Do you enjoy films of books that you have read?
@dragonspirit88 (40)
August 3, 2009 12:53pm CST
I have noticed that whenever I have read a book and then I see any films that have been made of these books I feel very disappointed and that the film does not represent the amazing feeling I had when I read the book. The more the film represents the book's storyline or characters, the more I like the film, but if they ending or characters have been changedI get really angry!!
I was just wondering if anyone else ever feels like this or if they enjoy the different interpretations that film makers take? Do you prefer it to be exactly like the book or entirely different? Does the film ruin the book for you?
Any thoughts would be very interesting!!
1 person likes this
4 responses
@thea09 (18305)
• Greece
3 Aug 09
Sorry dragonspirit, I already answered this about a week ago so this one might end up being deleted, there's a search button on the top right to see if someone has already posted the same.
@dragonspirit88 (40)
•
3 Aug 09
Oh whoops!! Sorry. Thanks for letting me know - I'm still trying to get use to MyLoting.
@fifileigh (3615)
• United States
5 Aug 09
i feel the same way. reading the book is more fun because it is more detailed. the film version seems choppy like something is missing, and if u havent read the book first, u r not sure what is missing. and plus, something in the movie is always different from the book.
@dragonspirit88 (40)
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5 Aug 09
Yeah you get so much more from a book!! I know that films are limited to how much content it can have because it can't be much longer than 3hrs max, but it just seems like films have nowhere near the detail of books.
@Porcospino (31366)
• Denmark
3 Aug 09
One of my teachers used to encourage us to watch the film before we read the book. Otherwise it is too easy to get disappointed, he said and I think that is often true. Sometimes I read the book before I watch the film, and sometimes I watch the film first. If I have read a great book, I always get excited when I hear that there has been made a film, and I look forward to watching the film. Sometimes I get disppointed though, especially when the film is very different from the book and when my favourite parts of the book didn't become a part of the film.
@dragonspirit88 (40)
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4 Aug 09
Ah see that is interesting because we were always taught to read the book first and then watch the film or else we would remember the film and not the book. So maybe I would feel less disappointed if I saw the film first and then be nicely surprised by the book!!
@allyoftherain (7208)
• United States
3 Aug 09
It's a draw for me. On the one hand, I understand that not everything in a book will translate well into a movie. There are some changes that have to be made and things that need to be cut out in order to better fit into the movie format. On the other hand it completely irks me when studios take drastic liberties with the source material they're given. They bought the rights to the book because they thought it would make a good movie, right? Well, why didn't they stick with the book then? You've probably felt the same way.
It also irks me when people complain about loyal adaptations, saying things like "the characters weren't how I envisioned them" or "it didn't capture the spirit of the book". Not everyone is going to have the same vision for the book. The movie is never going to be 100% how you saw the book, no matter how hard a studio may try.
But even if I hate the movie... the movie can't ruin it for me. The book's not any different just because someone made a bad movie out of it.
So yeah. I prefer loyal adaptations, but I don't mind a few changes to better fit the format and I certainly don't complain about the film not fitting my vision of the book.
@dragonspirit88 (40)
•
4 Aug 09
Yeah I guess thats why some people love film adaptations and otheers don't - it depends on whether it fits with your own imagination and a film cannot do that for all the varied imaginations out there. I guess its more the fact, which you point out, that the point of making a film of the book was that the book would make a good film in the first place so why completely change it?!?!
