Old Books, New Readers discussion
note: This topic has been closed to new comments.
Archived
>
Lets talk movies! (based on books)
date
newest »
newest »
Oops. After having a further nose into the group I see there are lots of discussions on this particular topic :-)
That's alright, Lizzie :) Hi, and welcome to the group!I think books to movies is always a really good topic, because so many people have different ideas about it. Some people LOVE when their favorite books are going to be on the big screen.
I don't. I really don't. It actually hurts me when I hear Hollywood is going to try and make a film out of my books, because I know that it's going to be wrong. Harry Potter I liked (loved, actually), but I was also young enough when the first movie came out that it was still exciting to know that I had read the book the movie was based on. I love LOTR, but I also saw the movies first. I know they didn't get the story exactly right, but they made them long and cast them well and included so much. Same with the Hobbit. I even thought they did well with the Hunger Games, which I was originally quite worried about.
But recently, every book that I read is becoming a film. City of Bones? Love them, have loved them for years, and the movie coming out soon looks awful. Divergent? Horrible casting, in my opinion. Beautiful Creatures? I refuse to see it. Ender's Game, Delirium, and the Fault in Our Stars are my three favorite books of all time, and two of them are becoming films and Delirium is going to be made into A TV SHOW. No. Just no.
I know people have all kinds of thoughts about books to movies, and I understand that my opinion isn't everyone's. And it can even be kind of cool to see books I love on screen sometimes. But there is something so wonderful about having the book, the words the author wrote, the characters in your head. The story is so personal that way. So yours. And sharing it with a theater full of people really takes away from that.
Not to mention that I'm sick of loving a book for years and only sharing it with a select few people because it's my book, and then hearing that the rest of the world suddenly loves it because they heard it was going to be a movie (*coughHungerGamescough*).
That's what I think :D
My thoughts on this, for what they're worth? Most directors of movies get distracted from plot in their anxiety to get a rating that will broaden their audience. They so detoxify the original book in doing so that the characters become plastic and meaningless. James Bond is the most extreme example I can think of at the moment - when you read the original books....
Hi Lizzie welcome! Thanks for starting this up again.I didn't even know James Bond was a book until last summer. Not "James Bond" of course, but each movie was based off a book.
Haley I've never thought of it that way before. Sharing it with a theater. I think I agree though. Sharing it with the whole world is so impersonal. I usually go and see movies three or four weeks after they come out and I am in a small town so I usually have the theater to myself, but if I lived in a bigger town I could see how that would be a problem. I would just wait till the movie came out on DVD and make a movie night with myself and bro.
As for everyone starting to rave about books I have been reading for years because a movie is coming out, irritating is a tame way of putting it. But not every books needs to be made into a movie. Thinking about all these really new books, which were not good at all in my opinion, being made into movies is actually really depressing for me. But I guess we Americans just cannot stand to make a huge fad out of anything these days.
Frederick wrote: "My thoughts on this, for what they're worth? Most directors of movies get distracted from plot in their anxiety to get a rating that will broaden their audience. They so detoxify the original boo..."Frederick - have you read Goldfinger? If so, how closely does the film follow the book? I bought a copy a few years ago, and have yet to read it.
Creolecat wrote: "Frederick wrote: "My thoughts on this, for what they're worth? Most directors of movies get distracted from plot in their anxiety to get a rating that will broaden their audience. They so detoxif..." Erm...wish I could remember Goldfinger! The film followed a rather glam sixties 'received English' model, though, so in that respect at least I would say very little. It's the character of Bond, though, which made the books and has been so misleading in the films. Much as Connery tried he wasn't permitted to get inside it, except perhaps in 'From Russia with Love'. The 'real' Bond is a vicious killer, a ruthless womanizer who smokes sixty handmade cigarettes a day, etc.. Very much the 'bad guy' every woman is supposed to fall into bed with? The books are very addictive for all that - an easy read. The films left them behind years ago. I think the last true Fleming title was 'The Man with the Golden Gun' which was a short story. I don't think Fleming ever wrote 'Never say Never Again, or 'The World is not Enough', and he certainly didn't write 'Sky Fall'
I agree that most movies don't do the books must justice however not in all cases. I know it's a really old movie but, for example, Gone With The Wind has great casting and I believe does the book great justice. I thought hunger games was wonderfully cast and also portrayed the book in a respectable, accurate manner accept for the part at the end with the dogs, however I always thought that part in the book was cheesy anyway. Another example would be the help which is a great book and a great movie. The lightning thief, though? Awful movie, great book.
I only saw "Gone With The Wind" once an dI was 8 or 9 at the time. I thought it was the most boring movie in the whole world. Lately however I have been hearing about the book and movie all the time. Barely a conversation passes that someone is not mentioning it, or so I feel. That being the case I am looking forward to watching it sometime soon.
The other day I watched the movie "Hunger Games". I had read the book, but only the fist one, last summer sometime and thought it was interesting although complete overrun with modern day thinking and cliches. Still it was worth it for me if only to know what everyone was talking about. And watching the movie I am glad I read the book. There were things going on in the movie that you had no idea about and were never explained. I didn't catch most of them until a friend of mine was talking about the movie and I was explaining why certain things happened.For example she thought the wolf things at the end were retartded and didn't make sense. Then I told her what they was about in the book and she agreed it was cool.
The only thing I was really unhappy about the movie was who they cast as Katniss, or maybe the director sucked I don't know. But she really rubbed me the wrong way. She did in the book too, but this was more about her acting flaws than just her annoying charter.
My belief on movies that are based on books is that they don't have to stay 100% faithful to the original source, but needs to maintain the intent of what the books were supposed to tell. A good example of this claim are the Percy Jackson movies. There's been tons of criticism by tons of book fans on account of the film's not being faithful to the books. I was a fan of the books, and I felt that despite the changes in story, both films were enjoyable in what they were, and they still kept the spirit of what the books were supposed to be. The books were still better in the end, but the films were enjoyable to watch as well.
I just made a blog about this very topic.
This topic has been frozen by the moderator. No new comments can be posted.
I'm new to this group so let me introduce myself. My name is Lizzie, I'm 24 and from Somerset, UK.
I saw this topic and nobody has commented which I found very strange because it's something that I feel strongly about.
I personally think there are very few films that do the book justice. Most change the storyline, leave very important bits out or even change the characters!!
One of my favourite books is Memoirs of a Geisha and I thought the film was appalling. They didn't cast it very well (but I guess that's quite hard as everyone has different ideas on what the characters look like etc) and they left very important points out .. They completely missed the whole point of the book
I know it must be hard to get everything from a book into one film of 2 - 3 hours but I think they should just base it on a book and call it something different! ( like Phillip Pullmans, Northern Lights was made into a film called The Golden Compass ). That way they can change what they want without overly offending the people that love that book because its loosely based on the story, not a film of the book.
I do think there have been a few films that have done the book justice, Harry Potter being one of them (but I think J K Rowling was heavily involved).
What do you think?