HBO thinks you’re stupid. Not only that, Tom Thayer, executive producer for the film version of historian Dee Brown’s classic Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, thinks you need your hand held. Thayer is quoted in yesterday’s New York Times defending the creative liberties [read: fabrications] taken in turning the best-selling nonfiction book into a movie. Thayer said that the book “doesn’t have a single narrative,” and so the producer added real-life character Charles Eastman, an educated Native American, to move the story along. He explained, “We felt that to tell a story of that size, the Eastman character would be a great hand-holder for the audience.” NYT reporter Edward Wyatt rightly points out, “Many literary critics, and millions of readers, however, had little trouble following Mr. Brown’s story.” Daniel Giat, the film’s writer, told the NYT: “Everyone felt very strongly that we needed a white character or a part-white, part-Indian character to carry a contemporary white audience through this project.”
We don’t think you’re stupid. In fact, we think you’re so smart that you’ll be eager to check out KR‘s latest podcast–KR Editor David Lynn’s interview with novelist Ian McEwan. Available for your listening pleasure now (the print version will appear in KR‘s Summer 07 issue, due to come out next month).