Reading a book vs. Watching the movie

If you have not seen Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, Gone With the Wind, The Godfather, and The Other Boleyn Girl do not read this post. I am probably going to ruin it for you. If you choose to read, don't blame me :)

In high school, we all were assigned reading for our English classes-- it was unavoidable. And every once in a while, we would get a book that also had been made into a movie. Oh happy day! This was the day that we all thought "This is going to be so much easier than reading the book! I can just go and rent the movie now, and only spend two-ish hours of my life getting the story instead of days (or even weeks) reading it!". So we watched the movie- sometimes we even enjoyed the movie. And then test time came around, and we were golden, or so we thought. Once we started taking the test, we realized that maybe the movie left out a few things... or a lot. The test asked for specific details... and those weren't in the movie! That scene never happened! The test had to be wrong. Then the test was graded, and we hoped we did OK. Wrong. We barely made it to passing. How could this have happened?

It may be a curious thought to wonder why I am going into a rant about reading a book vs. watching the movie based on the book, and why in the hell I would go all the way back to high school for the memory of this. Well, today I went and saw the latest installment in the Harry Potter movie saga, and while I wasn't disappointed, I certainly wasn't blown away either. But before I can truly explain why (if you are still wondering after reading this far) there are a few things about me that must be known first.

I am a reader. I love to read. I used to get in trouble in middle school (and in high school, and it invariable got me in trouble in college) for reading my "fun" books during class or instead of the assigned reading for the class. I couldn't help it, because once I get into a book I have a really hard time putting it down. When I read, I tend to get sucked into a different world, one in which I have no knowledge of prior to picking up the book and sometimes that world is just better than reality. Also growing up, I was the only person in my group of friends that loved to read (so I was usually thought of as weird) and it wasn't until college and then moving to Atlanta that I found other people that liked to read as much as I do (or rather friends that liked to read as much as I do).

But because America is what it is, best selling books usually get made into movies eventually. Hollywood loves to take a good story, one that has already been written (less work involved) and make it into a movie. Unfortunately rarely does it happen that the movie is ever as good as the book. Seriously. I don't know if I have ever seen a movie that was based on a book where I liked the book better. Usually the movie is so loosely based on the book that I don't believe that the two should even be associated with each other. I offer up 4 examples: Gone With the Wind, The Godfather, The Other Boleyn Girl, and Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. (All of these books are works of fiction)

Let's start with a movie that has almost no resemblance to the book it is based on: The Other Boleyn Girl. Such a fantastic book! It is based on some true events, and Ann Boleyn did have a sister, but obviously the rest is fiction. The movie on the other hand looks nothing like the book. There are entire important scenes and characters left out, and some things that not only didn't happen, but also were never alluded to in the book. I came out of that movie believing that not only had I wasted $10 (yes... it costs $10 for a movie ticket in Atlanta) but also that I had just wasted 2 hours of my life and I was never going to get that back.

Movie 2: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. OK... so I literally went to see this movie today (and it is what inspired this post). This summer was the first time that I have read the Harry Potter series, and I was not disappointed. I think that I read all 7 books in about a month, including a week of vacation where I didn't read anything. I loved them. While yes they are juvenile in nature, they are so easy to read and well written that you feel yourself transported into Harry's world instantly, and it makes you wish that all the things in the books were real. The Sunday after I finished the series I chose to have a movie marathon of the first 5 movies. It was a good day, but I noticed that as the movies progressed they tended to stray farther and farther from the books. Now I am one of those people that does understand that sometimes things have to be left out, characters aren't as developed in movies as we would want, but still. Important characters (the Weasley twins, Ginny, the older Weasley brothers, Luna, Tonks, etc.) are not developed nor are their relationships with Harry. This is an important part of the whole story from book 1 to book 7. If those relationships are left out in the beginning, how is the movie to get to it's correct ending? The movies did a pretty good job, but I am definitely still a fan of the books. Well, the newest movie, while good, was something that was maybe half true to the book, half invented. And it bothers me immensely. Some things that literally never happened in the book happened in the movie, and many events were moved up in the story line with no background of when it happened ever. And many important characters and events were either left out or changed- some of them events that are needed to finish the series! So frustrating. Still a good movie, but a little disappointing.

Now onto two movies that I believe are very true to their book counterparts, or at least two of the closest I've ever come in contact with. The Godfather and Gone With the Wind. Both of these I saw the movie first and then read the book... it just happened (not usually my M.O. when it comes to these situations). GWtW I saw as a kid and immediately fell in love with it. It was not unknown for me to sit at home all day on a Sunday and watch it on TV- which can take up to 6/8 hours. I love the story of the Old South, I love Clark Gable as Rhett- someone who is so far from the southern idea of a "gentleman" but an adventurer, and I love Vivian Leigh as Scarlett. In middle school I tried to read the book, and while I finished it, it didn't really sink in because I feel like I was perhaps a little young for such an undertaking. This past spring I reread the book, and I loved it. Many things are very different- such as the fact that in the book Scarlett has two children before Bonnie (one from each previous marriage) and in the movie those children do not exist. There is more courting by Rhett of Scarlett in the book before her second marriage while in the movie you only get glimpses of these. But overall, I believe that the book and the movie are very much alike, enough that I dislike the movie or the book any less because of the other.

The Godfather on the other hand is so much like the book it is sometimes hard to really find faults. What is left out, event wise, from the first movie is shown in the second one. The only thing that makes me love the book more is the details that you need to know about Italian family life in the 1960's (here and in Italy). Those details are necessary to understand many of the insignificant details that are shown in the movie but explained in the book for a better understanding of various scenes.

When it comes to Book vs. Movie, book is going to win every time with me. I personally love the character development and the minor details that a book provides, and that is one of the major problems I personally have with the Harry Potter series. And the fact that they change major events that are necessary for the future story line to work out correctly. Having those characters come to life is what makes a book transporting and wonderful.

Needless to say, I am currently out of series to read until September and January when two of my favorite series have new additions. So if anyone has any suggestions, I would greatly appreciate it (and I've already read Twilight so not that one).