Books and their Films
When it comes to Hollywood, most writers are more than happy to let their books become million dollar films, and why not? They earn more money, it becomes a sign that they’ve made it to the top, and more imporantly, their book is shown to a completey new audience who may never have heard of it before…and who knows, afterwards they might decide to actually read the thing…yet there’s also the pitfalls.
How many great books that have also made great films can you name off the top of your head? Now think of films that have been both accurate and faithful to the book. Hard, isn’t it? That’s the thing I find about films, they’re never as good as the books…but then again I don’t expect them to be. Whether you can’t stand movie adaptations or you’ve never given them a thought, hopefully I can explore the issues between reading a book and watching it on the big screen.
There are two types of people in the world; those who eat fruit and those who don’t. In the same way there are those who read books and those who don’t. Those who read are like those who eat fruit; both enjoy the experience, it makes them feel good and whether they indulge regularly or occasionally they believe it keeps them healthy. However, those who don’t eat fruit like those who do not read will always look for alternative ways of getting that five a day, or in a book’s case, so they can say they’ve read it.
Hollywood is no different from a juice company. It takes a book, puts it in a blender and gives you a concentrated dose of literature full of victims and minerals. Basically it’s like watching nine hours of Lord of the Rings triology instead of reading them. It’s easy, there’s no mess, no fuss and it still gives you that buzz of enjoyment which a reader experiences. Although like all juice companies Hollywood is a business and appeals to a market audience. The non readers are this audience and they try to make the product as accessible and as appealing as possible. The public wants a good story and relateable characters in the same way they want vitamins and minerals. They want that dose as concentrated as possible…usually meaning that they want all the pulp and pips (AKA the sub-plots, complications and parts which might be too controversial for them) sieved out.
Screenwriters and directors have a hard job in taking words from the page and turning them into actions on a stage. Some screenwriters and directors want to keep as close to the core story as possible and often will miss things which might seem unimportant, take for example any version of Great Expectations which (to my knowledge) misses out a sub plot involving Pip’s shaky relationship with a former blacksmith Orlick. This leads me to another area Hollywood necessity, the happy ending.
Sometimes in a lot of adaptions the ending might change dramatically in order to leave the audience feeling satified and not cheated. Dickens (although he rewrote the ending) in Great Exepectations left an ambigous ending, but in any film version the gentleman Pip goes off into the sunset with his girl Estella. Hollywood doesn’t like ambiguitity to an extent because it leaves questions and ‘cheats the audience’.
Sometimes though, the unimaginable happens. It seems like the director did not read the book and just made up a plot (i.e. The Shining.) In other cases though they change settings or characters to make an audience relate to them, (i.e. Apocalyspe Now being an ‘update’ of Heart of Darkness.) You can understand most audiences don’t care about European Imperalism although it’s easy to see Hollywood milking the cash cow for all it’s worth as Vietnam films were box office draw at the time in the same way dance and musical films are now. In cases like this Hollywoods adds so much sugar and sweeterners to the mix that the original text becomes almost unrecognisable.
Films often also create a false image of books. It’s unfortunately the nature of the beast. In the same way as a juice company, Hollywood has to make their product accessible no matter what it changes.
I do not hate film versions of books, in fact I love films like Apocalsype Now, Frankenstein, The Shining and Great Expectations but I always keep in mind that they never do the books justice. If anything at least, book adaptations might actually make a non-reader do the unthinkable and pick up a book.
Well, we can all hope, can’t we?
10 Responses to “Books and their Films”
Leave a Reply
Archives
Book of the Fortnight
Powered by Wordpress | Design by ElegantThemes
Love this post! Thanks for this. I’ll be sure to come back again. P.S: I’ve bookmark your site as well.
Good day from Italy! Will i be able to quote a post as part of your weblog with the link to you? I’ve tried contacting you regarding this issue but it appears i cant reach you, please reply when get a time, thanks.
Hi there! Thanks for your comment.
Please feel free to quote any of the articles from Inspired-Quill, so long as you give proper credit and link to us (when possible).
Congratulations for posting such a useful weblog. Your blog isn’t only informative and also very artistic too. Keep up the good work !!
Fantastic. This blog rocks!
Aloha! I want to say thanks for an interesting entry about a something I have had an interest in for a long time now. I have been lurking and reading the entries frequently and just wanted to express my thanks for providing me with some very good reading material. I anticipate reading more, and taking a more active part in the discussions here.
Aw, this was a really quality post. In theory I’d like to write like this too – taking time and real effort to make a good article… but what can I say… I procrastinate alot and never seem to get something done
Jasmin, it might take time but in the end if you make or find the time to write something whether its good or bad the feeling of pride you experience is amazing, no matter how small. Mountains sometimes look big but no matter how long it takes to get to the top, you did it.
Thanks for the great post! You have a new fan.
Just wanted to say you have a great site! Thanks for posting