Film Adaptations and Dante's Inferno

In making a film version of a novel, directors and writers not only bring the novel at hand to visual life, but also incorporate their own ideas and renditions of the novel's events into the plot of the film. Dante's Inferno provides a prime example of such directing. While the original novel was much more proper and a "comedy" in the classical sense of being a story, starting with a distraught character and resolving with a happy ending, the film took a more modern approach to comedy, using vulgar jokes, profane images, and violence to evoke a laugh-out-loud response form its audience. Obviously the Divine Comedy's Inferno was intended to be serious and to warn the audience of the power of God and the need to follow a righteous path while the film rendition was given a satiric tone in response to Hell.
Even though the attitudes of the two differ, more differences are found in the description of Hell as compared to the director/author's purpose for writing. Throughout Inferno, Dante's portrayal of Hell includes demons, hell fire, ice, and many mythological creatures to add to the terror of the Inferno. In short, Hell is described almost accurately when compared to the Bible's portrayal of Hell as an indefinite holding place for wrongdoers to suffer for their misdeeds in their mortal lives. This description of Hell molds very well with Dante's intentions to drive fear into the power of God. Sean Meredith's Inferno greatly differs. Hell for Meredith looks a lot like the ghetto of a shady suburb, filled with strip clubs, an eerily nice cul-de-sac, and capitol hill. Every circle of Hell in the film rendition is held in some applicable shop or building fitting to the sin, such as The Psychic Friends Network holding the diviners/astrologers, a gay club holding the sodomites, and a church holding the Simonists. This drastic scenery change from Dante's Inferno results from Meredith's purpose to highlight the moral flaws of American society. Thus, using a suburb of America full of everyday locations to sin as hell, Meredith accomplishes his purpose.
The comedic and setting aspects of Dante Alighieri's and Sean Meredith's Inferno only provide two major differences between the works, however there is also discrepancy between who goes to Hell and who does not, how divine intervention can aid an individual, and many more, demonstrating how different renditions of a single event (such as Dante's journey through Hell) can vary depending on the person telling the story.