Book vs Cinema : The Never Ending Fight
It’s hard to suppress the excitement that comes along with the news of our favorite book getting adapted into a movie. There is an age-old debate of whether books should be adapted into movies, as the two artistic mediums are starkly different, and there have been countless arguments surrounding this. So, here are some pros and cons of film adaptations of books.
Pros
Cinema undoubtedly has a much wider audience base than that of books. Hence, a movie adaptation is much more likely to popularize its source material, which is books, than a literary publication. In the current time, when movies and series rule, the movie adaptation is a great way to spread awareness about the book.
Another great reason to turn a book into a film is to see the characters and scenes come alive on screen. For the readers who cannot imagine a scene when they read it, movies are a blessing. Even for those who can imagine, it’s a treat to watch their favorite characters come to life.
Film adaptations have the potential of surpassing the books or matching the iconic quality of the greatest epics. The best example of this would be The Lord of the Rings trilogy, which is adapted from one of the greatest series of all time and goes on to become one of the biggest movie trilogies.
Cons
Due to time and visual constraints, a film can never be as detailed as a book. The complex emotions of a character or intricate details of a scene have to be left out in a movie by the director, leaving a reader disgruntled in most cases.
A reader’s imagination does not know any bounds while reading a book, but in a movie, we see the director’s depiction of the book. This depiction does not always prove apt for the audience’s imagination. With unmatched casting and irrelevant storytelling methods, it becomes worse.
There are several movie adaptations where the director doesn’t follow the book at all, and at times, go on a separate path altogether than the original plot. The creative liberties taken by the director takes away the essence of the book, sometimes. This is a huge let-down for the readers, who look forward to the movie they have read an amazing book.
As they say “There are always two sides to a coin”. The debates on whether films should be adapted from books or not have been continuing for a long time. According to Forbes, film adaptations of novels earn up to 53% more at the box office than original screenplays and it is a great indicator of whether we are going to see more movie adaptations of books in the coming years.
