Sometimes the Movie is Better Than the Book

There’s an unwritten rule that if you’re a reader, you always have to love the original source material more than its movie adaptation. There are a lot of good arguments for that. Books flesh out their stories, can dive easily into any character’s head to hear what they are thinking or feel what they are feeling, and can be as long as they need to be in order to tell their story. But that doesn’t always mean that the book is always superior to the film. And it takes a reader to understand why and how that is. Below are my thoughts about how sometimes, the movie is better than the book.

Should you read the book or watch the movie first?

There’s no clear answer to this question. In a lot of cases, it makes sense to read the book first. That way, you’ll know how closely the movie adapts the story. It can be boring to read a book that’s just like the movie if you’ve seen the movie first, unless you really love the story and don’t mind the slow burn of the unfolding plot.

If the story contains a twist, however, it might be better to watch the movie first. Movies depend on these large, dramatic moments to really impact their audience. Those are the moments you take away from a movie. I remember reading Roald Dahl’s Mathilda, and it blew my mind that Miss Honey was related to Ms. Trunchbull. Then, when this element was revealed in the movie, I felt a little letdown that I already knew that.

However, there were plenty of added scenes and surprising moments in the movie that weren’t in the book, such as the scene when Miss Honey and Matilda try to sneak out of Ms. Trunchbull’s house without her seeing them. It’s a scene that may not have hit as hard in print as is does in the movies when you can really build tension with music, performance, and a clear visual of the scene.

Chances are, if you read the book first, you’ll like it more. If you watch the movie first, you’ll like the movie more. One exception for me was the story, The Lovely Bones. I read the book and didn’t get the hype. Then I watched the movie which was dramatically different and found that I liked it more than the book.

Subjective opinions on stories

Movies and books are both subjective artforms that really depend on the individual tastes of the viewers or readers. There are bad books and bad movies out there, but not everyone can agree which ones are terrible. Even the most hated movies can find their audience. And even the most highly rated movies have their critics.

We see people arguing over books and movies all the time. I recently saw someone post about their love of the classic picture book, The Giving Tree, on Facebook and, as expected, there were plenty of people shaming them in the comments and presenting their valid but still subjective opinions on why they were wrong to love this book so much. Is it a story about unselfish love or one about taking advantage of someone until they have nothing left to give you? It all depends on your perspective.

Some stories just don’t age well, and new movies based on old books try to right its wrongs from a modern viewpoint. To some, this fixes outdated messages and philosophies. To others, it tries to erase the past or can seem like a new generation shaming the old one or rewiring it to appease an overly sensitive society. A good modern adaptation can tightrope walk through these conflicting viewpoints, which is a nearly impossible feat.

One recent movie that handled this well was Dr. Sleep. By replacing the lackluster ending of the book with the original ending of The Shining set in a convincing replica of Kubrick’s iconic sets, the film paid fan service to both the original book and movie and somehow “fixed” the Dr. Sleep story. Again, it’s a subjective but still a widely agreed on opinion.

The visual advantage

The obvious advantage of movies is its visual format. This comes in most handy for fantasy, historical, or epic stories. I shy away from reading fantasy mainly because I find it hard to form images of people, places, and creatures that I don’t see in the real world. But I’ll often give fantasy movies a try because it does the work for me. I remember reading The Wizard of Oz after seeing the movie dozens of times, and because of the fact that it was so different from the movie and it was full of fantasy elements, it was a tough read for me.

There are countries I’ve never been to which can be hard to picture in a book. But when characters travel to these countries in a movie, I can see the landscape, the culture, and its population with my own eyes.

Some readers get upset when their image of a person, place, or thing doesn’t match up with the image they had in their head when they were reading the book. I remember a classmate of mine coming into class upset because she had just seen the fourth Harry Potter movie, and she was furious that they had cut so much out of it and reconfigured the story in a way that didn’t meet her expectations. She had invested so much into the story that she would have had to have directed the movie herself in order to satisfy her demands. And she was in tears because of it.

Movies trim the fat from stories

A good book makes you not want to finish it. So, it can be hundreds or even thousands of pages long, and people will keep reading. But a lot of books do have a lot of unnecessary scenes, characters, and plot points that movies can cut and still have a complete story that makes sense.

Long-winded books are often full of non-cinematic elements that aren’t necessary in a film. We read in order to deep dive into these plots and characters. But movies need to be more fast-paced because they can often make their point with the way a camera moves, a character looks, or the music swells.

There are also a lot of characters who can be removed from a story without losing anything. Did you know that Mr. Bingley has two sisters in the book, Pride and Prejudice? Did you miss the presence of Aunt Alexandra in the film adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird? In the end, it didn’t matter because the dialogue and involvement of these characters could be diverted to other characters, giving them more to do and simplifying the story so that it can be told in two hours or less.

And if they need more time, they can always adapt it into a series which is becoming the more popular method of developing novels onto the screen. In this case, they can sometimes do even more with the characters than even the book because they have several more hours to devote to particular characters or situations.

The HBO series Big Little Lies is one example that comes to mind. Not only did I feel like it made the right changes from the book, but it also had the time to develop the characters in the way that a movie couldn’t.

Hearing dialogue versus reading it

Finally, I’ll always be impressed by how actors can take a line of dialogue and make it sound natural. Those of us non-actors who read may do a poor job of imagining dialogue being spoken in our heads or worse, reading it aloud. Actors prepare to say these lines in very specific ways versus we readers who are just reading through it to get to the next line.

Screenwriters too are often better at writing dialogue than authors. A lot of dialogue in books can be cheesy or hokey. Even the best actors wouldn’t be able to pull off some of those lines. But they will remember to include those memorable lines that sum up the point of the story.

I think of some of Edward Bloom’s stories in the novel, Big Fish. To me, they don’t pack as big of a punch as the dialogue spoken by Albert Finney or Ewan McGregor. In fact, the narrator of the book comes off as more cynical and less whimsical than the tone of the film. And that makes these characters more likeable because their dialogue is more impactful than the dialogue I was speaking in my head.

What are your favorite movies based on books? Do you like them better than the books? Leave your answers in the comments below!

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