Post #5 Literary Books & Movies.

                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?