[Usually Dead]

What's the saying when it comes to books made into movies? The book is always better, they say.

I used agree. I used to think the book was always preferable to the movie becuase movies have to be hacked, cut, and edited to fit into 2-3 hours, while the books can be as long as they want. I used to think books were better becuase you can narrate from the inside of a character's thoughts, see how a character thinks and works as can't be done on the movie screen.

But my oppinion changed when I saw the Lord of the Rings movies. I love those books, but the movies are pretty damn good too.

This got me thinking. Maybe, in many cases, the books aren't "better" than the movies, just diffrent. Both have advantages and disadvantages. You can't go into novel-level detail in the theaters, but you can't have special effects or THX surround sound in a novel either.

It's one thing to read this line on a page:
"Merry and Pippin were carried by the orcs across the grassland."
But it's another thing entirely to actually see those orcs hoist those hobbits around. You can see the blood crusted on Merry's eyebrow. You can watch Gandalf cast spells instead of reading them.

I don't think its fair to say "the book was better than the movie" in most cases, because books and movies are two entirely different forms of media. It would be like putting a bottle of Gold Bond Medicated Foot Powder next to a bowl of cherry-flavored Jell-O and saying, "The Foot Powder is better than the Jell-O." How do you compare them?

But I'm sure at least in the case of some movies, the books they were based off actually were better. Some of the movies I've seen based off books were terrible, so I guessed the book HAD to be better becuase nothing could be worse.

My point to this obnoxiously long post is that, in most cases, the book isn't actually better than the movie. They're just different, good in seperate ways.

What do you think? Do I speak wisdom like Gandalf or am I full of Uruk-Hai droppings? What's your oppinion on movies and the books thier made from?

Oh and by the way, Gandalf rocks. Just thought I'd mention that.


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[5th GHG E.G. Mine]

Yeah, unless the book is in exact detail, everyone will see a movie and book of the same to be different, or not as they imagined it. Some see a character a having a certain look, others see the same character in a different way.

[Greebo]

They'll never be exactly the same, true.
But some of the changes in Two Towers were totally unnecessary (elves arriving at Helm's Deep being my main objection)

I think the main reason why people find films disappointing is that their imagination created so much more when reading the book, whereas on film it's there and often isn't as good as what your imagination came up with.
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Most evil admin around.
Offical Ville songwriter.
"Captain Smart Ass"

[Paddyjack]

I never saw a movie that was better than the book, however in some few cases I liked very much the movie as well as the book (LotR, Silence of the Lambs, Green Mile).

Mostly, you see 2 medias at 2 different ends of the spectrum. What is needed in one doesn't work in the other, and that usually explains changes...sometimes however, the spirit of the book is completly wrong in the movie, and that is inexcusable.

Indeed, these elves at Helm's Deep were a useless change.... however I wonder if in a future extended DVD version there will be something that explain it.
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PJ --- ancient IDIOT with a rusty CROWBAR....
but still SWINGING!




Rock2..... JUST SAY NO!!!!!

[Mongoose_Slayer]

I still think the books are better in telling the story, and imagination makes you see whatever you want to. The movies are good too, but I think some changes were made that were entirely unnecessary. (OK, I can see why they didn't have Tom Bombadil in the first, but taking the hobbits back to Osgiliath?, Faramir being a butt? Or all the scenes with Arwen (until the end of the third book she is mentioned maybe, once.)

They are different and they are both good for their type of media, but the books are still better in my mind

[Secret Squirrel 006]

in school i'd rather see the movie than read the book
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[Typh00n]

BOOKS SUCK!

[My Personal Insanity]

Oh you had to stirr this on up didn't you, TJ?

Anyway, print and movies are different media, with
different constraints. Jackson and Co. are doing a
much much better job going from one to the other
than I ever thought possible, even if I disagree with
his choices in some places, so I'm pleased.

And you'll recall that I'm a bit of a Tolkien geek, and
a movie-hater, so that's not a light-hearted endorsement
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