Book vs Movie – Jurassic Park and others

I love my reading and I love movies and when the two intersect in the right way it can be a creative overload of epic proportion. For instance, Jurassic Park, had Spielberg at the helm and Crichton writing one of the most spectacular books ever. It was a written story that was popular and then converted into a movie which captured the essence of the film, including thrills and screams quite well. The author, since passed away, was a genius. All of his books, which I have read, including his earlier works such as Airframe, contain the same element of deception, physical danger and  risk taking, on the part of the main characters. I love that!

The movies were in line with his thinking for the 3 movies which they produced. Part 3 was not based on a book but was entertaining nonetheless. I would have been curious to see what his reaction to JP 4 would be.

The Devil wears prada is an example where I could not comprehend how the movie was made with so many significant changes from the book. I had watched the movie and loved it. But then I read the book and was severely disappointed that the movie had left out so many important pieces of the story which impacted the development of the characters significantly. I still do love the movie, but the derivation from the movie is very thin. The level of bitchiness in the book , in all the characters, was toned down so much. And the Andy character had a better growth period and life changing experience in the book than in the movie. 

Tommyknockers by the master Stephen King was a great meeting of the minds, as the movie got the scare factor down really well. It didn’t matter that the effects were not the best, because the acting was great and the storyline was so captivating. I enjoyed both but the book took me into the world, and I was seriously scared every night when I was reading my chapter or five before bed.

I watched Silence of the Lambs many moons ago and got the book recently. It is a shorter book than I thought and the movie , thankfully, was very true to the book and did not change the impacting lines, and important story. I love the movie because the casting was so perfect and the directing had such a ‘light touch’ , I could sense how the actors were absorbed by the characters.

Gone with the wind is a classic novel and a classic movie. The book took me 2 months to finish and I relished every southern accented word. I was reading in a southern accent ,which I got from the movie. The movie is by far one of the most beautiful pieces of film I have ever seen. I love the wardrobe, the casting and the stunning backdrop moments, which were spectacular for their time.

I love reading books, and will never give it up! But when an adaptation is done correctly , and the book was read before, there is nothing better than seeing your imaginations vision of characters and scenery perfectly represented on screen to delve your senses into a story once more…..