The book tells the story of a New York author who visits Savannah, Ga., is bewitched, and takes an apartment there. Gradually he meets the local fauna, including a gay antiques dealer, a piano bar owner of no fixed abode, a drag queen, a voodoo priestess, a man who keeps flies on leashes, a man who walks an invisible dog and the members of the Married Women's Card Club. The plot grows labyrinthine after the antiques dealer is charged with the murder of a young hustler.
Berendt introduces these people and tells their stories in a bemused, gossipy fashion; he's a natural storyteller who knows he has great stories to tell, and relishes the telling. He is not, however, really a major player in the book, and the movie makes a mistake by assigning its central role to a New York writer, now named John Kelso, through whose hands all of the action must pass.
There is nothing wrong with the performance by John Cusack except that it is unnecessary; if John Lee Hancock's screenplay had abandoned the Kelso character and just jumped into the midst of Savannah's menagerie with both feet, the movie might have had more energy and color. Or if Kelso had been a weird character, too, that might have helped; he's written and played as a flat, bland witness, whose tentative love affair with a local temptress (Alison Eastwood) is so abashed we almost wonder if he's ever dated before.
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil Quotes Showing 1-30 of 50 “Rule number one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Overview System Requirements Related. HoloLens PC Mobile device Xbox 360. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil begins with a portrait of Jim Williams, the man around. Log in with either your Library Card Number or EZ Login. Library Card Number or EZ Username PIN or EZ Password.
Berendt's nonfiction book (the credits inexplicably call it a novel) circulates with amusement and incredulity among unforgettable characters. But the screenplay whacks the anecdotal material into shape to fit the crime-and-courtroom genre.
A doped-up young bisexual hothead (Jude Law) is introduced in two overplayed scenes, and then found dead on the floor of antiques dealer Jim Williams' office. His death inspired an unprecedented four trials in real life, which the movie can be excused for reducing to one--but as the conventions of courtroom melodrama take over, what makes Savannah unique gradually fades out of the picture. Jack Thompson gives a solid performance as Sonny Seiler, the defense attorney, but he's from John Grisham territory, not Savannah.
'Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil,' by John Berendt
When the author, John Berendt, wrote 'The Book' as it is now referred to by residents of Savannah, Georgia, he did what many writers do. He combined fact with fiction.
'The Book' turned into the movie entitled, 'Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.' Berendt's book remained on the New York Times best seller list for 216 weeks following its debut. The movie adaptation debuted in 1997, with actor, Clint Eastwood, as director and producer and John Lee Hancock as screenwriter. With a $30 million budget, the film grossed $25.1 million in sales.
The True Story Behind Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
Berendt's book was considered 'faction.' This simply means it is part fact and part fiction.
The characters in the story actually were residents of Savannah. Without realizing it, Berendt exposed the dark side of Savannah society, a relatively insular, highly traditional composition of diverse individuals.
The truth of the story highlights the crime of murder by wealthy, gay Savannah socialite, Jim Williams, and his employee in his antique business and lover, Danny Hansford.
The remarkable part of the crime is that Jim Williams was tried four times for Hansford's murder. This was omitted from the movie version. The actors who played Jim Williams and Danny Hansford, Kevin Spacey and Jude Law, respectively, bear a striking resemblance to the murderer and victim.
Many of Berendt's characters such as the voodoo woman, Minerva, the transgendered nightclub entertainer, Chablis and Joe Odom were actually Savannah residents. So popular was the book that Savannah saw a large increase in tourism. One of the attractions was the 'Bird Girl' sculpture seen in the movie. It was originally located in Bonaventure Cemetery. It draws thousands of tourists each year.
Highlighting the Truth
Perhaps the author intended to expose the mirror image of life in Savannah and felt the murder of Danny Hansford, shocking to residents of 'this fair city,' as lawyer Sonny Seiler states in the movie, created enormous interest in antebellum homes restored to classic southern elegance. Other features of this city include its deeply embedded traditions like the practice of voodoo and its love of classical and jazz music.
The book is about people in their most naked reality and that good and evil combine to prove truth is stranger than fiction. For example, the high society in Savannah projects the image of style and 'class,' that covers darker characteristics in their personalities.
In Savannah, residents are aware of homosexuals and the transgendered. They choose a cosmopolitan attitude that dismisses these lifestyles with one hand and ingratiates it into their lives with the other.
This discloses truth in the voodoo belief as Minerva stated, 'One hour before midnight for doing good, one hour after midnight for evil.' This belief is wholly applicable to characters in the true story of Jim Williams and Danny Hancock.
Jim Williams symbolizes the good in the hour before midnight and Danny Hancock the evil the hour after midnight. In the real world, the upper-class often crosses from good into evil in the garden of life.
Bookatourandlearnmore
The book The Lawyer Games, tells new information about the trials, and testimonies, and photographs that really went on in the court room.
Learn more about this fascinating story from expert tour guide, Angela Sergi at Savannah Heritage Tours in Savannah, GA. Unlike other tour companies, Angela focuses more on the trial than the Voodoo.