Wrapping up the Semester

Can you believe it?? This coming week is the final week of class! Below is everything you need to know about what needs to happen between now and the last day of the semester.

Office Hours
If you need to see me for anything, my last days of office hours until the Fall 2014 semester are Tu 5/20 (5-6pm) and Th 5/22 (11am-12pm).

Final Exam
As discussed in class, your final exam will take place in-class on Thursday, 5/22. The final exam is on We, and will include a variety of questions, including short essays (for which you will need to provide speaker of/context for & close reading of specific excepts, and also analysis/claims/evidence in terms of how those excerpts function in the larger novel). I strongly encourage you to review the book, your notes from our in-class discussions of the text, all students’ (and class discussion) blog posts on the different sections on OpenLab, and post any last minute questions OpenLab.

The final exam is worth 15% of your overall course grade.

Please remember to arrive to class on time on Th 5/22, as we will begin the exam promptly at the start of class and will end exactly at the end of class. If you arrive late, you will not be given extra time to complete the exam.


Course Reflections
Your Individual Final Course Reflection is due in class on Th 5/22 (this is a mandatory–not optional–assignment). Please visit the Final Course Reflection page on our site for more details on this assignment.


Final Course Grades

The deadline for professors to submit final course grades for the Spring 2014 semester is Tu 5/27. Please wait to view your course grade online through CUNYfirst (I will not be giving out final course grades via e-mail). Once you see your final grade posted online, you should feel free to e-mail me for your final exam grade (you have all of your other grades already).

Final grades are non-negotiable, though I am always more than happy to discuss them/your work with you at any point in person. If you would like to discuss any of your grades/receive additional feedback on the final assignments/exams, you should e-mail me to schedule an appointment to discuss your work when we return to campus at the end of August.


Thank you, & stay in touch!
Finally, it was a pleasure to work with you all this semester. I wish you the best of luck wrapping up the semester and on your final exams, and in your future endeavors at City Tech and beyond. You all worked incredibly hard this semester, and I really appreciate your consistent effort and good cheer day in and day out (especially for an 8:30am class!). I hope you enjoyed yourselves and learned a lot about utopias/dystopias, reading fiction, critical thinking, and writing. Have a wonderful summer break, & don’t hesitate to be in touch in future semesters to discuss your work in this course/beyond, and/or to just say hi  🙂

Brave New World Film 1980 response

The Brave New World film we watched in class played out a little different from the book when it came to many things. It was still a good movie but not perfect because nothing is perfect. I do feel the film could have been better. Film is kind of a low production compare to the movies that are shown in the movie theater so I can understand how this movie was not the best. Reading a book can seem to be good because you are using your imagination to fill in the missing pieces and it can be anything. It can be anything you picture in your mind because there are no images to tell you what is and what it not. Watching a movie tells you what is true and don’t give you the ability to imagine things.

 

The part of the movie that first made me think what was going to happen next is the beginning before the movie actually start. There was a clip of the film where they show a continue ride through the train tunnel. It seem like the train was moving through the tunnel but it was the actually camera showing the view as if a train going to different train stops. This view the camera has set up was interesting for me because I did not know when it was going to end. This scene of the tunnel with the sound playing in the background felt like it would never stop and there was unlimited time giving it a futuristic feel for the theme. A futuristic theme for a society with powerful technology. In the book Brave New World their society was all about technology so when seeing this part it made me think all about technology.

 

The only thing that show things uniformed in the movie was the scene with all the lower caste system people working together wearing uniforms. I think it was good that they did this because if they did not then the feeling for how powerful the World State is would decrease. There was a lady voice playing over a loud speaking saying “ending is better than mending, new things are being than old things”. This quote is basically saying if something turns old throw it away and get a new one. They believe in only using what is new. The voice seem to be a tool in order to control the people working in a uniformed fashion. No one look like they had any control of what they were doing. All these people looked like robots who have no freedom of thoughts. People were working as one unit with uniforms to feel identical but were not identical face wise.

 

Bernard and Lenina goes to the Savage Reservation and meets Linda and John. The way they got there was funny because the helicopter crashed and it was funny because of the way the person filmed the movie. Also this part was something that was not in the book but was quiet interesting. After crashing they ran into some so called thugs we would call it now a days in modern society. Those thugs were trying to mess or kill Bernard and lenina. It was funny acting that made me giggle and was definitely fun to watch. When a boy came and save them both from the thugs he brought them to his house for safety. When John mother said to Bernard that they are the most civilized people she has seen in a long time clues started to pop in my head that the lady was Linda. As Linda begun to speak more and more I was hundred percent sure that it was her and the boy was John.

