There have been few movies that I considered as good as or
better than the book that they were based off of. In fact, I usually say that it is almost impossible to make
a film better than the original book.
The 2003 film, Holes, based off of the novel by Louis Sachar, is one of
those movies. I am a huge fan of
the Lord of the Ring Trilogy films, but, unfortunately, I have never finished
the books. I broke my own personal rule that I should read the books before
seeing the movie to truly enjoy it.
This all changed after seeing the 2008 film Revolutionary
Road. It was something about Kate
Winslet’s acting that made me consider that maybe, just maybe, I was wrong in
assuming Richard Yates was a total creep.
The movie made me reconsider my original assumptions and reading of the
book. I started to see how Richard
Yates was on April Wheeler’s side the whole time, criticizing Frank’s inability
to understand her and their contained society and therefore, leading to her
death. Seeing the movie really
helped me like the book more. In
addition, the movie made me extremely uneasy for any future marriage I might
have.
Another work we read this quarter was a short story called
Minority Report. I loved the 2002
film Minority Report when it came out in the theaters and had no idea that it
was originally a short story. I was surprised when reading the short story I
felt the same suspense and thrill reading the car chases as I felt while
watching the film. Though the
movie is almost completely different and even took on an entirely new plot than
the story, it had the same basic idea of precogs preemptively solving crimes.
I usually hate when movies change the story, add parts, or
take away important details that the original story included. Then, the film becomes a substitute for
the original story rather than the original story’s companion, allowing our
technological generation to get away without reading books at all. In one of the Harry Potter films, the
director stupidly decided to add an entire fight scene between Harry Potter and
another character that not only never happened in the books, but also would
never happen in the books. I was
slightly peeved. It made me realize
people who watch the movies without reading the books could live the rest of
their lives without having any idea that this was completely absurd. Don’t
worry, I realize my concerns are insane. I wonder if reading Minority Report
before watching the film would have changed my opinion about it. However, I really liked the film Holes
because I thought it followed the original story completely and just served as
a visual aid companion to the book.
This might be because Louis Sachar wrote the original story and the film
screenplay as well. Maybe if J.K.
Rowling had written the film screenplays it would have been better?
From my commentary on Holes, to Lord of the Rings, to Harry
Potter, to Revolutionary Road, to Minority Report, I can not say that I have a
definite rule on if one HAS to read the book before seeing the film to enjoy
either. But I definitely feel
better if I’ve read the book beforehand.
