Film Adaptations of Books

After watching the Reacher miniseries on Amazon Prime Video, I began thinking about how beloved books and book series are adapted to film. From Lee Child’s action-packed Jack Reacher book series to fantasy epics like J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, audiences debate whether the book or the movie (or show) adaptation is better.

Many people enjoy comparing the book and film adaptations of a work while others get frustrated that a particular adaptation strayed from the source material. Perhaps a character like Jack Reacher looks different in our heads than he does on screen, or the Hobbits never encounter the ancient undead barrow-wights in the film like they do near the beginning of the first book. Are these differences enough to discount an adaptation as inferior to the source material or completely change how the source material is read and enjoyed?

Of course, the answer to this question is up to the individual to decide. Personally, I appreciate each medium as its own creative expression. Books allow readers to transport themselves inside of the story and interpret the characters and events in unique ways whereas film can be a take-it-or-leave-it proposition. While books rely on the reader’s imagination to bring characters and events to life, film adaptations can provide a new interpretation of a work that is fresh and interesting. Books have more freedom to explore many plot threads while the same approach in movies and shows can introduce pacing problems.

The specific ways books and films engage readers and viewers cannot be entirely replicated by one medium or the other; however, these differences are their strengths. Does that mean we should avoid debates about which version of a story is better? Not at all. Comparing and contrasting film adaptations from the source material (or vice versa) makes for a fun discussion and can introduce new books that people would not have known about if a film adaptation was not made.

The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien

ISBN: 9780618640157

Publication Date: 2005-10-12

A PBS Great American Read Top 100 Pick One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them In ancient times the Rings of Power were crafted by the Elven-smiths, and Sauron, the Dark Lord, forged the One Ring, filling it with his own power so that he could rule all others. But the One Ring was taken from him, and though he sought it throughout Middle-earth, it remained lost to him. After many ages it fell by chance into the hands of the hobbit Bilbo Baggins. From Sauron's fastness in the Dark Tower of Mordor, his power spread far and wide. Sauron gathered all the Great Rings to him, but always he searched for the One Ring that would complete his dominion. When Bilbo reached his eleventy-first birthday he disappeared, bequeathing to his young cousin Frodo the Ruling Ring and a perilous quest: to journey across Middle-earth, deep into the shadow of the Dark Lord, and destroy the Ring by casting it into the Cracks of Doom. The Lord of the Rings tells of the great quest undertaken by Frodo and the Fellowship of the Ring: Gandalf the Wizard; the hobbits Merry, Pippin, and Sam; Gimli the Dwarf; Legolas the Elf; Boromir of Gondor; and a tall, mysterious stranger called Strider. This new edition includes the fiftieth-anniversary fully corrected text setting and, for the first time, an extensive new index. J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973), beloved throughout the world as the creator of The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion, was a professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford, a fellow of Pembroke College, and a fellow of Merton College until his retirement in 1959. His chief interest was the linguistic aspects of the early English written tradition, but while he studied classic works of the past, he was creating a set of his own.

Bad Luck and Trouble by Lee Child

ISBN: 9780440246015

Publication Date: 2009-05-19

THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING JACK REACHER SERIES THAT INSPIRED TWO MAJOR MOTION PICTURES AND THE UPCOMING STREAMING SERIES REACHER "Electrifying . . . this series [is] utterly addictive."--Janet Maslin, The New York Times From a helicopter high above the California desert, a man is sent free-falling into the night. On the streets of Portland, Jack Reacher is pulled out of his wandering life and plunged into the heart of a conspiracy that is killing old friends . . . and the people he once trusted with his life. Reacher is the ultimate loner--no phone, no ties, no address. But a woman from his old military unit has found him using a signal only the eight members of their elite team would know. Then she tells him a terrifying story about the brutal death of a man they both served with. Soon Reacher is reuniting with the survivors of his team, scrambling to unravel the sudden disappearance of two other comrades. But Reacher won't give up--because in a world of bad luck and trouble, when someone targets Jack Reacher and his team, they'd better be ready for what comes right back at them.