Time Travel - Why Movies of Books Rarely Work
Posted: Thursday, August 27, 2009
by Julian Price
http://www.uk-freelance-content-writer.co.uk/
It's a fairly common discussion amongst readers and movie fans but why is it that movies of books almost always pale in comparison to the book itself?
Having recently read and then watched " The Time Traveler's Wife", I find myself asking the very same question again. Let's not be too harsh though, the movie version of "The Time Traveler's Wife" was by no means a disaster like many film conversions of books, but still left much to be desired.
Personally, I feel this argument about movies never living up to their paper counterparts is a little unfair. The medium is entirely different and most movie makers are restricted to perhaps no more than ninety or a hundred minutes running time. How long does the book take to read? I would suggest in many cases, many, many more hours.
Then there is the problem of movie producers wanting their movies to make as much money as is humanly possible, often regardless of the quality of the picture. How do they go about this? They take a popular book, realise its mass market potential and then in many cases water it down until almost everyone and their dogs can go and see the movie!
" Jurassic Park " is a good example. If you have ever read the book, you will know it's very much filled with adult content in terms of the violence and blood quota, yet by the time it reached cinemas and movie theatres it was child and merchandise friendly.
I am sure when the great Michael Crichton penned his adventure novel he did not particularly have in mind, kids with dinosaur lunch boxes in the playground. Despite its radical departures from the text however, this dino flick is actually one of the better conversions of modern times.
So the director may well have had a wonderful vision for his or her movie of the book they have been enamoured with but once it's slipped through the greedy fingers of the Hollywood moguls we are often left with an empty shell of a film.
It is also common for movies to be made years after the book has hit shelves and become a personal favourite to millions of readers around the world, so that by the time the characters and plot have time travelled into the movie, years later, they are but a shadow of their former selves.
Some of the better films to represent novels or books tend to be movies made with a smaller budget, usually independent of the Hollywood machine. " Tell No One" is a particular favourite of mine. A book written in English and a film made in French with English subtitles.
In conclusion, is it fair to compare the movies to the books they often only loosely represent? Probably not, but at the same time there is no denying the disappointment felt when a book you know could make a great big screen experience ends to be a hollow, shallow spectacle. Again!
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Top-level comments on this article: (2 total)Julian,Interesting topic and you are correct. Stephen King's Misery is a perfect example. King's words described the pain, the fear, and the emotional state of the victim in ways the movie was unable to portray.Another Hollywood disappointment was The Robe which I read in high school and found to be much more engaging than the movie. On the other hand, I enjoyed Ben Hur much better as a movie than as a book (maybe it was the chariot race -- pretty hard to capture the thrill of that scene in words).Imagine how the writers must feel? By the way, I thought the 1st of the Harry Potter movies was very close to the book. Haven't read the others or seen the other movies. They're on my to-do list down the road.Thanks for sharing and I will check out Tell No One.NancyHi Nancy, Thanks for taking time to comment on this. Of course there are always exceptions to the rule which is why i used the word "rarely" in the title. I havent read the Harry Potter books but i know the size of those things, so if you think at least the first movie was a good representation of the book, then credit to the film makers for cramming so much accuracy in! I have not read the whole of "The Lord of The Rings" but many say those movies were a very good effort at recreating the books. I loved the movies of course but can't comment on the book to movie accuracy. Then i suppose there are many movies made of lesser known books, that might not get the same sort of attention, so there could be some more hidden gems out there! I think Ben Hur still stands as a classic all these years later! Thanks again Nancy! Julian
Hi JulianI thought your article was great and something I have often thought myself. One of the most pointless films to watch after reading the book was The Da Vinci Code. I fell asleep in the cinema as I knew exactly what was coming. It was pretty faithful to the book in most ways, but there was no point in me seeing it! For people who don't read I'm sure they thoroughly enjoyed it. I agree with Nancy about the Harry Potter films.To be honest, I love to get lost in a book and see characters in my own mind's eye. Seeing a famous actor cast in a role can sometimes be unnerving as they are not what you imagined when you read the book. If you see the film and then read the book, you tend to read it and visualise it as the film director saw it.Maybe the people who have read the book are not the target audience? Maybe the target market is all the people who will never have time to read the book and want a nice brief "overview" or "taster" as light entertainment.Lord of the Rings Trilogy - the films were fantastic, but I'd never read the books!
I think it is unfair to compare films and books - as you said they are different media and probably for different audiences.JoannaThanks for taking time to read and comment Joanna, much appreciated. As has been discussed there are a few exceptions to what seems like a rule. Thanks again. Julian
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