Literature doesn’t always translate on screen
Ever walk out of a movie theater with a stomach full of pure dissatisfaction because the movie you’ve been waiting so long for wasn’t all you thought it’d be?
This most often happens to me when I go into the theater with high expectations for a book-based movie.
It seems as if the screenwriter for a movie couldn’t figure out an idea for a film other than a story someone already made up, they’d take extra care to make sure the movie was, at absolute least, a mildly sufficient interpretation of the piece of literature.
I won’t insult the help that badly made movies provide when writing a last minute book report or studying for a chapter quiz in English over the extra-long book you didn’t read; but the majority of attempts I’ve seen at making an exceptional story into a less-than-impressing hour-and-a-half long movie have been pretty disappointing.
For example, Nicholas Sparks’ The Notebook was a sweet, well-written story about two lovers and their fight with the socioeconomic system of the 50s. Sparks writes with such imagery and creativity, you’ll finish the novel in less than a day and even less than a few hours if you’ve got the time to sit down and read.
Writer Jan Sardi adapted the film from the book and, in 2004, the movie was released to an excited audience made up of women of all ages just drooling for a good chick flick.
When the movie opened, it was immediately successful and won a few awards. Perhaps the only disappointed fans were those readers who realized how the story got tweaked and certain details from the book were omitted, surely to accommodate the runtime allotted to the movie
I liked the movie, and I’m sure I would have really enjoyed it if I hadn’t read the book first. The same situation had happened previously in 2002 with the release of A Walk to Remember, another Sparks-inspired movie disfigured by the teeny bopper film trend.
You would think I’d learned the first time.
After other disheartening bad movie experiences, I have now learned to take book-to-movie creations much more lightly. I can appreciate the cozy feeling of a good book or the satisfaction of a well-made film—as long as they’re not the same story.
What is left to the imagination in a book is quite possibly what makes it so exciting to turn the pages.
It seems to me, kids today could use a taste of the thought and creativity provoked by a good novel. Paying a ridiculous amount of money to walk into a theater doesn’t seem like it gives these stories the recognition and interpretation they deserve.
It’s safe to say if I read the book, there’s a good chance I won’t see the movie. I don’t doubt the greatness of the screenwriter or the experience of the director. I just know I’ll probably be terribly disappointed.