Ok, so firstly I refuse to understand why books are EVER made into movies. Every single person who has read a book already makes up a movie in his head. And in that, lies the director's dilemma... he can replicate the movie he saw in his head but the chances that it will resonate with a million other readers, are ... ahem, slim.
And I'm always disappointed with such productions - Bridget Jones Diary, The Bourne Identity, The Da Vinci Code and yes, recently Heidi - one of my favorite childhood reads.
Firstly, movie-Heidi has straight hair and book-Heidi has curls (ouch!). Movie-Heidi is older, more mature, book-Heidi the epitome of innocence (oucher!). The Alps were all wrong, Heidi's room up in the attic didn't come close to the romantic description of it in the book, the goats were too few. Peter's character wasn't given any time or effort. In all, it came across as a hurriedly compressed script and tackily shot picture. And though I cried in some places, it was more from the touching truth of the book than the representation of it on screen...
An experience like this just reaffirms my love for the printed word and how it should stay there!
P.S. Ok so I had a good think about this and to the director's credit, I admit it isn't an easy task. To convey and present every little detail and dialogs from a 300-1000 page book must not be a cake walk. So alright - at least they try... ;)
And I'm always disappointed with such productions - Bridget Jones Diary, The Bourne Identity, The Da Vinci Code and yes, recently Heidi - one of my favorite childhood reads.
Firstly, movie-Heidi has straight hair and book-Heidi has curls (ouch!). Movie-Heidi is older, more mature, book-Heidi the epitome of innocence (oucher!). The Alps were all wrong, Heidi's room up in the attic didn't come close to the romantic description of it in the book, the goats were too few. Peter's character wasn't given any time or effort. In all, it came across as a hurriedly compressed script and tackily shot picture. And though I cried in some places, it was more from the touching truth of the book than the representation of it on screen...
An experience like this just reaffirms my love for the printed word and how it should stay there!
P.S. Ok so I had a good think about this and to the director's credit, I admit it isn't an easy task. To convey and present every little detail and dialogs from a 300-1000 page book must not be a cake walk. So alright - at least they try... ;)
2 comments:
:> eloquently put.. and i do sorta agree with you pet peeve. but some movies, i think stand in their own right as works of art.. lord of the rings, the beach, the shining, even bourne... i think they took the germ of an idea and took it to a completely different level. but hey, that's just me
..and i dunno if you'll ever even see this comment :-p i'm commenting what, a year after you wrote this? :) sheeesh..
i think the only movie that was better than the book was the terminator one (don't ask me how i got around to reading the book) :-P
though i think in this case, the book was written after the movie was made, and i guess the book could never include the electronic read outs of terminator.
guess the same would be true of matrix, or any action flick.
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