“Lost in translation,” a common phrase describing the not just the occurrences of miscommunication language but also the possible distortions of culture in the process of translation. The Swedish novel, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (part of the Millenium trilogy and originally titled Män som hatar kvinnor, literally “Men who hate women”), was made into two film versions. The original was a Swedish film production that was released in 2009, and with the worldwide popularization of The Millenium Trilogy in both its written form and the Swedish film versions prompted an American Hollywood remake that was released in 2011. The original story though not completely transformed between the different versions of the film does lose some of the inherent integrity of the story; changes to make the story and film more American and typical of a Hollywood crime thriller film has an effect on the feeling and perception of the Swedish culture and the nature of the story. While the changes can be viewed in many ways in the films and may seemingly be minute in nature, they can be seen through careful consideration of the one fundamental character to the story, Lisbeth Salander, and also through analysis in the differing methods of film production between the United States and Sweden and their effect on her character.
Portrayed in the Swedish films by Noomi Rapace and in the American version by Rooney Mara represents the embodiment of the amatuer hard-boiled detective. Though she has never officially worked as a detective of private eye, Salander does her fair share of sleuthing in her work for Milton Security. Because Salander is a ward of the state she worked as an office assistant until her boss, Dragan Armansky, discovered a fondness for he...
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Though the American version does a fantastic job of following the original story closely in order of events and inclusion of detail. However, with artistic liberties taken with the inclusion of such details they do change the integrity of the original story and Lisbeth Salander’s character. So far the storyline itself in the American adaptation has not been altered, but the inherent tone of Lisbeth’s characterization has been modified to fit more of the American standard through the cultural translation of revising elements of a Swedish crime thriller.
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