Film Adaptations
Sapientiae Amator LINKS to an interesting POST on adapting books for the big screen. Here’s the key segment:
The comparisons between movies and books, or books to movies is seldom helpful. They are very different art forms, and should be judged by very different criteria. The purpose of a movie is not to be a good book, any more than the purpose of an apple is to be a good orange. Nor is the purpose of a movie to improve a book through adaptation.
The purpose of a good movie is to be a good movie, and that purpose is often furthered by adapting the story from a good book.
Sapientiae asks about films that are better than the books from which they were adapted, and I was only really able to come up with one: Rebecca. But I don’t think anyone could argue that du Maurier’s book was great. (Well, I suppose someone could. But they shouldn’t.)
The Guardian has an interesting LIST - though I must say that the inclusion of the Rathbone version of The Hound of the Baskervilles makes me furious. Or at least it would, if I weren’t already furious about the fact that Apocalypse Now is considered an adaptation of Conrad’s brilliant Heart of Darkness.
But I get worked up about odd things.
i cant understand……