Writing prompt: Persuasive essay
Is the book always better than the movie?
Action comes across better on the big screen and character development comes across better in a book, so the book is not ALWAYS better than the movie.
As a child with an overactive imagination, books opened an entirely new world for me. The fantasy felt like reality and I lived in that new life. When a particularly good book ended I was SO disappointed! At night when I couldn’t sleep I would pretend I was the main character and play scenes in my head. I ate, drank, and breathed books. At every meal I sat with a book propped in front of me because I couldn’t put it down. When it was bedtime, the nightly ritual consisted of “just three more pages, pleeeeeease……” until I reached the end of the chapter. If Mom wasn’t paying attention, I would continue into the next chapter.
As I got older I didn’t have as much time to read so I turned to movies to fill that void. What might take days to read could be watched in a few hours. As time management became an issue, trying to balance adult responsibilities with “me” time, movies became a new way of escape where books had provided that release in the past.
I remember reading The Hobbitby J.R.R. Tolkien as a child and watching the cartoon version of the movie. The newer movie trilogy The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, and The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armiesare much better than the book. The book was originally written in 1937 as a children’s fantasy novel whereas the three-part movie is an adult action adventure with scenes that would give a child nightmares. The action and the scenery that are in the movies would be impossible to pass on to a child.
Imagine trying to describe the scenes in written word that the movie makers were able to achieve through visual effects. At times there was so much action going on, an author would be hard-pressed to convey it all succinctly on the written page. After re-watching the movie there is still more going on than would be easily described in book form.
When a movie is adapted from a book it tells a story in a different way. It needs to be told in a way that is going to appeal to more audiences, such as the love story in the Hobbit movies but not in the book. In the book there are no strong female characters, but in the movie, there is. This gets a better response from more people.
If a book has lots of action in it, a movie may be able to show that action better than the book does. It takes a lot of detail to describe action scenes and if a reader has a short attention span the movie will suit the viewer better than the book.
Another instance of the movie being better is if the reader has never been to a location. They may not know what the waters around the Maldives look like so either the author has to describe them with great detail where a picture, or movie shot, is worth a thousand words.
A movie has the ability to show good action, great scenery, and beautiful people, but it can’t convey as well what the characters are thinking and feeling. With a book, the reader gets to know them intimately and has more time to relate to them.
If a reader has the ability to hear the book’s characters in her head, the book becomes like a movie. When I am reading a good book, I can close my eyes and see the scene unfolding before me. I can hear the character’s voices. The reader can read the thoughts whereas in a movie, the creator has to find a way to show what is going on in the actor’s minds.
One book that comes to mind in this instance is P.S. I Love Youby Cecelia Ahern. With the exception of being able to look at Gerard Butler in the movie, the book is much better.
For one thing, the book takes place in Ireland and the movie takes place in Manhattan. The entire setting changes the way the characters act and behave. The family dynamic of the main character, Holly, is completely different between the two deliveries. In the book, the reader gets to experience the emotions of all the characters and how the death of their friend impacts all of them individually whereas in the movie the main focus is on Holly. We miss the additional sensations the rest of her family and friends experience. Some changes are necessary to make subjects flow better from a book to a movie, but changing the main characters and locations makes for a different feel altogether.
A good book gives the reader a vision into someone’s else’s life. This may be a person the reader would never be friends with or know, but they get the chance to live their life through this character and encounter things they would never otherwise experience. Some of these feelings can’t be effectively translated into a movie.
As a reader, our opinion of the character develops as the character develops. We get to change our feelings about them as we are allowed into their minds and can read what they are thinking. A good character grows and develops as the book progresses and the reader can see and explore those changes along with them.
A book with a lot of action and scenery will come across better as a movie whereas a book with a lot of character details will be better left as a book.
29 July 2018