 

One of the most passionate and interesting part of the movie is what John says before he dies by falling off the cliff. John ran away from the World State into a abandon light house so he can escape from the rules of society. As he stays there he got a plenty visitors who were from news channels. Reporters from the TV news channels came to ask question about why he left probably. John got to escape from a few day by day but finally he could not escape anymore. He asked the news reporters what do they want from him? They did not answer and he begun to say ” I want freedom, love, and pain because they don’t value these things. John want all the things they don’t have. His tone of voice mad these words powerful in meaning and it touched me. John was near a cliff because he was backing up from all the news reporters who have been chasing him, then he suddenly fell. Everyone looked down the cliff and John was dead. It was surprising to see him die that way in the film. Everyone laugh because they were happy he died. They were all condition by genetics to have no feelings so when he died they laughed and laughed showing no sense of care for another being.

 

I think over all the movie was fun to watch because it is always fun to watch how a movie will try to interpret the same thing in a book. Things could have been directed a little more different but due to whoever made it, so this is the way it came out. There are plenty ideas I have that would make the movie way better as in terms of showing how powerful the World State suppose to be. I would of try to make people identical looking because reading the book that was the imagination I got out of it.

 

 

 

Brave new world 1980

Watching Brave new world 1998 film was interesting to watch since many things had been changed from the book as most movies usually do. The characters appearance seemed to be different to me especially john and his mother. John was suppose to be a blonde with beautiful eyes causing the people of the workd state to drool over him and all want the chance to sleep with him. Johns mother happened to be really skinny instead of being fat and horrible to look at according to the book. 

The chemistry between Lenina and John seemed to be better in the move rather than the book since Lenina wasn’t as slutty and persistent to sleep with john as she did in the book. I liked that she was reserved and didn’t enjoy sleeping around like the other females did with no care in the world. John didn’t attack her and yell at her like he did in the book which made the film less dramatic for the most part. 

I wonder why Helmholtz wasn’t involved in this film. I think it would have been interesting to see Bernard and John sorta fight over Hemholtz’s attention and friendship. Bernard seemed to be popular with everyone in this society which was weird to see since he is suppose to be an odd ball from the rest. The only person who seemed to hate him was DHC with a passion since he couldn’t control showing his jealousy towards Bernard’s happiness…… It was to the point that he took the time to brain wash a lower class worker to come and try to take Bernard’s life which was pretty insane since it back fired on DHC causing him to lose his job and have it handed down to Bernard.

The scene where john dies was pretty much the same as the book with the reporters and amusement of his insane outburst which made the citizen happy especially after his death. I will never understand how they can find death to be a good thing and natural births to be the complete opposite that is just strange and unusual behavoir. Watching the movie made this so called perfect society actually look worse to me than the book did since everything just made no sense at all. It also showed that the system was built with many flaws since each child from each rank had just one child that didn’t take to well to the brainwashing causing there to be a chance of future rebellion against this society which could be a great thing to help wake up the citizens in order to give them a chance to live the way they want to and not the way they are made to

I thought the movie was pretty good for the most part it did keep my attention but I felt that it was rushe’d film and didn’t cover the any parts of Bernard and Leninas trip which bought them to John and Linda’s presence. This makes me want to watch the later Brave new world movie now in order to compare the two films from the novel .

Brave New… Straight to the point!

This is the first time ever that I read a novel to then watch a film based on the novel. Yes, this even includes Twilight and such ha!

To be honest, I really felt that the film was going to be super boring because it’s based on a novel, and the film was produced in 1998 with no special effects and stuff haha but I was sincerely shocked at how great it was! Yes, there was a lot of missing details that were left out in the film such as several important characters like Helmholtz etc. But I felt that it is important to capture the overall aspect of the novel, specifically the message the author was trying to portray overall instead of focusing on every single detail. So of course, several events and characters did not make it to the film but I think because of these changes it really helped the viewers, like myself, understand and feel what life is like in the World State from the perspective of the characters, rather than focus on the character’s dilemmas.

