Books and movie adaptions?

Question

why is it that that i've never seen a movie EXACTLY like its book,,,i mean i, i dont think that it'd make the movie boring-er if the movie was adapted exactly.

but i guess it depends on the genre right?

Answer 1

Movies that are exactly the same as books would be boring, it would be just like audio books - but would be called video books. Film making is a distinct branch of art.

I agree that films are much worse than books, but it is not because the directors refuse to copy the books word by word. In my opinion, good book adaptions are those that are directed by a really talented person who is not afraid of brave interpretations.

Example of this would be Kurosawa's Ran and Hakuchi. Ran is adaption of King Leare and Hakuchi - of Dostoevsky's Idiot. Neither of them are exact copies of the books, but the interpretations are really great and you can do nothing but enjoy the talent of Kurosawa.

Answer 2

I suppose it depends on the book. Some books like I am legend, are EXTERMELY difficult to translate onto film. That doesn't give the director as much  an excuse to make a terrible abomination as he did, but it would justify it to a point (Seeing as the book is all thoughts, and very little dialogue).

LotR was a great film adaption, the Harry Potter movies, I want to bring the entire cast to a firing squad and watch them all burn (except Richard Harris the true Dumbledore)

Books to film are pretty bad I know, but video games to film ARE WORSE!

Think of that =p

Answer 3

I don't know about a movie being EXACTLY like its written counterpart, but Harlan Ellison was so well pleased with the adaptation of "A Boy and His Dog" that he offered praise in the movie's credits, and, after all, the only person  who can really judge the success of this  feat is the author.  

Answer 4

The main reason you never get a like for like on screen is the length of the movie would be quite a lot longer so they edit a lot out so they can get more bums on seats.

the only movie I've scene which is near enough exactly like the book is "Shawshank Redemption" which is based on a Stephen King novela "Rita Hayworth & the Shawshank Redemtion"

Answer 5

Books and film are very different mediums. And things that work in a book may not work on screen. Also a plot line within in book may span a lot more time than a film could portray it. It would seriously slow down the narrative.  

Answer 6

It's impossible to perfectly adapt or translate anything from one medium to another. No-one could perfectly translate the Mona Lisa into a hip-hop track. No-one could perfectly translate the Harry Potter series into an interpretive dance. Or Humpty Dumpty into a piece of architecture. In fact, it's even impossible to perfectly translate one word from one language into another.

So the same goes for book-to-film translations. It's impossible to have a movie that's EXACTLY the same as the book. They work with totally different things. Where a movie works through vision and sound, a book works almost entirely through your own imagination.

For example, there will be many parts in a novel where there is almost no visual material. If you are experiencing a character's thoughts, you're probably not imagining a "scene" at all. To translate that to a movie, you'd have to have something visual: maybe a close-up of the character's face, or events related to their thoughts, or things happening while they're thinking, or just some random landscapes or something. And also, you'd have to have the character say their thoughts aloud, or have a voice-over. This is now a major change from the book: we are now LISTENING to our character's thoughts, not silently "experiencing" them through reading, and all the while looking at some brand new images.

So you see, even trying to translate this tiny, seemingly straight-forward thing is impossible. And that's why we choose to use the word "adaption". You cannot "translate" a book to film (as you cannot truly "translate" anything) - you can only adapt.

Answer 7

Some things are hard to translate to film. Some things only work well if you imagine them, and most books are too long to translate.

I dont mind if they arent exactly the same, but i hate it when there is no resemblence at all (the first bourne movie was vaguely like the book, but the second two showed NO similarites with the books at all).

Answer 8

I suppose it's like having two different people directing the same story for a film. It's all personal interpretation. Next time you're reading, imagine how you would translate descriptive passages and characterisation into a film - it's all personal.

Answer 9

i suppose they (the film makers) have to take in to account the length of the book and film, what their budget is, time span, whats appealing/ mainstream and what the key events and messages are.

Answer 10

In contrast to one of the previous answers, the movie adaptations of Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings made me want to shoot myself. Not so much Lord of the Rings, but definitely Harry Potter pretty much abolished the book and took the most basic ideas for the film.

Fight Club is pretty close to the book. Well, close in contrast to others. And I think Clockwork orange was fairly close as well. but it has been a long time since I've seen/read either the book or the movie, so I may just be imagining things.

I think they change it so much so it appeals to a wider audience. Sometimes books are too long, such as LotR, and some things that are written you just can't put into a movie.

Answer 11

Kenneth Branagh's Henry V was close. The dialogue was exact but a chunk of the play was missing. There probably has been a word for word Shakespeare adaptation, but Henry V is the only one I tried to read along.

Answer 12

you rarely  can because every ones imagination is different, so how you see it others may see it totally differently. However i think the most faithful i know has been The Lord of The Rings, and probably Harry Potter films, very faithful to the stories.  

Answer 13

High Fidelity is almost line for line the same as the book. I've never read Fight Club, but I've heard it's also the same.  

Answer 14

a lot of the reason is because of the length of the film, its impossible to fit everything in, but i completely agree with you, i hate it when authors sign their book away and the directors and writers do what they want with the story *cough* his dark materials, xx