Book vs. Movie: The Ultimate Showdown
How familiar is this situation to you?
You find this great book, you devour it, love it, recommend it to everyone, then find out there is going to be a movie. At first you are excited! A whole new group of people will experience this story that you love. But then as the promotional material comes out, you begin to become concerned that the movie will be nothing like that book. You then try to maintain hope that it will be good, but end up being disappointed in the movie.
That situation happens to me often.
I should maybe point out, I love reading. I love getting lost in a good story. But, I am finding it difficult to think of a book that the movie is better. A little while ago, I decided that I was tired of being constantly disappointed with movies and being unable to appreciate them for what they are.
Here are a few things that I do to help me remember that they are not the same thing and you can love them both even though the movie will never be the book, and the book will never be the movie.
If possible, read the book afterwards.
I have begun waiting to read the book. When I can. There are times that the book lure is just too much and I read it. For instance Andy Weir’s “The Martian” came into my reality as a book for about thirty seconds before I knew it was going to be a movie. But, I decided to hold off on reading “Gone Girl” until after I had seen the movie, so even though I ultimately knew what was going to happen the details that books are able to go into made it a different experience and still extremely enjoyable.
Try to not compare.
This one is my nemesis. I do not understand why changes are made to stories. Yes, yes, I know that some are too difficult (or even slightly impossible) to pull off. I am not talking about those, I am talking about small things, like why didn’t they make Daniel Radcliffe wear colored contacts when Harry Potter’s eye color was mentioned so often? What I have started to do is every time one of those book vs. movie thoughts start to creep up, I remind myself that this is a different medium, with a different person’s artistic eye dictating the look, feel, and story. And that I should allow their take to be valid even if it differs from the book.
See the movie in a place where you can react.
I know for me, some books are sacred. When it comes to those pieces of literature, I prefer to experience their movies by myself. Where I can stop the viewing and vent, gush, appreciate, comment, etc. This way I can work out my feelings on the movie without others.
Think of them as completely different, but similar, things.
Worse comes to worse, you’ve read the book and now you are sitting in the theater, getting ready for the movie. Just see if you can pretend/trick yourself into thinking of them as two different things. I know that sounds weird, but sometimes thinking that the “Hunger Games” had a big copyright battle can help me overlook the things missed from the book.
Allow yourself permission to love it anyway.
The movie is not as robust as the book? So what. The main characters don’t look like their book descriptions? Who cares. Give yourself permission to at least appreciate it for the fact it is bringing the story to people who would never read the book.
Well, there are a few of the ways I tackle the “Ugh! The book was better!” blues. What about you? How do you handle this issue? I definitely could use more ideas.
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