Taglines: Search for truth, find freedom.
THE GIVER tells the coming-of-age story of Jonas (Brenton Thwaites), a young man raised in a seemingly utopian world where everyone appears to be happy. This sense of harmony is created by a strictly engineered existence where the community is deprived of the so-called burden of memories. They have no notion of suffering, hunger, or violence.
On the other hand, there’s no freedom, no choice and no individuality. Being treated with a regimented daily injection, the humans are genetically designed not to feel emotion or see color, and the scientifically-controlled environment prevents any visual distinctiveness that may stimulate sensation and alter the order of their seemingly utopian world. They live in sameness: identical homes, identical clothes, and an identical family structure. Family units in this unusual society each consist of a husband, a wife, and two children: one male and one female who are born to designated “birthmothers.”
Apart from a bright intelligence, and integrity, there is something slightly ‘different’ and exceptional about Jonas. At the Ceremony where youth is assigned their vocations, the Chief Elder (Meryl Streep) selects Jonas to inherit the position of the community’s Receiver of Memories. In this, most-honored position in the community, he will become the keeper of ancient memories before the time of ‘Sameness’. Jonas enters into training with the current Receiver of Memories, known as the Giver (Jeff Bridges). The old man is kind, but weary as he carries the burden of memory.
The Giver is an American social science fiction film directed by Phillip Noyce and written by Michael Mitnick and Robert B. Weide based on the 1993 novel of same name by Lois Lowry. The film stars Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep, Brenton Thwaites, Alexander Skarsgård, Odeya Rush, Katie Holmes, and Taylor Swift. It was released in the United States on August 15, 2014.
Development
Lois Lowry’s science-fiction novel The Giver has sold more than ten million copies worldwide and is Harper Collins’s top-selling children’s eBook. Today the ‘young adult’ fiction is assigned reading by middle schools throughout the United States and has assembled a massive fan base in the youth audience.
Co-producing partner Walden Media spent over a decade developing the project, and Chief Operating Officer, Frank Smith, says, “The Giver is the crown jewel of children’s literature, and we are proud to add this film to the list of other great book to film adaptations we have produced like Holes, Charlotte’s Web, Bridge to Terabithia, Because of Winn-Dixie, Romano, and The Chronicles of Narnia.”
The motion picture adaptation of THE GIVER represents the fulfillment of a twenty year-long dream for actor Jeff Bridges, who also serves as a producer on the production. “My daughters read the book, but before I had known that they had read the book, I was looking for some material in which to direct my father, Lloyd Bridges,” he recalls. “I also wanted to make a movie that my kids could watch at the time. I was looking through a catalogue of children books and I came across this wonderful cover of a book, with this old, grizzled kind of guy on the cover and thought, ‘Oh yeah, my dad can play that guy!'”
Bridges says that he was expecting to read a children’s book, “but on an adult level it worked so well, and I thought this was going to be a terrific project for my father to be involved in.” Bridges went as far as shooting, with his own video camera, an entire movie in which he directed his father in the character of The Giver, along with his nephew in the role of Jonas.
Together with his manager at the time, Neil Koenigsberg, Bridges spent a number of years trying to develop the project that went through numerous incarnations with a variety of directors and screenwriters. “Because it was such a successful book, I thought this will be a movie that will be easy to get made, but that proved not true!”
More than fifteen years ago, a company where producer Nikki Silver was working owned the rights to the property. Silver concedes that it was by good fortune that she was able to acquire the rights herself, “I’ve always been a lover of children’s literature, especially young adult, and The Giver is one of the prize pieces of children’s literature.”
Starting at that time, Bridges and Silver began to develop and nurture the project together, and tenaciously kept it alive. Silver explains, “Jeff had been involved up to the point that I came across the project and I immediately called him to ask if he still wanted do it. I got a resounding ‘yes’ – and from there it’s been a long journey for myself, Jeff and Neil.” Silver adds that she kept in close touch with author, Lois Lowry, over the years. “She loved our vision of it and stayed with us, and here we are today, which is so exciting!”
