It’s a tricky one. For the directors especially. They take material that is perhaps well loved by legions of fans and from it must recreate the magic that endeared people to those stories in the first place. Succeed and they can capture that magic on the big screen, sharing the emotions of the story, perhaps even greatly expanding the fan base. Fail and we are left with disappointment, more so if…
…people feel the poor film differs too much from the source material. And yet, does it really harm? Let’s have a look.
First a success: The Lord of the Rings. To keep it simple let’s start with the Fellowship (the first one). No-one can deny the film was excellently made and catapulted legions of new fans into the world of Middle Earth. It left out much source material, remember Farmer Maggot and Tom Bombadil? You wouldn’t unless you read the book. Yet does the film suffer? Of course not. It’s the balancing act of an adaptation – you can’t include everything in the film and part of the challenge is deciding what you’ll need to leave out whilst keeping a consistent story.
And how about a less successful film? Let’s delve into Eragon by Christopher Paolini. It was not a perfect book but it was a fun piece of adventure that appealed to many in the early 2000’s (and many still now). The film differed in many points to the book but still tried to keep to the spirit of the story. It tried and, for the most part, failed. I remember enjoying the first Eragon book by Mr Paolini when I read it all those years ago and although I watched the film at least twice, it never quite lived up to the story. Did it spoil my enjoyment of the book or the one after? No, of course not. Did it drive more people to the books? Ehhh….I’m not sure. Maybe? Did it harm the books? I really don’t think so.
And, as a third consideration, I’d like to include a third option: Films that differ considerably from the source material yet still make an excellent film. For this it has to be Blade Runner. It’s actually based on a novel by Philip K Dick called Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and it omits many of the story elements of the book. The only similarities seem to be the characters and the exploration of the subject of empathy in robots. Much of the rest of the story is very different.
So, are adaptations harmful? I don’t think so. No doubt many people grumble and groan when a film doesn’t live up to their expectations but I think this stems from a sense of disappointment when the book is something they quite like or even hold dear. To some it can even feel like sacrilege if the core message of the book is messed with. But the books will always be there. And perhaps the film, no matter how good or otherwise it is, might help bring people over to those books that we so love?
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