I’ve heard it countless times before: “The book was better than the movie.” This is a sentiment often shared among book-lovers, who nearly always return from the movie adaptations of their favorite novel quite disappointed. And this can stem from multiple reasons- Maybe the movie had production problems, a terrible script. But over time, I’ve found that most people tend to be disappointed because their expectations from the book just weren’t fulfilled on screen.
After all, these books are only chosen to be adapted because they’re considered good stories; high expectations are to be expected. But the two mediums are so different that sometimes a good story isn’t enough for a movie to work. Movies are entirely different in terms of how they are written, because they can’t afford to have long, winding scenes like a book can. They have to be concise, and they tend to rely much more on dialogue. And the longer a story is, the more content that the film has to “properly” address (or cut.) There are certainly moments when a reader is forced to mourn their favorite scene, which was dropped or changed to keep the film a more acceptable length. Moreover, movies have so many moving parts. There’s costumes, lighting, set design, etc. But when even just a couple of these fall flat, they can ruin the magic for the viewer.
Yet I’ve found that there is an exception: Short stories. I recently watched the movie Arrival, which was based on Story Of Your Life by Ted Chiang. In this short story, a woman must translate for aliens who recently touched down on Earth, and in the process begins to understand language, time, and life in a whole new way. The short story was great; the movie stunned me. The initial ideas were all present, yet there was this depth to everything that was entirely new.
And this might just come down to the differences between novels and short stories themselves. Unlike novels, short stories have much fewer scenes to begin with. This makes it much easier to expand upon them, to breathe more life into the characters and their world. And going in with fewer expectations certainly leaves more room to be wowed.
Still, in the end, it all comes down to personal preference. So, what do you think? What was better to you: The movie or the book?
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