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Winter's Tale

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The book

  • Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The incident during Peter's childhood where he and Humpstone John are attacked by a time-displaced samurai, who cannot speak their language and still insists on rushing into battle with a sword, until Peter by chance manages to knock his sword into the marsh, sending the samurai through the cloud wall. This is never really explained, as with a lot of the supernatural elements of the novel, and the incident is never really mentioned again.
  • Cult Classic: Despite the book apparently being very well-known and well-regarded in literary circles, it's not very popular outside the United States. A reporter for the Guardian, David Barnett, did manage to write a review of it.
  • Doorstopper: The book is this. In terms of page count, in printed editions it's usually 745 pages long.
  • Hard-to-Adapt Work: The book's sprawling scope, massive length, and magical realist style are considered difficult to translate to film. A 2014 film adaptation was panned by critics.

The film

  • Funny Moments: Pearly's first conversation with Lucifer, mostly due to Ham-to-Ham Combat.
  • Moment of Awesome: The scene where Pearly makes his case to Lucifer (played brilliantly by Will Smith), who calmly reads a book before denying Pearly's request. Best of all is Lucifer's reply to Pearly when his minion insists on getting what he wants:
    Lucifer: Now? You have no idea what "now" is. Now I was flying. Now I breathed fire and I ate them as they fled. Now I whipped my tail and the winds trembled! Now I am hidden in this pale shade of flesh and bone! Now I am witness to man's eternal salvation! Now I am witness to his demise! DO NOT SPEAK TO ME OF TIME, DEMON! Its simplest ebbs and turns elude your meager understanding! Find another way NOW!!!
  • Nightmare Fuel:
    • The scene where Pearly starts talking about liking blood on the snow (particularly virginal blood) is pretty damn creepy.
    • Lucifer’s Jump Scare moment may also be startling to some viewers.
  • So Bad, It's Good: Brad and Sarah feel this way about the movie.
  • Tear Jerker:
    • Beverly's death. Especially when Peter starts sobbing over her dead body.
    • The ending of the movie, particularly when Abby nearly dies, and also when Peter flies off into the stars to be reunited with Beverly.


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