# Reading > General Literature >  Suggestions- I need 2 Compare Book version Of Film

## Maljackson

Hi guys i need to compare a book version of a film to the actual movie.

I would be very grateful if you could help me out.

God bless you

Heres the question

1. "A written text is much richer than a performance, because the latter presents the viewer with meanings already determined by the director" . Discuss with reference to one or more texts.

I would be very very grateful if someone could help me.

You guys were very helpful last time and god bless you 4 that.

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## Snukes

Uh, thanks for all the blessings...

Just for clarity - you want a movie based on a book, or a book based on a movie...?

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## Scheherazade

What is it that you want help with exactly? Help you out how? Which movie/book have you had in mind?

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## mono

Very interesting project. You have many options, it seems, having so many books made into movies, yet not many vice versa.
Do you ask for suggestions?

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## Snukes

I think the Star Wars series was movies before books?

2001: A Space Oddysey certainly was. 

A bunch of popular movies are made into novels for young adults. If you ask at any bookstore, they should be able to give you some suggestions...

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## Bandini

I think 'A Clockwork Orange' is a great choice - although it may be too obvious a choice. Kubrik's ending infuriated Burgess so much that he later wrote a musical version that had a bearded 'Kubrik-a-like' getting a sound shoeing from the droogs! Just the difference in endings has got loads of scope for analysis/discussion. Have you seen and read 'A Clockwork Orange'? The book ends with Alex initially going back to his old ways before meeting up with Georgie and getting all soppy over a picture of his kid - quite a different message from that given by Kubrik's final view of Alex leering and drooling over lashings of the old ultra violence. Both works are fantastic. If you do choose it, I'd love to hear about it/discuss it.

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## PeterL

> 1. "A written text is much richer than a performance, because the latter presents the viewer with meanings already determined by the director" . Discuss with reference to one or more texts.


I agree that a written text is much richer than a movie. I can think of only two movies that agreed with the book. To wit, The Maltese Falcon and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Interestingly, John Houston directed both and both starred Humphrey Bogart. Generally, movies must delete some of what is in the book due to time constraints; a 90 minute movie is equivilant to about 20,000 of prose.

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## mono

> I think 'A Clockwork Orange' is a great choice


I strongly agree. _A Clockwork Orange_, Kubrick's film, I found almost as good as the book, which seems very rare.
If you prefer that specific genre of literature, I would also recommend Hunter S. Thompson's _Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas_, along with the film, starring Johnny Depp and Benicio del Toro.
Other good books made into decent movies:
Charles Dickens' _Great Expectations_ (the earlier versions, especially), _A Christmas Carol_, and _Oliver Twist_.
E.M. Forster's _Howards End_.
Charlotte Brontë's _Jane Eyre_, and Emily Brontë's _Wuthering Heights_.
Victor Hugo's _Les Misérables_ and _The Hunchback of Notre Dame_.
Margaret Mitchell's _Gone With The Wind_.

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## shortysweetp

I think Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice (the old one from 95 or 96 that is really long) also would be a good choice

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## Capnplank

I've done similar projects with "Mrs. Dalloway", which on film was a pretty faithful interpretation of the novel, and "The Planet of the Apes", which probably had about two scenes in the movie close to how they were written in the book. The latter definitely took a lot of creative license, and in some peoples' opinions it turned out to be a good thing. Not in mine, though...

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## Maljackson

1. "A written text is much richer than a performance, because the latter presents the viewer with meanings already determined by the director" . Discuss with reference to one or more texts.

thanks for your help guys but can anyone help me on how to approach this question.

I dont know how to approach it, is there some info i can get on this question.

once again many thanks.

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## PeterL

> I dont know how to approach it, is there some info i can get on this question.


You could compare a book to a movie that was made from it, pointing out the parts that were deleted or changed substantially. Some movies are only related to a book by name, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court for example. Another approach could be to point out how a particular scene in a movie was differently from you concept of that scene in the book. 

If you can think of good example, comparing a single scene would be easier.

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## mono

> I've done similar projects with "Mrs. Dalloway", which on film was a pretty faithful interpretation of the novel


I very strongly agree, having forgotten to add Virginia Woolf's _Mrs. Dalloway_ to my list above - highly recommended!  :Smile:

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## Lector

I think that PeterL had a great idea about focusing on a single scene. Try to aproach it in a way that contrasts how you interpreted the scene when you read it, and how the director interpreted the scene in the movie. And then perhaps you could go on to talk about how making a movie out of a book robs the reader of thier own interpretation and in essence, dumbs down the story so it doesn't have to be thought through, simply viewed.

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## Bandini

What about comparing the different conclusions to 'A Clockwork Orange'? You could work stuff about morality and all sorts in there?

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