins the game. But so far, no one has been able to achieve that. The next person he wants to hunt is Rainsford, and should he refuse, Ivan will kill him. Rainsford then uses three methods in an attempt to win the game. The first resulted in him getting caught, but General decided not to kill him then but to play a “cat and mouse” game. The second he sets a pit which killed one of the General’s hounds. Thirdly, he sets another trap that killed Ivan, but not the General. In the end, he jumps off a cliff to avoid the approaching hounds. General thought he was dead but when he returned to his bedroom that night, Rainsford was waiting for him there. Rainsford then decided to have a knife fight with General, admitting, “I’m still a beast at bay”, which the loser would be fed off to the hounds and the winner gets to sleep in General’s bed. In the end,…

    • 386 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics