Books And Hollywood
Now, moving on swiftly from my last blog post, this was a subject I had intended to write about last week. But for reasons of laziness, I couldn’t be bothered.
For a long time I’ve heard people bitch about Hollywood adaptations of books. How they completely destroy the story in the book and how any film adaptation of a good book has been, for the most part, total crap. Now this is another one of those areas to which I don’t normally devote much thought. But after seeing a review on YouTube (That I happened to come across completely randomly) I got thinking. The review was about the movie ‘I Am Legend’ and the guy doing the reviewing was ranting and raving about how horrible the film was and how the book was so much better. Now first off, I didn’t even realise there was a book called ‘I Am Legend’, and secondly; I’d seen the film the previous night and I didn’t think it was that bad. It wasn’t amazing, but it was good, and I didn’t regret having paid to see it.
But thinking about this made me curious. Was this guy slating it just a total ass with unrealistic standards of the film? In my opinion a movie can never be as good as the book it was adapted from. I think books are much more.. interesting to read than movies are to watch. When you read a book your mind can paint all sorts of wonderful pictures and the description can be so detailed and intricate, and that’s something, I think, a film can never quite replicate. So I don’t expect to go see a film that I think is better than the book it was based on.
But anyway, I ordered the book ‘I Am Legend’ the same night, and read it the day it arrived (Was only a short book, ~160 pages or so) and I could understand a lot more what the ranting reviewer was getting worked up about. The story in the book was completely different to the story the movie had told. The only thing that was really similar was that there was an.. (infection had caused the entire human race to turn in to vampires that were incapable of going out in daylight) besides that they might as well have been two different stories. And the book was a lot more gripping than the film.
If anyone saw I Am Legend the movie and enjoyed it, I encourage you to read the book, you’ll probably like it a lot as well. As for me, I kinda agree with the ranting reviewer, Hollywood did wreck the book, but only because they tried to make it something it was not.
Yeah, this is a really interesting point.
I totally agree that reading is ALWAYS much better than watching the movie and you have to treat the two as completely unique experiences and enjoy the story anew from each medium. While books usually offer more material to wrap your mind around, it’s always fun to see them actually acted out, but comparing the two will merely eat at your enjoyment and may cause regret. Instead of saying to a friend after seeing a movie based off of a book, “Man, they really got some of the good stuff, but I wish they had delved deeper into ____” I try to say, “You know, that was a really enjoyable movie - I loved the way they utilized different camera angles and the music score was phenomenal!” or something akin to it. If I truly wished they had gone farther into the detail I felt the book covered more, I’ll mention it, but obsessing over it only ruins the experience. Reading a book after seeing the movie is always going to make you feel more positively about the story, so I’d definitely recommend doing things that route.
Basically, I find it simpler to appreciate each as a separate story that share the same plot. It’s like comparing a picture to a video — each needs to be appreciated on their own and merely categorized together.
That’s true. Books give you pages of information that you can digest in your own way, while movies can’t really do that. However, I feel that some films do a decent job of telling the story of a book. For example, the Harry Potter ones are very faithful to the storyline of the books. But it’s mostly about the eye of the beholder. Most people can make allowances for films that don’t do that good of a job at telling the book’s story, while some can’t. It just depends.
That reminds me though.. I need to find that shirt that says “Movies: Ruining the book since 1920″.
Probably the same right now with another book - Kite Runner. I haven’t seen it, but I’ve read the book. And it’s damn good. I don’t think the message from that book can be any stronger in a movie. A 2-hour one for chrissake.
Yesss, I loved Kite Runner. I’m a bit sceptical about the film though.
I personally thought the movie was great, so I’m sure the book is brilliant. I only just finished Update 135 today, before I got invited to I Am Legend with some friends, so it was funny to hear you talking about the movie on the Update - I didn’t really want to see it after that, also having heard another person at my work say it was just “Ok” and “not bad”… Still, excellent movie if you ask me. Sadly the whole concept of the mutations is impossible to believe but idk. Guess they have to get a story from that somehow.
Probably another thing too, but Hollywood also ruins plays.
I’m seeing it tommorrow. =D