There are two reasons why I appreciated this version of the movie (although I cannot speak for the other version of the Brave New World film because I have yet to see it). First, I really enjoyed the directors interpretation of the ending of the film. In the novel, it ends at the moment where John decides to commit suicide, however, in the film, it showed the “family” that consisted of Bernard and Lenina and of course, a child. Because of the restrictions that the citizens of the World State endured, the ending brought hope of the chances of citizens to live a “regular” life like individuals. I feel that this decision helped me explore the idea of “what if” such as, what if Linda and John didn’t pass away? What if they remain alive and continue to spread awareness of life in the Reservation? How would things change? If a film builds a lot of questions in the end, I personally believe it is a great film (because people keep talking about it).

Secondly, I LOVE how the ending revealed the young boy who added earplugs in order to distract himself from being conditioned to what the World State wanted. When the scene occurred, I instantly thought about Bernard, which in the novel and film portrays him as the hope of the World State because he is different from the rest. I found it refreshing how this young boy decides to seclude himself from the World State and try to mold what the community wants him to be.

Overall, I really enjoyed this film regardless of the differences it has according to the novel. Yes it is true that perhaps the readers are not too fond of the differences of the novel to the film, but we have to remember that there are so many details that cannot be covered in a two-hour film. Plus, if the film had every-single-detail of the novel, then why would we read the novel in the first place? If all the details are revealed? That is why I believe it is better for a film and novel to be slightly different from one another in order for the consumer to enjoy both pieces.

 

Brave New World v2.0

The movie adaptation of Brave New World was very different from the book. In the book there were a lot of key factors that were not included in the movie. One of the major differences was that there was not a lot of detail in the story prior to Lenina and Bernard going to the reservation.  I feel as if the 1st 100 pages of so of the novel were summed up in the 1st 20 minutes of the movie. There was not a whole lot of detail as to what was going on and the dialoge was not that deep so we can gather an understanding of what was going on. If I did not read the book prior I would not have known what was going on.

In those 100 pages there was a lot of character development for Bernard and Lenina. In the movie Bernard seems like different person. In the book, Bernard is a sort of outcast and doesn’t fit in well. In the movie he is your normal Alpha. In the book Bernard is shown as someone who has ideas different than the World State. That is not depicted even in the slightest in the movie. When Bernard and Lenina go to the reservation, they crashed into it instead of just landing and wanting to stay.

One other point that was made clear in the book and not in the movie was the worship of Ford. Now this isn’t really a huge issue as far as the plot is concerned but it was made such a  big deal in the book that I almost expected to see some adaptation of it in the movie. One major thing that was left out in the movie was the character of Helmholtz. In the book he is a big role in the whole storyline. He and Bernard talk quite often in the book. He is there at Bernards side during the soma riot. I think that maybe one of the 2 guys we see Bernard socializing with in the beginning is Helmholtz but it is never referenced too.

Another difference was the riot scene. The director made this more so of John just throwing soma on the floor, everyone jumping after it and then some type of security getting a hold of John.  In the movie this is a much more elaborate scene. John throws the soma off of a balcony and this ensues the public becoming rowdy and start attacking John. Then the peace robot came out giving out soma and restoring peace. The movie depiction did not seem like a riot at all, just a temper tantrum.

There was another major plot point that was changed in the movie. In the novel, Linda was a citizen of the World State and got abandoned by the Director in the reservation. In the movie Linda was born on the reservation and was introduced to the World State by the DHC and he got her pregnant. It really did not make a lot of sense. Unless the DHC brought her soma and stuff along those lines how does Linda know so much about it?

OMG Brave New World 1980

As soon as Brave New World movie from 1980 started I LOVED it! It was exactly how I had pictured it. The fact that they wore uniforms with there cast system was identity and community which is what they live by. The Hatchery was similar to what I thought it would be. I think for it being made in the 80’s and the book being advanced, they did a pretty good job. I could only imagine what could be done with the book if it were to be made today. Yes, it was longer but I think it need to be that way because it needed to show every major detail.

I like how they showed the Thomkin and Linda part even though that wasn’t talked about in detail in the book let alone happen in the very beginning. While I was watching the movie in the beginning I really thought it had jumped to the part where Lelina and Bernard were visiting the Reservation. The Reservation looked similar to how I thought it would just a little more dirty and it was completely different from the World State, unlike the 1998 version.

