Novel to Film adaptations

When a work is going to be translated into a film, there is a great risk associated with the translation. Of course, many works of fiction get turned into great films, but one could argue that a majority of these films end up as disappointing. The reasons for this are numerous, but I think that the main reason these films end up poorly is that a certain essence is lost when the screenwriter condenses the work into a ninety minute chunk that average Joe Moviegoer can stand. Also, and more pertinent to our class discussions, there is a double standard in place concerning what kind of racial interactions are acceptable to the public. This was the case in the film version of Devil in a Blue Dress.

Even though the novel stresses the immense sexual tension between Daphne and Easy, there is little to no indication of this in the film. This of course means that the rather explicitly detailed sex scene between the two characters in the novel is nowhere to be found. It is embarrassing to think that the general public is simply not ready to view a consensual sex-act between a black man and a white woman. Interestingly enough, a sex scene which is only briefly covered in the novel is rather explicitly and gratuitously shown in the film. The difference? The scene that made it into the film depicted sex between two black people.

When I think of good fiction-to-film adaptations I think of movies like "A Clockwork Orange", "The Shining", "Misery", and "The Shawshank Redemption". Interestingly enough several of these were adapted from Stephen King stories. His works have made some horrendously bad films (I'm looking at you, "Langoliers") but something about his work can be translated successfully to the big screen. However, Stanley Kubrick took great liberties with King's novel when he directed "The Shining" and I believe it made all the difference in the world. As I said previously, it can be difficult to shrink down a story to work as a ninety minute movie. None of these good adaptations that I've listed are that. They are longer than average and I believe that their high quality can be attributed to this.

In case you are wondering, Stephen King's novel had gigantic hedge animals that came alive to keep Wendy and Danny from leaving the hotel. Kubrick replaced this with the now famous hedge maze sequence. I think we can all agree which version was better suited to the silver screen.