Media Meditation #04: The Ultimate Challenge: Book vs. Film

Book cover: jccc.libguides.com

Last month I read the book In The Time Of The Butterflies by Julia Alvarez. It was a good book. The Liberian recommended it to me. I would have never chose this book to read, but I'm glad that I read it. It's about 4 sisters who lived in the Dominican Republic in the time of the dictatorship of Trujillo. 3 of the sisters were revolutionaries and died. The story is told by all sisters. This makes it so interesting to read. There a four different point of views that are talking about the same situation.

Film cover: ceulluloidfilmreview.com

“The film industry gets many of it's story ideas from books, which results in enormous movie rights revenues for the book industry and its authors. Michael Crichton's Jurassic Parc and Ian McEwens's Atonement, for instance, became highly successful motion pictures.” (p. 328, MEDIA & CULTURE) And also In The Time Of The Butterflies. Last week I saw the movie based on the book. Again, I would have never watched this film, if I haven't read the book. I was kind of disappointed of the movie. There is only one main character instead of four. Some facts are changed, that are quiet important for the story.

Often people are disappointed of a movie if they have read the book before. But that is understandable, because the directors aren't able to put every impression, that the books give, into a 90 minute film. Everybody has his or her own image of the main characters and the setting. It's difficult to compete with the power of fantasy and imagination.

There is a big discussion about the Harry Potter series. Whether or not the films are good enough to represent the fantastic work of J.K. Rowling.