Misrepresentation in Films
For most avid readers, the news that their favorite novel or series will be made into a film sends readers into a frenzy. At the same time, there is an underlying fear that the director or filmmakers will “ruin” the book. This is because as opposed to reading the novel itself, films based on novels provide an inferior experience of the overall story due to misrepresentation. This misrepresentation occurs when filmmakers decide to change the way that a chapter or scene is written out. Filmmakers do not have a strict set of rules to which they must oblige, meaning that they get to pick and choose what makes the final cut. They may choose to omit characters or lines, alter details to accommodate the actors or go for …show more content…
In the case of Harry Potter, unfortunately, not every detail/event can be shown in the roughly 150 minutes of the films. While watching The Deathly Hallows Part 1, Nairi continuously mumbled, “No they didn’t! How could they cut that?!” Upon asking her what happened, she explained that there was a critical omission. In the film, Duddley does not tell Harry that he is not a waste of space as the two are saying their goodbyes to one another as they did in the novel. There was denial written on her face as a simple line had been purposely left out. She informed me that the line meant a great deal to her as she saw it not only as a confirmation from one character to another but as a writer to a reader. She recounted that upon reading the line she stopped and put the book down for the first time in hours. To her mind, without this line the impact of the scene was not as …show more content…
These alterations are made to accommodate the filmmakers or to make more of a spectacle. This can be a letdown, especially as the number of years passed since the book’s release increases, due to the fact that readers develop a predetermined image of how scenes should look based on the text. The way the words are strung together secretes the bond between a reader and the image portrayed in his/her mind. The more time passes, the firmer his/her belief of the image becomes. In regards to the “final battle” scene of Harry Potter, the filmmakers made the scene more grand than originally written. Nairi stated that while reading the final battle, she felt the intensity as the characters faced each other off individually. By contrast, the filmmakers chose to spread this fight out and make it less personal for the characters during this time by having them face off the enemy as a group. The filmmakers essentially decided to branch off of the text to shoot for a more theatrical perspective of the
For most avid readers, the news that their favorite novel or series will be made into a film sends readers into a frenzy. At the same time, there is an underlying fear that the director or filmmakers will “ruin” the book. This is because as opposed to reading the novel itself, films based on novels provide an inferior experience of the overall story due to misrepresentation. This misrepresentation occurs when filmmakers decide to change the way that a chapter or scene is written out. Filmmakers do not have a strict set of rules to which they must oblige, meaning that they get to pick and choose what makes the final cut. They may choose to omit characters or lines, alter details to accommodate the actors or go for …show more content…
In the case of Harry Potter, unfortunately, not every detail/event can be shown in the roughly 150 minutes of the films. While watching The Deathly Hallows Part 1, Nairi continuously mumbled, “No they didn’t! How could they cut that?!” Upon asking her what happened, she explained that there was a critical omission. In the film, Duddley does not tell Harry that he is not a waste of space as the two are saying their goodbyes to one another as they did in the novel. There was denial written on her face as a simple line had been purposely left out. She informed me that the line meant a great deal to her as she saw it not only as a confirmation from one character to another but as a writer to a reader. She recounted that upon reading the line she stopped and put the book down for the first time in hours. To her mind, without this line the impact of the scene was not as …show more content…
These alterations are made to accommodate the filmmakers or to make more of a spectacle. This can be a letdown, especially as the number of years passed since the book’s release increases, due to the fact that readers develop a predetermined image of how scenes should look based on the text. The way the words are strung together secretes the bond between a reader and the image portrayed in his/her mind. The more time passes, the firmer his/her belief of the image becomes. In regards to the “final battle” scene of Harry Potter, the filmmakers made the scene more grand than originally written. Nairi stated that while reading the final battle, she felt the intensity as the characters faced each other off individually. By contrast, the filmmakers chose to spread this fight out and make it less personal for the characters during this time by having them face off the enemy as a group. The filmmakers essentially decided to branch off of the text to shoot for a more theatrical perspective of the