The “Water Cooler” is a feature on Claycord.com where we ask you a question or provide a topic, and you talk about it.
The “Water Cooler” will be up Monday-Friday at noon.
Today’s question:
QUESTION: What do you usually enjoy more, the book version of a story, or the movie version?
Talk about it.
21 comments
place me in the Book Column.
The book by far. There are of course exceptions. Modern movies, and TV for that matter, are mindless. They leave nothing to the imagination. Nothing is implied so you have to engage your brain to figure it out. People watching movies tend to look like they are zoned out on drugs. Movies force you into their interpretation of the story. What the scene and characters look and sound like. Movies are also condensed versions of the story. There is way to much information in most novels to make anything less than a 5+ hour movie. I like being able to picture the story in my mind, in my interpretation.
I used to say book but with my shortening attention span I will have to now choose movie. However, as said above, details matter. In JRR Tolkien’s books he did a great job of creating the sheer terror that you would experience upon seeing one the Black Riders of Mordor, but in the movie it was just some annoying guy dressed in black on a stupid horse. Just not the same feeling.
Book version. I’m reading a lot more now, still working on a project I started. Been a bit slow going. On that I’ve been reading the dictionary for that language. I’m also a very visual individual, so I enjoy the movie version when they engage me.
Books.
In my opinion. 85% of the time it’s the book..
Movies dont have enough time for deep character development. Some stories dont need this , so the movie can be just as good or better
The book version by far.
Perforning art the best
Interpretive dance & puppetry?
It depends which came first.
Excellent point.
Author Alan Dean Foster comes to mind for the novelization of movies – Star Trek, Star Wars, Alien Transformers etc etc.
Depends on the story trying to be told…
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Book.
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Way better character development and plot background.
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Usually the book. A couple glaring exceptions would be 2001 A Space Odyssey(the movie came first with a very loose script), The Firm, because only the movie had a realistic ending
Books 95% of the time. I can’t think of the few movies that were better presented but there were a few. Usually I will read the book first.
It’s hard to say, some of my favorite books I only read after I saw the movie, but certainly in the book the character;s are more developed. To name a few “From here to Eternity” the book was of course much more in depth, and a lot longer, however after seeing the movie, when I read the book I had a mental picture of Prewitt (Montgomery Clift) and other characters. The same for :”The Young Lions” and Exodus. I loved the movie “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”, but couldn’t get into the book. Which is strange because of my favorite books is “In Cold Blood” also by Truman Capote, saw the movie first and then read the book. Some of my favorite Danish books I read as a teenager, I was very disappointed when the movie came out, in those case I read the book first and then saw the movie. In my other examples I saw the movie first and then read the book, and I can honestly say I can’t say which I prefer much, since I liked both the movies and the books.
Read the Godfather as a tot and whilst a good book, I only read it once, whilst I’ve seen the movie multiple times. Tried reading TLOR as a teenager, and didn’t dig it, however, the movies were great. Conversely, Laura Hillenbrand’s books; Unbroken and Seabiscuit, were much better than the movies. I guess the moral is…don’t close your mind.
I did read the Godfather before l saw the movie, both were good. Because l had read the book l knew about the scene with the horse’s head. I didn’t want to see it, so I left the theater for a few minutes, my boyfriend (later) husband got very upset with me.
Many years ago, my son was very excited to report that his favorite series of books was going to become a television series. Years later, we were watching Game of Thrones, and he really enjoyed the way that the Red Wedding caught me by complete surprise.
Kind of depends.
“To Kill a Mockingbird” was a great book but I prefer the movie (Gregory Peck nailed the role.)
“The Sand Pebbles” was a good movie but pales in comparison to the book.
Some books are weak to begin with and the movie versions are even worse (The Bonfire of the Vanities.)
Most of the time the book but on rare occasions the movie.
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