Quote:
Originally Posted by BookCat
I recently read Fahrenheit 451 and have the DVD of the movie. As per normal (because I never remember plots) I wrote a review of the book which is basically a comparison of book and film. Here's the gist of it:
This is one of those instances where the film is better than the book. Although there are some beautifully poetic passages and strong writing - especially in which the rhythm varies according to the pace of the action - there are also some parts which are so tedious that I was tempted to give up but wanted to know the difference in the plot progression and character development as compared to the movie.
The characters are less clearly drawn but more complex in the book; naturally we see more of Montag's internal life, but the others seem to be mere ciphers, vehicles for Bradbury to express Montag's struggle. In the film I feel we know the others more fully.
(SPOILER ALERT  ) Clarisse survives in the film, which I prefer to her vaguely mentioned death in the book. The term Book People is used in the film and their function for the future is more clear, but less deeply defined - the book's ambition for them is far more profound. Nevertheless, I prefer the movie's more positive ending.
War is more of a feature of the novel, with the constant mention of jets flying overhead. At the end, the novel depicts full-scale annihilation of the city watched by the book-loving vagabonds who represent the future. The war is hardly mentioned in the film.
The reasons why reading has become neglected -> frowned upon -> banned seems more top down in the film, but in the book there's a passage which explains that the public just wanted quicker, easier, less deep or disturbing entertainment - the movement was bottom up. This give the book less of a Nazi-style book-burning theme and speaks to today's generation of video-gamers. Maybe Bradbury was reacting to the beginning of the television age, especially with the 'walls' being a development of t.v. which partly exists now with huge plasma screens.
Am I guilty of prefering the non-book society in finding the book deeper but less easily accessible and less pleasant to digest than the film? Maybe.
Sorry to subject MR to one of my reviews, but would be interesting to hear other's opinions on Fahrenheit 451 book vs movie. |
Or an LCD or an LED screen. All of which are huge now.