Turning books into movies or television series is not a new concept. In fact, many legendary films and television shows people enjoy originated from novels, such as the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy and the Harry Potter movie series. However, as more adaptations come to life on screen, many people have expressed frustration with their favorite books being portrayed in mediocre-quality video productions. This begs the following question: are book adaptations for movies and series produced in worse quality than before, or is it just our perception?
There are many things to consider when adapting the story of a lengthy novel into a cinematographic piece. First, there are obvious budget restrictions when it comes to producing movies or series. As much as books are more likely to include many significant details that construct the storyline and characters, sadly, many of those details are eliminated or simplified when going into production. Some books deserve to have multiple episodes but end up becoming an hour-and-a-half version, resulting in missing a few storylines and dialogues from the book.
Removing important details or background information on the characters’ motives, personalities and twists is what infuriates book fans most. Although it is understandable that directors and writers would like to add their own spice and change some factors, most book fans expect an exact or very similar replica of the original. There are many ways to ruin a book-to-movie adaptation for these fans. The most common mistake is when directors and producers change the ending and kill off one of the favorite characters. For example, in the Netflix series “All the Light We Cannot See,” many viewers were upset at the ending when one of the main characters, Uncle Etienne, was killed in the bombing, whereas in the novel, he lives and is captured.
Another way to infuriate fans is to completely change the movie’s narration and point of view. Although this is a unique element of literary works, where the narration, whether it is in first person or third person, is very important, it is hard to recreate this in cinematography. Cinematographic works would rather show than tell, making it difficult for books that follow a distinctive way of storytelling. A popular book, “The Book Thief,” is one example as the book is narrated by ‘Death,’ which is a very rare point of view. Unfortunately, the movie was not able to capture this narrative and disappointed many fans.
Personally, I think there have been numerous movies and series that were good before realizing they were book adaptations or before reading the book. Recently, I finished watching “All the Light We Cannot See.” Even though I wrote one of the criticized factors and even though the ratings of the series are very low, I thought it was projected beautifully and loved the acting. This could be because I have not read the book yet; however, we all can have different opinions on what is or is not a good adaptation. Perhaps the directors and writers had a different vision for the viewers to grasp. Not every scene from the book can be put on screen, and sometimes, adding or subtracting certain parts creates a natural flow to the plot. How much the book and movie/series should be identical is another debate and differs for each person. However, we should be aware of how social media also tends to exaggerate majority opinions, and sometimes, the biggest fans of the books can be the biggest haters. If you enjoyed an adaptation, but the original book fans are heavily criticizing the work, there is nothing to be ashamed of. Before jumping to conclusions and relying on online reviews, we should see for ourselves whether it is worth watching or not.