Original Novels and Film Adaptions As an avid fan of both movies and books, I often find myself wondering whether or not to buy the book after I’ve seen the movie, or vice versa. I’ve seen some terrible film adaptations and some really good ones, and some that have nothing in common except the characters’ names and the titles, but are both enjoyable in their own way. On the whole, I think I like reading an original novel better than watching its film adaption because the original novels were created by the person who knows them best. The personalities of characters may be changed and become different between the novels and the movies. The movies don’t even come close to how the books portray the characters vividly.
Apocalypse Now (I apologize for the length, but this movie was absolutely amazing in how it made me appreciate something I previously hated, and I was truly moved to write in this length about it.) Unfortunately, upon watching Apocalypse Now, I was compelled to compare the movie to Heart of Darkness, a book that honestly I did not enjoy reading. However, I was pleased to see that Mr. Coppola merely took inspiration from the book, and in fact in a rather intelligent and powerful manner. I don’t like to call the movie “entertaining” given how uncomfortable it made me, but I did enjoy the movie regardless, and it was powerful enough to give me plenty to talk about. The movie contained a number of allusions to the book, such as a first-person narrator who is deeply affected by his experience (Marlow in Heart’s Africa and Willard in Now’s Vietnam) and a character named Kurtz who is worshipped like a god by the natives.
When I saw the quote at the beginning saying how “it’s preferable not to travel with a dead man”, I kind of said to myself duh, but it did catch my attention and while watching the movie, the quote began to make sense. During the train scene, at the beginning, Johnny Depp doesn’t stand out much when compared to the others, both in his appearance and attitude, except for the fact that the camera stays on him primarily, which shows us that the is the main subject of the scene. The first scenery shot shows us a nice view of the trees and wilderness, and then we see that the company in the train has changed. It has gone from upper-class type people in suits and well-tailored clothing to more or less middle-class folks with what was considered in that time-frame jeans, regular shirts and not exactly Sunday best. That tells us that wherever he’s traveling, the landscape and people are beginning to get not exactly rougher, but not as well to do.
Danny and Wendy escapes from an abusive family by accepting the truth. The Shining, directed by Stanly Kubrick, and based off of the novel by Steven King, is a horror movie that centers on the Torrance family’s stay at the Overlook Hotel. Steven King liked the movie adaptation but was disappointed that Kubrick toned down the supernatural elements that are more obvious in the novel. Stanley Kubrick’s, The Shining is presented as more psychological and metaphorical than the literal ghost story written by Steven King. The events that occur in the overlook are better understood as a mental location instead of a physical one.
The Endless Argument As you are walking out of the movie theater you hear the endless debate between friends of whether the book or the movie was better. You might hear, "I thought the book was so much better." Or another person might say, "I didn't even know a book existed." Some may say a book is better because you can take your time reading and interpretating. Others might say a movie is better because the movie does the interpretating for them.
While reading “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” by Ernest Hemingway and “A Haunted House” by Virginia Woolf, I first found it quite confusing. After reading both stories a second time I understood it a bit. I had more of an understanding with “A clean, Well-Lighted Place” rather than “A Haunted House.” My understanding for “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” by Ernest Hemingway was not clear at first; I did in fact have to read it a second time in order to have some kind of understanding. I found this story depressing and I found one of the characters which was the younger waiter insensitive and it aggrivated me. There was an old man who tried committing suicide but failed, and he decides to go get drunk which is understandable.
There wasn’t much narration on what Bella was feeling internally. This was shown when she was doing dangerous things just to “hear and see” Edward telling her to stop. In the novel she was telling herself to keep being dangerous and Edward was just a voice. In the movie Edward’s whole body is shown and Bella isn’t narrating everything she’s doing and why. The pain that Bella feels when Edward abandons her is extremely well written and is really what this story is about.
West Side Story Review For me this production of ‘West Side Story’ was enthralling, energetic & emotional. I was a little confused at first as I had seen the movie version beforehand. For example in the movie the song ‘Gee Officer Krupke’ comes just before the war council whereas in the performance it came after the Rumble where Riff and Bernardo died. The use of backdrops, sets and props was clever. Some of the sets were simple but the lighting and props made them magical.
The Impression of view on Shakespeare in Love I am not a big fan of Shakespeare, I don't know much about him, but after watching “Shakespeare in Love”, and the introduction from Dr. Fung, I am keen on this show. I did some background search, " Shakespeare in Love " is actually a very sad film in the history , because it won the Oscar , but it has been criticized until now , and was even have the title of " the most fabled Oscar film ever". But my just want to say, the way to judge the movie is good or not is to see the movie, and feel it. After watching the movie, my answer is yes, this is a good movie. From the beginning to the end.
As I think, sets, costumes and camera work are perfect. Everything helps the viewer to feel himself a man of 20s and mentally transported into time. The film won two Oscars, for Best Costume Design (Theoni V. Aldredge) and Best Music (Nelson Riddle). The music is really amazing. I can say, the main characters in the book were slightly different in appearance and characters than how they were shown in screen adaptation.