I did like the fact that they showed how Bernard got too much alcohol while being made in the Hatchery because that showed the possibility of what may have caused him to be so different from everyone else. I think the babies coming out of plastic bags filled with air was funny because it’s supposed to resemble a womb and the babies can also be “aborted” which just means to stop processing it. They showed him being different while he was growing up and in the book they didn’t do that, they just showed him being different as an adult. When Linda finally gave birth to John, he looked like I thought he would and he resembled those in the World State. Bernard as an adult doesn’t look that different. He looks like he got shocked because of the way his hair looks and when he walks he trips which I think is to show he got to much alcohol. He also, looks pale and a little fragile.

John looked different then I expected, I thought he had long hair, he does however, still look more like those in the World State then those in the Reservation.

When he takes them to go meet Linda her reaction was just like I thought it would be. She connected more with Lelina because they were both beta’s. when the come from the reservation to the World State it showed how different John was from Bernard.

This movie had more of the important scenes which I liked because it made more sense it didn’t leave people wondering. I think the party scene where everyone goes to see John they should have gotten dressed up, still with the same idea of sameness but more party like. This scene however does show how everyone truly feels about him, it’s captured perfectly in this part of the movie,which is something the 1998 one doesn’t. The friendship between Helmholtz, Bernard and John is captured very well. When they were discussing the poetry, and Bernard runs out it shows how he’s jealous of their friendship.
The scene with John and Lelina where he is explaining his views on marriage shows the difference between the two worlds. It shows how he feels and how she feels and how the two are nothing alike and neither one of them understand the others views. This isn’t shown in the other movie which I think is what makes the savage such a complex character. When John is talking to Linda on her death bed it shows the bond between a mother and her son, which nobody in the World State has.

I absolutely love the 1980’s version, it showed everything it needed to and went by the book even though it was long. It had the same ending like the book unlike the other movie. I don’t think this movie needed to be remade. The 1998 movie wasn’t worth it, it was worse then the original one. if there was to be a remake done today I think it should follow exactly like this one except the technology would be the only thing I would change and it would make it far better and actually seem to be in the future. For the time period it was made it was ahead of it time I think. I don’t think I would change anything.

An Actual Brave New World

I chose to watch the 1980 film of Brave New World and what a difference it was from the film we watched in class. This film definitely fulfilled my expectations. The film truly showcased everything about the book. The same way I imagined A Brave New World being was the way it was portrayed in the film. All the different social classes looked just as expected from the clothing to the acting in the film. The appearance of everyone in the books was also just as I thought them to be. Bernard was really funny looking and ugly. One of the things I liked the most about the film was the way it begun. It seemed to have started out from the beginning of everything.

Unlike in the book the film showed us how Mond and Thomas got to the positions they were in. We also were shown how Linda ended up in the reservations and how she wasn’t even looked for as she was just assumed to be dead. A similarity between the book and the film of the values of the World State as they didn’t care to look for Linda because the stability of the World State was more important. This was all shown throughout the beginning of the film. In the film it was actually shown that there was a mistake made and alcohol was placed in Bernard’s surrogate.

Mond was made aware of this mistake yet he chose to let Bernard be decanted as he himself would watch him and use him as an experiment. This is another one of the similarities between the book and the film. Even though we weren’t told in the book that Mond was aware of the mistake in Bernard’s surrogate the similarity isn’t between what happened but the values of the World State. Mond chooses to keep Bernard to study him all for the sake of the World State. Like in the book were everything is done for the sake of the World State.

This film was almost similar to the T with the book no pun intended. Fordship was valued highly and every time two people would converse it would end with the sign of the T being drawn in the air. John and Bernard were definitely the main characters in both the film and the book. The troubles Bernard had growing up were also shown in the film. They showed us how Bernard didn’t want to play find the zipper with the other kids. He was brought to the head of the DHCs office and was put in a chair. When he was asked if he wanted to play and he would respond no he would be given some kind of shock. Till he finally agree to play with the kids after being shocked twice. Showing us another one of the values of the World State similar to the ones in the book of control.

Helmholtz also played a big role in the film as he did in the book. He was considered different from everyone else just as Bernard was. He held the same relationship he had with Bernard and John in the book. He was essential to help show how John believed in poetry and in the writings of Shakespeare just as he did in the book. As well as he was close to Bernard before he became popular.

