Happy Wednesday everyone! Are you all happy to be halfway through the week? I took my older son back to the woods again last night at my in-law’s house and picked more blackberries.
We picked some goldenberries as well. It looks like we will be making another batch of homemade blackberry jelly. We will probably try goldenberry jelly as well! Have you every had goldenberries? Do you like blackberries?
Anyway, let’s get on with the topic at hand rather than discussing the delicious homemade blackberry jelly. Today’s discussion post is all about book to movie adaptations. I know you all have probably experienced the disappointment when seeing a movie adaptation of your favorite book. I sure have. I mean, just imagine you have read a book…no lived it. You have developed bonds with these characters, experienced loss with them, lived in their world. But only on paper and in your head. Now someone is going to bring it to you in a movie form! You no longer need to visualize what things might look like, you are shown! You walk in the theatre and sit with your popcorn to watch the movie but when you leave you popcorn no longer tastes satisfying (if you have any left) and you’re crying.
Crying tears of sadness, or just upset and not crying because you know we are rational adults, your day ruined. All because a book you hold so dearly was brought to live but was all wrong. They missed vital scenes or the characters did not look the way you imagined. It could almost be considered a traumatic experience.
Ok, sorry to bring up all of those bad experiences, but it is for a good cause…discussions!
An author can do so much more with a book than a director can with a movie. First, there are technical limitations. Our technology is amazing compared to what it once was, but it doesn’t compare to concepts in some novels. Time restrictions are a huge factor. A movie is very limited, usually around one and a half or two hours long. That is a short time to cram 300-500 pages of events into. On top of that, imagine having to cast the exact right person to play the characters. It is incredibly hard to please everyone and I know they cannot do that. Books give us, the reader, the chance to imagine it in our own way. We can see who we picture playing each role, picture the exact battle scene, etc. I just wish that sometimes movies would adhere more to the books. Though I understand they often change things for entertainment purposes.
Hunger Games was a movie that I found important aspects of the book that were missing. Hello…how Katniss gets the Mockingjay pin… I will not even get into it all here because I would love to hear opinions from all of you. Though there are many terrible movie adaptations, there is the rare occasion where it ends up being amazing and really close to accurate. I think for me, the best example of this was Lord of the Rings. An even more rare occurrence is when the movie is better than the book! *GASP* I think the only one I can think of off the top of my head is Shawshank Redemption. I think I preferred the movie. In my opinion, the pen, or in most cases these days…keyboard, is more powerful than any movie. Though, I love both books and movies. Each brings something different. I just hate the sadness that comes with seeing a poor movie adaptation of a book I really love.
What is the best and worst book to movie adaptation you have seen? Do you avoid reading a book before seeing the movie for fear of disappointment? Do you prefer to read the book first or see the movie first? Does it bother you when a movie is so different from the book?
I think the worst movie adaptation I’ve ever seen is Ella Enchanted. I loved the book. But the movie is awful. It’s campy and just bad bad bad. So many years later and I’m still upset by how Disney butchered that wonderful book.
I remember that! I was really disappointed as well. They could’ve done so much better
I would love to see a remake of it. One that captures the essence of the book better. And I agree with you, the LOTR movies are amazing!