Board Thread:Debating Club/@comment-839630-20140829113041/@comment-4934571-20140829131857

I was thinking about it recently. Me and my best friend were discussing the film adaptation of Divergent and she said she hates (SPOILER) the way they ended the film. In the book, Tris comes to the control room and there is only Tobias and no one else. In the film, there are many people and Tris fights Jeannine. She does not like it, because it was not the way it way in the book. I have to admit, I always like book more than a film. (The only exception is Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen - the book was boring, but the film with Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet, Hugh Grant and Alan Rickman was flawless.)

I tried to imagine myself as a director and I realized that they have to change something. They don't want to do word-by-word adaptation. They want to show their perception of the book, the way they feel and think. They are aware that people-who-have-not-read-the-book would come to see the movie. And if there is no action or interesting event in the book and these calm and quiet moments are included in the movie, the not-read-the-book viewers are usually bored.

I kind of understand Sullivan. In the first book, there are so many interesting moments that he had to film a 3-hours long movie. In Anne of Avonlea, however, we don't have much events. Not enough to make another 3-hours long movie. When you think about it, there are only these: selling Dolly the cow, Anne's first day as a teacher, Davy's adventures, the Golden picnic, an adventure on the Tory Road, the Storm and Lavendar Lewis arc. This would take 1 hour or 1 and half. Not enough. That's why he had to merge three books to one film.

But! As you said, I would prefer separately adapted films - faithful to the books. I don't like these new film characters who are in fact two (or more) book characters. I think the directors can ommit the boring parts but not add a new storyline with new characters.

The most faithful adaptation so far was Akage no An and I would be only happy if they adapted the other books the way they did the first one.