John being brought back from the reservations was also the same as the book. John loving Lenina was also evident. One of the parts from the book that was omitted was the part John hit Lenina when she tried to sleep with him. Towards the end of the film John did choose to go off alone and live for himself. The words used in the film were almost identical to everything said in the book. John did hang himself but he did not strike everyone including Lenina as in the book. Everyone rioted and they were calmed down with soma vapors. John looked for Lenina and he kissed her saying goodbye to her and then proceeded to hang himself. The book did end with John commuting suicide just as the book did. Showing us all the values of the World State and what John truly believed in just as in the book. I enjoyed this version of the film better than the 1998 version of the film.

P.S. This was a bit hard to write as I kept thinking of more and more things to add to it.

Brave New World (1980)…finally a film which is more related with the book

The 1980 version of Brave New World mostly followed the book to a large extent. Although one major difference is that I learned a lot about Linda’s and Tom (the Director of Hatchery) relationship and past. The movie initiates with Tom being introduced before he was the Director while Linda was working in the Hatchery. We are introduced to how their relationship began which lead to them going to the Savage Reservation, and here was where Linda gave birth to John. By them including these scenes it causes a viewer which has not read the book to understand more what is really going on and see how the society had underlying cracks and issues. Sadly in the book all of this was just mentioned throughout but never went deeply in depth yet in the film they spent about one hour focused on the past. Just this difference allowed me to learn more about the Director and Linda’s characters and see how the complete story is developed behind John’s character and their relationship.

In this film they also had a heavy emphasis on the presence of Ford and what is considered as their religion. Throughout the film the characters did the sign of the “T” and always mentioned Ford, and not only did they mention him but they also explained why they believed in Ford. Mustapha Mond began to explain why Ford was someone to admire and worship and explain how the World State had overcome and become the great intellectual and advanced society they are. Mond mentioned all of this while he was in a room surrounded by other citizens, yet in the book a lot of these concepts were mentioned while the children were given a tour around the Hatchery. This slight difference causes us to focus more on Mond as the authoritative figure and learn the reason for which the World State is the way they are without focusing on other aspects such as getting the tour.

Bernard Marx as an infant was also seen in this version of the film, and how at such a young age he was already seen as different thus making him an outsider. He even challenged the person which was conditioning. This information of Marx being rebellious at a young age was never mentioned in the book yet this difference allowed viewers to emphasize more on how Bernard was different from everyone else in the World State.

The was one part in which did me wondering, and that was how Mond was overlooking over everything from Tom going to the Savage Reservation to John being filmed by Bonaparte in the lighthouse. To me this made me feel as if this was all like a strategy game in which he planned all the parts and new the outcomes but just wanted to see everything happen. For example in the book it was not mentioned that Mond had sent Bonaparte to create a film which would he would use to John look “ridiculous” and a laughing stock to the World State. Or even the fact that Mond placed him in a lighthouse which was under supervision by guards and his knowledge. In the book John discovered the lighthouse on his own and the “paparazzi” found him in which he then decided to create the videos. This difference makes Mond appear more controlling over John and all the decisions being made. Even in remote areas outside the World State such as the deserted lighthouse.

Overall I really enjoyed this 1980 adaptation much more compared to the 1998 version. This version have me more of a “behind the scenes” on characters in which I did not give much importance while reading the book, such as Linda. This 1980 adaptation was generally following the book word by word and to me seem more realistic and easier to follow.

Brave New World Novel>Brave New World Movie 1998

The 1998 movie of Brave New World has so many differences from the Brave New World Novel.  Some of the major factors of the Brave New World novel were excluded from the 1998 movie.  There are some similarities between the novel and the movie, but the differences outweigh the similarities.

One of the major differences between the Brave New World novel and the Brave New World 1998 movie is the exclusion of the praise of “Ford.”  In the novel, the characters worshipped Ford.  The praise of Ford is equivalent to our religion today.  Ford was looked at as a God.  In the novel, the characters went to services in which they danced and had orgy porgys in worship of Ford.  They crossed their arms in a T formation, which symbolized the model T to be a cross.  In the Brave New World movie, Ford was not mentioned once!  This was a surprise to me because the novel focused so much on Ford.  The movie showed the characters at work, using the assembly line to create products, but the word Ford was not mentioned.

