Book First, Movie Second

Emily Brill

Arts and Entertainment Editor

As an avid book reader, and self-proclaimed cinephile, I feel as though I am the only person who can speak on this long-debated subject. I have read many books in my life, a select few of them have turned into adaptations for the screen, but what is better? The books are better; it’s that simple. 

When talking about novel to film adaptations like ‘The Hunger Games’ or ‘It Ends of Us’ they are easy to critique as they are much more recent than adaptations like Pride and Prejudice. With adaptations like those, there are pages and pages of commentary on the transition, but newer adaptations are much harder to criticize.

As someone who has endured the trials and tribulations of ‘Normal People’  both the novel and television series, I cried more at the book than I did the series. Both actors’ portrayals are excellent but what I had envisioned in my head was much more heartbreaking, heart wrenching one might say. 

I have found myself crying at films and books for much of my life, but the tears that have flowed from my eyes when I am reading the final installment of the ‘Harry Potter’ series were a lot more severe than when I watched the movie. A movie cannot convey the same feeling as when you are reading a really good book for the first time. 

Another issue I have with books being created into movies, is the fact that you cannot fit everything that happens in one book into a movie. I know, I know. There must be a time limit on a lot of things in life, but a two-hour movie leaves out a lot of key details a book can provide. In a lot of adaptations I have watched, I have been taken aback when the movie does not include something that is crucial to the plot of the story.

When I go into a theater, premiering a film that was first a book I expect the majority of what happened in the book to be translated on the screen. That is simply not the case and a little piece of my heart breaks when my favorite character does not get enough screen time. 

Do I think producers, directors, and screenplay writers should stop adapting books into films? No! I am very fond of many adaptations, including Emerald Fennel’s upcoming adaptation of ‘Wuthering Heights’ and Greta Gerwig’s adaptation of the ‘Narnia’ series. I am just saying, they need to do more with the adaptations they are producing.