The
texts I decided to use as my starting point were the numerous film reviews of
the Da Vinci Code by credible film critics on Rotten Tomatoes. The book, published
in 2003, was made into a movie and was released in 2006, which was negatively
received by critics and audiences alike. The main criticism being that the film
did not live up to the expectations of the audiences, and that the book was
better. Having read the book and watched the movie, I too was disappointed by
the movie.
The
funny thing is that the reason I started reading the book was because I heard
that they were going to make a movie based on it. I think the main problem with
film adaptions of books is that, in most cases while having already read the
book, the audience would most probably compare the film adaption to their own
perception of the book and would feel let down because certain aspects of the
film do not resemble the book, like how the characters would behave or even
look like, this is a problem I believe most filmmakers face, as they try to not
deviate from the original material. Another is the time constraint. Filmmakers
struggle to fit an entire book into a 90-120 minute movie which leads to
certain parts or characters to be omitted. Also the director’s interpretation
of the book might be significantly different to that of the reader’s which leads
to different approaches to the movie.
In my
case, having read the book because it was going to be a movie, I believe that film
adaptions in a way increases the publicity a certain book receives. It exposes
the audiences who have not heard of the book, because of their age or interest
at the time the book was published, to want to engage in the material. For
audiences who have read the book, they would be curious as to how the book
would turn out to be like as a movie, which also help drive the sales of movie
tickets. I think, regardless of the quality of the book or the movie that film
adaptions of books would certainly increase the awareness and publicity of both
the book and the movie.
In the
past, where films where made without the use of advanced CGI and technology, it
would have been almost impossible to create movies with real-life actors which
depict large battlefields, like those in Lord of The Rings. But now with
advances in technology, books illustrating large scale battles or scenery could
be made into films, to feed the imagination of the readers and audiences. On
the other hand, books could emphasize and elaborate on the emotions and inner
workings of the character’s minds which to me is what engages the reader and
allows the reader to relate to certain characters, it is also something actors
sometimes struggle to replicate in movies. Do you believe that it is possible for a film
adaption of a book to be completely “loyal” to the original material?