Another difference between the Brave New World novel and the Brave New World movie is, in the movie, some of the main characters were excluded.  For example, the character Mustapha Mond.  In the novel, Mustapha Mond was Bernard’s best friend.  They were similar in ways that they both thought outside the norms of the One State.  In the novel, Mustapha had Bernard’s back, as well as John’s, and in the end Mustapha was sent to an island with Bernard because of a riot that John had caused.  In the movie, Mustapha Mond did not exist.  In the movie, a new character was introduced to us.  This character was included into the movie to liven it up.  His goal was to kill Bernard.  The Controller gave this character the mission to kill Bernard after he decided to go against the norms of not working efficiently in his assembly line.  In the end, this character ended up dying before he completed his mission of killing Bernard.  He tried to commit suicide by jumping out of a  window, but the window was an electronic image on the wall of Bernard’s apartment and shattered once he ran into it.

Bernard’s image is a huge difference between the novel and the 1998 movie.  In the novel, Bernard was looked at as an outcast to the One State.  He was physically and mentally different from the individuals of the One State.  He was described as being too short and scrawny for an Alpha.  In the movie, Bernard fit in with society!  This is one thing that I did  not appreciate about the movie.  One of the main points of the Brave New World novel was Bernard’s differences from the One State.  In the novel, Bernard was the one to stand up and question the ideas of the One State.  In the movie, Bernard was “cool.”  People liked him, and he looked like the other smooth individuals of the One State.  His relationship with Lenina was stronger in the movie then it was in the novel.  In the movie, Lenina and Bernard showed more affection towards each other.  They had sex earlier on in the movie, compared to the long time it took them to sleep together in the novel.

I feel that if the director of the Brave New World movie would have stuck to the same exact story line of the novel, the movie would have been more popular.  The major attributes of the novel would have made the movie more interesting.  I feel like the movie was more of a romance film.  In the end Bernard and Lenina live happily ever after, while John fell off a cliff instead of committing suicide.  I feel like the suicide made a statement.  John could not handle the pressure of conforming to the One State’s ways.  In the movie, John’s death was more of an accident.  I enjoyed the book more than I enjoyed the movie.

 

Brave new disappointment

I’m usually not a fan of turning a novel into a book and this movie just proved why and then some. They strayed so far away from the book I couldn’t believe this movie was based on the book we read in class. It’s like they took the central ideas of the novel and then made something completely new. This new version is a total disappointment.

First off I’m disappointed in the characters of Bernard and Lenina. Let’s start off with Bernard. I’m upset that deviated away from the book and made Bernard Mr Popular. That took away one of the core plots and storyline from the novel. They didn’t give him none of the physical attributes that he had in the book which took away him being an outcast in the society which is a core point in the novel. It would be nice to see how he compared to all the other alpha plus males. Since Bernard is an outcast it drives him, I believe, to bring John and Linda back so he can seek his revenge on the director and which ultimately causes his downfall in the end. Bernard being popular leaves no need for one of the pivotal characters I believe, Helmholtz to be in the movie. They just completely removed him. Helmholtz is what keeps Bernard grounded and he shows that not everyone in the World State is perfect. That Bernard isn’t the only one with flaws. I don’t like that made him and Lenina the main characters in the movie. Unlike the movie in the novel it’s several different story-lines that are intertwined but yet separate and it makes the story that much better.

Lenina’s portrayal in the movie was another disappointment. I like the fact that in the novel she was weak minded and couldn’t understand nothing outside of the realm of her conditioning.  I like the fact that when free thinking people like Bernard and John tried to explain something to her, or get her to get in tap with her emotions she just couldn’t understand. It brought conflicts in the book and it made for a great read. In the movie she seemed so sassy and able and willing to convert to the free thinking ways of John. That made the scene with her altercation with John inside his apartment not necessary in the movie and I would have loved to see that scene played out on a film. I think that was good part in the book because it showed the love between John and Lenina but because they are from two different worlds they can’t understand each other and they can’t jump over that hurdle and it proves to be difficult to be with each other. They also just completely changed her job, they switched her from a nurse in the conditioning center to a teacher.

They also removed Henry Foster and all the people at the reservation. The controller was also a disappointment. He seemed so much wiser and worldlier in the book. He understood Bernard, Helmholtz and John. He knew they weren’t outsiders but they were just free thinkers who knew it was more out there than the conditioning and that made him appear to be more of a person of high regard. In the movie he just seemed to be the big boss, no one special. The fact that Bernard was popular and wasn’t an outcast took away from some many other characters.