What Red Read: To the silver screen: is it worth the journey?

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

To the silver screen: is it worth the journey?

Get it? I crack me up

Yesterday the Tuesday Top Ten topic was books we'd like to see made into movies. As I hopped around people's posts I was surprised to see how many people hate to see books up on the screen. I understand sometimes books don't translate well to the screen or that particular adaptation wasn't right. Sometimes the movie is a failure, regardless of if the source material came from a book or not. And of course when you read the book you get to make all of the choices a director is now making, so no movie will be your vision of a book. But personally, that doesn't bother me so much. I know a movie won't be quite what I envision and often I like the book better, but I still love to hear that my favorite books are going to be made into a movie. Maybe I'm just optimistic.

Sure, there have been bad adaptations but to me anyway, some successful movies come to mind: The Lord of the Rings trilogy, High Fidelity, The Silence of the Lambs. Sure things were left out and altered and added. But you know what? That's OK. Sometimes things work in a book that won't work on the screen. Sometimes the pacing that works in a book isn't going to work on film. Plus Hollywood does not seem to have a problem rehashing a story over and over (and over) again so if one adaptation doesn't work, I'm never surprised to hear another one is somewhere on the horizon.

So I just want to ask those that hate film adaptations of books if there's something specific you hate? I'm not knocking your opinion on it. I just want to understand. Are there general aspects of book films you don't like? Were you burned by an awful adaptation? Is all of the fans a book gets only after they've seen the movie? Please let me know! What is it about books on film that really grinds your gears?

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Jenna · 726 weeks ago

For me, a big element of a book to movie adaptation success is the motivation behind the director/producer. I don't like when it's completely obvious that they are just trying to capitalize on the already established fan base for a book. I think when the movie maker truly cares about the book it comes through on screen and can often times encourge audiences to go read the book afterwards.

1 reply · active 726 weeks ago

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What Red Read 121p · 726 weeks ago

I think you make a good point here. You can tell if a movie is just trying to capitalize on a success of a book and there isn't a lot of care put into it. I do think those are movies, in general, to avoid

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petekarnas 39p · 726 weeks ago

For avid readers, reading a book is akin to conjuring an entire world in your head. Down to every last detail, the reader is an active participant in constructing that world. This gives them a sense of ownership over what they've created. Watching a movie is then like seeing some cheap knock-off of a magnificent product you've made. It rarely lives up to the original. Book adaptations which succeed must do one of two things. The first option is that the world created by the filmmaker is so similar to the source material that it nearly matches the viewers own created world and, thus, gives a physical form to something that was previously ephemeral. I think the Harry Potter and LOTR movies followed this path. The other option is that the filmmaker makes choices (through cinematography, music, characterization, etc) which forces the viewer to accept the filmmaker's vision as a creation independent of the book. This is where movies like The Godfather and Jaws succeeded. Anyway, great topic for a post!

1 reply · active 726 weeks ago

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What Red Read 121p · 726 weeks ago

I understand that a movie is never going to be as good as the movie you made in your head while reading it, but do you think that means that movie adaptations of books should be avoided?

I think you make a great point about movies that stray from the book so far that it's almost like an independent piece of work. It's easy to forget Jaws and The Godfather are actually books.

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Biblibio · 726 weeks ago

For me, part of the annoyance with book-to-film adaptations is with the ubiquity of them. It seems like almost every remotely popular book (and some duds) make it into films - often equally terrible films at that. There is an art to the book-to-film adaptation that seems lost in the sea of crap. It's rather frustrating.

3 replies · active 726 weeks ago

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What Red Read 121p · 726 weeks ago

Are you usually skeptical if you hear a book is being made into a movie, whether or not it's a book you like? What do you think are the key things that need to be done, or avoided, in order for a book-to-film adaptation to work? I agree that a lot of the book to movie films are bad, but then again most movies are pretty unforgettable so I can't say the problem definitely lies in trying to bring a book to the screen.

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Biblibio · 726 weeks ago

I'm skeptical if the book is bad (unless it's a book that can be improved on the screen, but that's... rare). Or if it's a boring adaptation - another version of a classic everyone will love and watch no matter what. No originality in another version of a Jane Austen novel...