Silver, who faced similar challenges in getting backing for the project, says, “It was particularly difficult because everybody loved and respected the material. However, it was both a drama and it was for kids, and those words scared a lot of people. But The Weinstein Company stepped up and were willing to take up the challenge with us.”
Lois Lowry’s Unique Sameness
Lowry recalls the genesis of the book that she wrote some twenty years ago. “It was not prompted by any political thought; it was inspired by my father who at that time was very old, and his memories were fading. He was living some distance from me and I’d pay him a visit every six weeks. Over time it became more apparent that he was losing memories that to me were so important. I also saw that he was content, as he had forgotten every sad and scary event that he experienced, including his involvement in World War II, and the death of his first child – my sister – at a young age. This made me think about the importance of memory and how one can manipulate it.”
Having grown up on military bases around the world, where all the houses were identical and the rules were the same for everyone, was Lowry’s source of inspiration in creating the world of Sameness in which Jonas and The Giver live. “While living by a lot of rules and in an orderly environment makes them content, there’s also the reality that the more you try to exist in that kind of role, the more you are desperately lacking. Now that I no longer live that way, I can appreciate the diversity and the variety of the neighborhoods and places where I now live.”
On why she thinks stories about dystopian, futuristic societies are so appealing to young people, Lowry adds: “They are growing up in a world with so much uncertainty in it and there’s so much out there to be worried about. When I was a kid in the Eisenhower years, I never thought about the future, I assumed it would all be as pleasant as it was then.”
“Kids today are more sophisticated than I was and they have access to media. I didn’t have a television growing up. I think they have cause to be concerned and to try to sort out what their role is going to be in the shaping of the future. That’s why they’re drawn to this sort of speculative fiction.”
The Importance of Memory
The most pivotal of the multi-layered themes in THE GIVER is memory, as a source of wisdom as well as pain. The community that Lowry created in the novel uses strict rules to remove freedom of choice and individuality. While this is done to achieve an existence devoid of conflict and difference, it quickly becomes evident that this is also a world robbed of depth and emotion.
“The question that is put to the audience is: does the end justify the means? What are we willing to do for simple comfort? Are we willing to scrap all these huge polarities in our lives? Can we be rid of the tremendous sorrows and tremendous joys in life in order to just have a neutral, safe, relatively happy existence? Is that good enough for us?” muses Bridges.
The actor reveals that an important personal memory of his was the role his mother played in his youth. “I had a wonderful mother. She used to play with all of us, quite intensely. Each child would have an hour a day when our mom devoted all of her attention to each of us. In my hour, I would say, ‘Okay Mom, let’s go under the table and you be the space monster and I’ll be the thing,’ and she would just love that!”
Brenton adds, “My favorite theme in the story is that it touches on love and the idea that fighting for love is one of our main strengths as humans. Jonas becomes the most curious when he experiences love, and he pushes for that throughout the story.”
Monaghan shares, “What I like most about this story is that there is no real villain. It’s not about bad guys. Most of the rules of deprivation come not from bad intentions, but from quite the opposite, from good intentions. In their purity this community believes that they are doing the right thing. That’s very relatable to reality in that most of the time when people do bad things, they don’t know or believe it’s bad. I think that’s very important to teach kids.”
Thwaites believes that the powerful relevance of the movie will draw an audience. “I also hope that as a young artist portraying Jonas, I will encourage younger people to emote, and to not be embarrassed to voice their opinions or to voice their emotions.”
The Giver
Directed by: Phillip Noyce
Starring by: Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep, Brenton Thwaites, Alexander Skarsgård, Katie Holmes, Odeya Rush, Cameron Monaghan, Taylor Swift, Emma Tremblay
Screenplay by: Michael Mitnick, Robert B. Weide
Production Design by: Ed Verreaux
Cinematography by: Ross Emery
Film Editing by: Barry Alexander Brown
Costume Design by: Diana Cilliers
Set Decoration by: Andrew McCarthy
Music by: Marco Beltrami
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for a mature thematic image and some sci-fi action / violence.
Studio: The Weinstein Company
Release Date: August 15, 2014
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