American Literature Week 35 Film and Books Work Together

Prompt: “Studying American literature: print vs. movies.”

An interesting phenomenon that happens in Hollywood is print often becomes film. Movies are regularly inspired by books, and from there often splinter out into sequels and spin offs. When this phenomenon happens the film has to compress the book it’s based on into a ninety minute time frame, while also attempting to capture the essence of the novel itself. This can either work well and act as a sister to the book, drawing in a new crowd while also telling the story to an audience only interested in watching. Or it can misfire and chase away those who might of read the book if they didn’t associate it with a subpar flick.

But the two creative mediums work hand in hand, inspiring and feeding off each other. It’s hard to compare them except on a personal level, the experience is subjective. Books do offer the reader the chance to imagine the world themselves, which I’ve found ironically leaves a more profound visual in my mind than the solely visual art of film. But that’s just the thing, a movie based on a book is the director attempting to show the world what goes through their mind when they read said book. It’s them bringing that vision to life. Or at least trying to capitalize on it.

Whatever vision you prefer (your own or a directors) we can all agree that books and movies are partners, not rivals. They have worked together since the dawn of film. In fact I’d argue to say that movies are often the children of books, dreamt up by creative souls who were inspired by the novel and had the passion to make their experience into a film for the world to see.