These school holidays I became one of many to see the screen version of The Hunger Games. Although a bit lengthy, I did enjoy it, and having read the book made me understand it better. Someone did mention that it didn’t go into much detail about the situation with the Capital, but due to time constraints, not everything can be covered within a film adaptation. This led me to ponder the success and failure of some film adaptations.
Personally, I prefer to have read the book before watching the film version. For example, the day before I was due to watch Gone with the Wind for the first time, I was up until 3am that morning to finish the book. Having done so helped me appreciate Scarlett better and therefore reducing me to tears at the end.
Some years ago I read The Power of One and having enjoyed the book, I then decided to get it out on video. I’m so glad that I never paid the money to see it at the pictures, as I may well have demanded my money back. The film seemed to have followed the book for about half of it and was then turned into something that was nothing like the book I had just finished reading. I was bitterly disappointed and have been wary of film adaptations ever since. According to Wikipedia, this particular film adaptation was based ‘though loosely’ upon the book, further going on to list the numerous differences from the novel.
The film adaptations of The Harry Potter series have worked quite well, although perhaps if they didn’t come up to scratch, there well may have been a major outcry! It seems remarkable how Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, being the longest book in the series, managed to become the shortest of the film adaptations.
From what I understand Suzanne Collins wrote the script for The Hunger Games and although J. K. Rowling did not write the script for all the Harry Potter films, she did have a large input and specified that the scriptwriter be faithful to the books. Perhaps that’s a lesson for all scriptwriters.
Do you prefer to read a book before it is adapted to the big screen or after? Has there ever been a movie adaptation that you didn’t like?
I prefer to read the book before watching the film. But this seems to be the opposite way around when it comes to TV adaptations. I was driven to the TrueBlood series of books after seeing the first season of TrueBlood. And I often watch a BBC period drama adaptation and then go off and read the classic. Sometimes it helps to see it visually if the book is heavy going – like ‘War and Peace.’ I tried to read Game of Thrones recently but couldn’t get into it. But I love the TV series. I think that for me it depends purely on the story.
Hi Janereads. I totally agree with you when it comes to television adaptations – I have been introduced to quite a few different books and authors because of them. And I absolutely love those BBC period dramas! Thanks for your comments. 🙂