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Movies do not deal with ideas very well. The whole point of a movie is to show things in motion. Books can deal with long passages of description that set up scenes that just won't work in a movie.
I was reminded of this since I have just finished reading The Executioners (Cape Fear) and thinking how the whole emphasis of the movie was different from the book. The movie is about the conflict between Sam Bowden and Cady. It's a great movie, well done. On the other hand, the book is about the idead that there are corners in the legal system, where the system breaks down. The police and the legal system can't protect the Bowdens from Cady, and they decide that the only thing they can do to protect themselves is to go outside the law and take it on themselves to execute Cady. The book is mainly about Sam Bowden coming to terms with fact that he will have to go ouside the law to protect his family. I think it is a great book. But the connection between the book and the film are superficial.
One of my all time favourite movies is the original "The Flight of the Phoenix". I read the book some years later and I found the book dull, dreary and disappointing. On the screen, Stewart and Kruger made the characters of Town and Dorfmann just sing and live. Those actors, along with the rest of the cast, made a dreary story live.
So if you liked the book, you may like the movie and if you liked the movie you may like the book, but don't count on it. What you can count on, is that they won't be the same.
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