When I heard that F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby," was set to make an appearance on the silver screen I experienced equal parts dread and excited anticipation. I absolutely love "The Great Gatsby" and have read it multiple times. That being said, I'm not quite sure whether or not I want to see it made into a motion picture. I've seen lots of book to film adaptions over the years and overall, they did not live up to my expectations.
When we read, we allow a picture to form in our mind. A book provides us with so many details that we feel as if we know a character, that they could be our best friend (or enemy). It's practically like we have a movie playing in our mind as we read. So I couldn't help but feel a little let down when the characters from books that I had imagined in my head didn't totally match what I was seeing on screen. The Dumbledore from my mind is entirely different then the on screen character, and even though I do love Leonardo DiCaprio, I was envisioning someone else entirely when I thought of Gatsby (James Gatz).
In book to film movies, details such as characters, settings, and heck, even whole plot-lines are sometimes cut out so that we aren't sitting in our seats for hours and hours. Often, we get so much more information from a book, like a character's background and inner most thoughts, that when it is adapted to become a film it feels like it is missing... something.
The thing is, I love movies. And I love books. I appreciate and acknowledge them both as valued types of art, and entertainment (just some of their many forms). Of course I want people out there to keep writing literature and making movies, I just wish they didn't collaborate so often. Because even the best book can lead to a mediocre motion picture.
I feel like the transition from books to movies is always a difficult one because there is only so much detail and background that can be fit in a short 2-hour movie. Books provide more detailed backgrounds of the characters and really work to build emotional attachment to the characters. I am always so excited when I hear a book I’ve read is being made into a movie, but I am always equally let down by the result. For example, The Last Song. When I bought the book it had the movie characters featured on the cover, which I don’t like because it gets in the way of your own imagination, but after getting past that I really loved the book. On the other hand, aside from the good-looking, Liam Hemsworth, I thought the movie was a total flop. The movie lacked the emotional attachment I felt to the characters in the book. When I should’ve been crying, I was laughing about Miley Cyrus’ bad acting. Overall, I think books can successfully be made into movies provided they cast the right people for the roles and incorporate as much detail from the books as the can.
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