PERSEPOLIS ESSAY

The movie Persepolis, which is based on the graphic novel series of the same name written by Marjane Satrapi, is an autobiographical piece about Marjane’s life living in Iran through the course of the Iranian Revolution and the following war between Iran and Iraq. Even though I had read the graphic novel beforehand, while I was watching the movie everything felt somewhat new and exciting again even though I had already read it in its original context. One thing that really stood out in the movie was how closely it stayed in sync with the book. When I was reading the book one of the things that stood out to me was the simplicity of the images but how much of a visual impact they have with the contrast of the black and white. I am glad that they chose not to use actors because that would have made the visuals far too complex for such a complex story. The beauty of this film is that it is a complex story being told in a simple and readily accessible format that anybody can easily follow and comprehend. The black and white animation in the movie was just like the animation in the book only it was moving which also made it just as easy to follow and understand the mood a little bit more. I also enjoyed how the movie began with an older Marjane in the airport in color reflecting on her entire life up until that point instead of the way the book started explaining the veil. However, there were a few things that differed between the movie and the graphic novel. For one, Marjane’s uncle Anoosh is never introduced. I was surprised at this seeing as he had a big influence on Marjane and when he had died she was devastated and overcome with grief. Also the movie never shows Marjane sneaking out with the maid to go protest in the streets ever even though in the graphic novel she had done quite a bit of that. The movie portrays Marjane as a revolutionary that just speaks with no actions to back herself up but in the book she attends protests and riots against her parents’ will because she has a mind of her own. Even though there were some parts form the graphic novel that never made it in to the film, there are a few parts that were never in the graphic novel that I am glad were a part of the film. The part that I like a lot that was not in the book was the “Eye of the Tiger” cover by Marjane as she struts down the street without a care in the world. I thought that it really showed how much she desired to be part of western culture even though she was stuck in the Easter hemisphere. Other things such as the Michael Jackson patch and the “PUNK IS NOT DEAD” leather jacket just seemed to speak to me so much about how much of an influence western culture had on the main character of Marjane even though a very heavy eastern environment surrounded her. It makes me wonder how she had ever come across names such as Iron Maiden and Pink Floyd when everything was so controlled by the government.
All in all I thought that the movie was fantastic and I want to watch it again immediately after reading the book so that I can pinpoint any inconsistencies right on target so that I can rewrite this paper and make it more thorough.