Ordinary novels that get the tap typically frustrate me because they haven't actually earned the popular adoration that should "justifiably lead" them to be made into movies. I've seen ARCs with boastful comments that the film rights have already been sold. The book-to-film adaptation has become almost another form of advertisement rather than a true desire to transform an excellent novel into an excellent film.

I'm not against adaptations as a whole. In general, I don't think I dislike adaptations more or less than most movies (but this may be because I don't actually like most movies I see...). Perhaps because I come with more expectations when I know the story (and know that it's already been successful in one form), I'll be more disappointed by a poor film but I think that on the whole adaptations are like any other movie. That's my problem. I feel like adaptations used to be as carefully constructed as the books themselves. Today, they feel sloppy and churned out just to cash in on the success of a particular bestseller.

Apologies for the ultra-long and all-over-the-place comment. A topic with a lot food-for-thought and too many opportunities for me to complain...

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What Red Read 121p · 726 weeks ago

No apologies necessary at all for long or rambling comments! I love them :)

I think I'm understand the book-to-film dislike better when you say you're more disappointed in a bad book movie because you already know the book is successful so it's not the story's fault! And I totally get that remaking another Jane Austen book is not going to shine any new light, unless you do it in a totally different way. I wonder if you were to change the setting and time period what that would do for it?

Also as for all the ARCs who boast about film rights being sold, I wouldn't worry about those ever making it to the screen. The odds of a book, even a wildly successful one, actually being made into a movie are pretty slim so the ARCs, which don't already have the fan base that a popular book does, have even less of a chance of getting made.

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curlygeek04 58p · 726 weeks ago

As one of the movie haters, the first thing is that once you see a movie, even a good adaptation, the image of those actors is burned into your head forever. For example, even though I read LOTR before I saw the movies, Frodo now looks like Elijah Wood. That's okay, it's just a loss from using your imagination. And that's a GOOD adaptation. Worse adaptation ever is Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka. If I could only go back and get that out of my head! And if you didn't read the book first, then you never get to create your own images in your head.

And don't get me started on movies that change key plot points, like sad endings to happy ones, just to please a general audience.

The other thing is that even when the movie maker LOVES the book, and honors the book in making the movie, it's almost impossible to make a movie that's better than the book, or that adds to the book in some way. Most of the time you get, at best, a movie that's nearly as good as the book. So what's the point?

It's great that movies help people discover books. But for those of us who really love to read, a movie doesn't add anything.

1 reply · active 726 weeks ago

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What Red Read 121p · 726 weeks ago

So do you avoid going to see movie adaptations of books?

Ah see I haven't had an issue with having the actors replace my vision of what the characters look like, if I read the book first. If I saw the movie first, yes then I'll think of the characters as looking like the actors. If it bothered me more I'd make sure to only see a movie once I read the book. As it stands I go about 50/50.

Even if the movie isn't as good as what I thought of, I still love seeing the characters in a new medium and possibly with a whole new interpretation that I never thought of. Sure, most of the time I prefer the direction I created in my head but sometimes I'll see a scene and go "oh it could look like that? Well, that's much better than what I came up with."

I think it's unfair to say for those who really love to read the movie adds nothing. It kind of implies that those who do like the movies do not love reading as much. I see the movie experience and the reading experience as separate and I can love one and hate the other. Usually I prefer the book, but there have definitely been times when I prefer the movie (LotR).

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ken · 725 weeks ago

I actually think people take this topic way too seriously. I think they're different genres completely. I like a lot of film adaptations of books. For instance, one of my favorite titles, The Quiet American, has an incredible adaptation with Michael Caine starring. I like the book more, I guess, but that's neither here, nor there, since the movie is one of my favorites, too. At the end of the day I simply like books more so it stands to reason I won't like movies as much.

Either way we can all agree "I'll wait for the movie to come out" was a great excuse to give our high school English teacher.

1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago

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What Red Read 121p · 725 weeks ago

I think it's natural to compare a book to it's movie counterpart, but you're right, they're different genres and it doesn't always make sense to compare them. They're different experiences so there's no reason to give up one in favor of the other.

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Wednesday, April 13, 2011

To the silver screen: is it worth the journey?

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