The Case Study of Sherlock Holmes (2009) - Scholarly Commons ...

and Watson in defeating Lord Blackwood, only to betray them to a dark figure, whom
to anyone knowledgeable of the canon will know to be the elusive Professor Moriarty.
Primary product: Sherlock Holmes (2009) images
According to Duncan (2008), the commercial adaptation of Holmes is often readily
remained and tampered with according to consumer trends:
The problem with the Sherlock Holmes stories is that very few of them provide
enough material to be suitable for the transformation into feature films. This is
no doubt why the film industry has often changed existing stories or created new
ones with which to entertain us. (p. 190)
Being a general viewer during my first viewing, I was unsure as to whether Sherlock
Holmes (2009) was an original Holmes story. However, as with many general viewers,
this piece of relatively crucial information, did not actually matter, as I was already
responding to the accessible genre images of a buddy action-comedy. The choice of
Robert Downey Jr. as Holmes is in itself an indication of Guy Ritchie‟s reinterpretation.
Downey Jr. having just come off the recent success of Ironman (2008) brought with
him an action audience that had rejuvenated his career and popularity. Downey Jr‟s
popular image, coinciding with Holmes‟s experience as a boxer, identified in The Sign
of Four (1890/2001), and Ritchie‟s history of directing action films, Lock Stock and
Two Smoking Barrels (1998), Snatch (2000) and Rocknrolla (2008), results in the
portrayal of Holmes as a literal fighter of crime. However, while this is a canonical
reference, it is highly exaggerated in the film. The result is a Holmes whose intelligence
is displayed while fighting. Redmond (2009) finds that this “new image [of] Holmes,
[as] portrayed by Robert Downey Jr, is an indication that viewers continue to find his
figure fascinating even if they are fuzzy about the details” (p. 304).
Similar to the exaggerated Hollywood image of an action-orientated Holmes, Downey
Jr. reinterprets Holmes‟s Bohemian characteristics as well. Watson first described
Sherlock Holmes as “bohemian” in Doyle‟s first short story, A Scandal in Bohemia
(1891/2001b): “Holmes, who loathed every form of society with his whole Bohemian
soul, remained in our lodgings in Baker Street, buried among his old books, and
alternating from week to week between cocaine and ambition” (p. 3-4). If we use this
introductory piece as a indication of Holmes‟s personality and character, we find that
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