Movies vs Written Works, Watch the Movie or Read the Book?

Hello, this topic is for everyone who want to talk whether what is best, the books, or the movie versions. Hope you enjoy.

In the case of the Harry Potter books, the books are way better, they cut out most of the good stuff or screwed up important facts, I only watch them cause I like to know how badly they've screwed up.

Well, you're kinda right on that one, Mage.

Do you know that there's an actual novel of ''I know what you did Last Summer''?

It was written by Lois Duncan in the 70's. I had the chance to read it and I tell you, it's way much better than the movie.

Typically I hate when people go see a movie that was based on a book then come out saying:
"The book was so much better."
Why do I say this? Because a book doesn't have a time limit, you don't have to read the book in 2 hours or an hour and a half. No one is gonna rip it from your hands and say:
"No, you read to slowly so no more book for you." Whereas the movie has this time limit due to it's budget and because it has to worry about the audience's attention span. (Once you get over an hour an a half the movie better be really good otherwise people are gonna lose interest and not recommend it/not want to see it again and/or buy the dvd of it later. )

And a book doesn't have to worry about paying for an entire crew of people to make each part of it. And obviously since things are going to have to be cut down for time constraints other things are going to have to change to make sense in the story. (Granted this doesn't always work... But it's better than simply cutting things out and leaving plot holes all over the place.)

So then I say appreciate the movie for what it is, and the book for what it is. BUT attempting to compare them is a bad idea as they are two different medias... it's like comparing music to movies... Also a bad idea.

I perfer the written work personally, not because of the fact that movies have to cut out alot of parts, but because you can picture it in your head and sometimes your mind's eye can see it better then any movie could ever make it.

i agree that books are really different than movies the writes and screen players take out stuff...

if your studying for school for example romeo and juliet i know the story is long and the movie is short and has its limit but if you decide to watch the movie and not read it you will definetly fail that test

leaving plot holes everywhere suck too.... you can make 1,000 sequels cuase of those 1,000 plot holes that need fixing hell it fails

This post has been edited by BlackCloudX on May 12 2008, 05:04 PM

Providing of course your understanding of the situation is correct... Otherwise you could be creating a scene that is entirely false and you completely misunderstand what is happening. Even slight mistakes and alterations can have massive changes... Remember the literary terms foreshadowing, red herring, symbolism and the ever popular Chekhov's gun. If you mistake any of these 4 then it can completely alter your understanding of the story. Especially for the Chekhov's gun or red herring... personal favourites of mine. (If you're unsure what I'm talking about... A Chekhov's gun is when an item is introduced early on but doesn't become important until much later on. As such it sits there and people skim over it only realising how important it was at the very moment it gets used. The red herring is where you distract the reader from what is going on to introduce a plot twist.)

I actually prefer movies because I hate reading. I know, it seems like a dumb reason but I can't focus well when I read. I find it boring and such. I like to write however, which isn't a common combination.

I feel the same way, even the righting part, reading actually makes me go to sleep.

Well, I didn't expect opinions like that, especially from VirusZero. But that his opinion and I'll respect it. After all, there are some movies that can be better than the written work they are based on. But I do like to compare a movie with a book. I guess just because I like it, that's all. It's kinda entertaining for me.

Honestly, I am going to say both have their benefits and pitfalls..

I saw the movies of the books that read in High School as well as reading them.. there were movies that I saw that left me wishing that I read the book instead, and conversely, there were books that I have read, that left me wishing for the movie.

I read the Crucible, Lord of the Flies, The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar named Desire, Julius Caesar, MacBeth, Black Boy, The Pearl, The Chosen, Tale of Two Cities, Jane Eyre and a few others.

For movies, I saw, The Crucible, A Streetcar Named Desire, Last of the Mohicans, and Julius Caesar.

Except for A streetcar named desire, I kinda wish I didn't see the others..

I did not need to see someone heart cut out, or them beng scalped..

The statue with the blood kinda freaked me out, and I had nightmares about it for about 2 weeks after I had seen the movie..

I did not need to see someone being hung..

It would have been helpful if The Chosen had a movie at the time i read it becaue the book was boring.. and I should have seen the movies for The Glass Menagerie, MacBeth, Jane Eyre, and Tale of Two Cities.. I could barely stay awake in class when we had to read them..