There are several challenges a film can face when it is adapted from a written piece. Whilst some critics will defend that film adaptation tend to vary several aspects of the story, others, may object there are techniques, which help to recreate and maintain the plot alive within audiovisual frameworks. This essay will discuss some of the difficulties of adapting War Horse and the different methods that were used in the pursuance of telling the story visually.
War Horse is a children’s novel written by the British author Michael Morpugo. Firstly published on 1982, it gained rapid popularity worldwide due to the impressive narrative of the First World War conflict. Some of the most popular features of the book are strong feelings of friendship amongst “vivid pictures of the impact of warfare across different times and cultures” (National Army Museum, 2015).
The stage adaptation process started in 2004 when director Tim Morris was looking for new projects to develop in the National Theatre (Bickerstaff and Grabsky, 2009). By 2007, when the play had its first appearance publicly, audiences …show more content…
However, each of the representations, whether is written, played of filmed, adds a new dimension to the story (Curtis and Hiddleston, 2012).
One of the main difficulties was shifting the story from first to third person. The novel is written in the horse’s voice making the readers aware of the story through Joey’s internal thoughts. Nevertheless, it was clear from the beginning of both adaptations that the horses would not talk. As a result, the challenge was “the necessity of finding a story which put the horse at its center but which denied the horse a speaking voice” (Bickerstaff and Grabsky, 2009). This implies that in both versions, “Joey stops being the narrator and starts being a character” (Bickerstaff and Grabsky,
War Horse is a children’s novel written by the British author Michael Morpugo. Firstly published on 1982, it gained rapid popularity worldwide due to the impressive narrative of the First World War conflict. Some of the most popular features of the book are strong feelings of friendship amongst “vivid pictures of the impact of warfare across different times and cultures” (National Army Museum, 2015).
The stage adaptation process started in 2004 when director Tim Morris was looking for new projects to develop in the National Theatre (Bickerstaff and Grabsky, 2009). By 2007, when the play had its first appearance publicly, audiences …show more content…
However, each of the representations, whether is written, played of filmed, adds a new dimension to the story (Curtis and Hiddleston, 2012).
One of the main difficulties was shifting the story from first to third person. The novel is written in the horse’s voice making the readers aware of the story through Joey’s internal thoughts. Nevertheless, it was clear from the beginning of both adaptations that the horses would not talk. As a result, the challenge was “the necessity of finding a story which put the horse at its center but which denied the horse a speaking voice” (Bickerstaff and Grabsky, 2009). This implies that in both versions, “Joey stops being the narrator and starts being a character” (Bickerstaff and Grabsky,