It must be a strenuous and overwhelming task to turn a critically acclaimed best selling book into a movie. I can’t even begin to fathom taking a writer’s words and ideas and translating them into a motion picture. Although I’m sure they have good intentions, when a director decides to make a well known book into a movie, they risk rupturing and disturbing a special relationship. By relationship I mean the distinct bond that has been formed between an individual and the book they have read.
Last summer I read Kathryn Stockett’s novel The Help and absolutely fell in love with it. Just recently I saw that book turned into movie form. Both my mom and I were huge fans of the novel so we were looking forward to seeing the movie. However, I went into the movie feeling skeptical. My skepticism came from the fact that I had strong images and connections with the characters that I had formed in my own head while reading the book. I questioned how it would be possible to see exactly what I was thinking and imagining on the big screen. It’s not like the director was making the movie for me or something. Reality check… I’m not THAT special.
Anyways, the movie was good. Plain and simple. It followed the story line but with more hastiness than the book and less detail to character development. The acting was entertaining and the characters were fun to watch. I left the movie theatre thinking that The Help was exactly what I had predicted it to be. Average. Not horrible. Just okay. I wondered if others who had read the book and then seen the movie left the theatre feeling the same way.
The strange thing is that I don’t blame the director, the actors, or the producers for my lack of excitement. Actually I don’t blame anyone. To me, reading a book is a completely different and separate experience from watching a movie. When you read a book you are personally engaging your creativity. Although a writer may describe characters’ appearances and personalities, it is the reader who actually conceptualizes these things in their heads. With a book, the reader is free to roam the endless possibilities that the book presents and suggests. In contrast, a movie gives you a vision that is concrete and permanent. Characters’ appearances are forced upon the audience and nothing is left to the imagination. Personalities are formed before viewers’ eyes whether they like them or not. With movies their is no room for flexibility. What you see is what you get.
So then how can movies that originate from books ever be phenomenal? How can they ever do justice to the book from which they emanate from? How can a director satisfy every single person’s individual imagination? My answer to this question is they can’t. That feat is literally impossible.
But wait, wait, wait. Hold on a quick second. Brian has something to say from the peanut gallery at Subplot Studio. He would like to prove my claim false with three examples he hand-picked from as far back as 30 years ago. Because let’s be real, it’s hard to prove me wrong.
First up is Anthony Burgess’ novel A Clockwork Orange. Stanley Kubrick came out with the movie in 1971 and according to Brian the movie was equally as deranged as the book. Brian says that the eerily symphonic sounds of the title music, the strange language the charcters use and the minimalist sets from the film evoke a nightmarish and weird sequence of events that are perfectly similar to the novel.
Brian also noted S.E. Hinton’s novel The Outsiders. This book was focused heavily on its characters so casting the right people for the roles in the film was of the utmost importance. Francis Ford Coppola had a difficult task in finding the right young boys to play all of the characters from the book. Coppola chose the cream of the crop when he picked Thomas Howell, Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio, Patrick Swayze, Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez and Tom Cruise to all star in the movie. The fusion of their talent together worked perfectly to give fans of the book the same experience but on film.
More currently, Brian says that the HBO television series, Game of Thrones, that is based on author George R. R. Martin’s best-selling fantasy novel series A Song of Ice and Fire has also been as good as the books. Brian affirms that the TV series stays true to the books and that the attention and detail put into the characters, elaborate costumes, and scenery makes reading the book just as good as watching the series. Condensing 4,400 pages of character development and the evolution of a plot into one hour TV slots is a ambitious task but HBO seems to make it work.
Ultimately this subject all comes down to matter of opinion. Brian has his, I have mine, you have yours. I have yet to be impressed with a movie that was developed from a book….yet. Anyways, what’s your take on all this? Have you ever seen a movie or TV series or even a play that was adapted from a book that you that was excellent? If so, we’d love to here from you at Subplot Studio!
Nicole Younger, Marketing Intern
