Sometimes in movie production a film is developed from a piece of literature. Directors will use the plot of a book either to create a unique movie, or to give the audience a chance to see what their favorite book is like when acted out on the screen. Willa Cather's "Paul's Case" is a good example of a work adapted to video. The movie has slight differences from the book, but the director Lamont Johnson follows the original closely. Most movies that are inspired by books hold some relation to the author's version, but are changed to fit the director's vision and perhaps make the movie more presentable. "Paul's Case" the movie, beginning to the end, is basically the same, but slight differences were found in the characters' physical …show more content…
For example, flowers were symbolized in both versions. The flower he wears in his lapel looks to not belong there based on his personality and the clothes that he wears. Just as the flower should not belong there Paul feels that he does not belong in his life. However, sounds were also symbols in the movie. In the beginning of the movie, the viewer finds Paul waiting to meet with his professors, and a ticking clock heard over everything else. This illustrates the passing of time, or even that his time is going to be running to an end. At the firm, an adding machine, and this is telling the audience that money will be coming into play, and the train whistle at the end tells the viewer that he is thinking of his death or a way out. The director uses these to create a mood or as foreshadowing. There are small altercations that the screenplay that the director makes in the plot. In New York, Paul meets a student in the hotel. In the text, he meets him in the evening or at nighttime. The movie shows this taking place during the day. This, however, is a minor detail and did not effect the running of the story. In Cather's version, the reader is presented with two sisters of Paul's. These are hardly mentioned in the movie. The book also illustrates Paul pushing his teacher while in the movie he is more aggressive. The movie also has an over voicing of Paul's father as he is sneaking back into his
The PBS article on film adaptation discusses the challenges of adopting a novel into a film and the changes film makers must make. Most of these novels that are being read in schools are being made into movies. In these movies though, the narrator disappears in the movies which is a main factor of a book because they would show many characteristics about a character. The great thing about movies is that instead of a narrator, everybody can see the emotions on the characters faces and explains what the character goes through. For example, in the film “The Pedestrian” instead of having a narrator the creator of the film added another character in to show their feeling and emotions and others(Bollinger). Film is limited in many aspects as in
Some similarities are, one, the characters are the same. Winnie foster,in the movie and the book still kept her same name, her feelings about wanting to leave. In the book on page 13 it says , “Winnie Foster sat on the bristly grass just outside the fence” showing that her name is the same. Another similarity is, Mae Tuck hits the man in the yellow over the head with the rifle. In the movie it shows Mae Tuck hitting the man in the yellow suit
Coming to Tangerine Middle was “quite the ride” for Paul. Paul was able to see how the Tangerine students are really like to compare to the dirty image that they have on them. First of all, transferring to this school has made Paul develop confidence in himself to speak the truth, which builds up a strong relationship with his teammates. Yet Paul still can’t get over his main fear, Erik. Although it may look like Paul grew an enormous amount, mentally in the novel, he still has a long way to go in order to face Erik. At the end of Part 2, Edward Bloor expresses Paul’s growth, emotionally in a strong way.
The film follows the book to a certain degree, but obviously, some creative changes did occur. I think
Whenever books are adapted for film, changes inevitably have to be made. The medium of film offers several advantages and disadvantages over the book: it is not as adept at exploring the inner workings of people - it cannot explore their minds so easily; however, the added visual and audio capabilities of film open whole new areas of the imagination which, in the hands of a competent writer-director, can more than compensate.
Paul was a self-oriented boy, concerned with money, wealth, and glamour, raised in a Calvinist household that supported these ideals. Through my research I have decided that Paul's eventual fate was not any one person's fault. Paul was just as much to blame as his father and teachers for Paul's suicide.
After being forced to leave his job as an usher at Carnegie Hall Paul gets a job working at Denny and Carson's office firm. He gets the money to go to New York City by taking the money he was supposed to deposit in the bank from Denny and Carson's deposit and pockets it. Paul arrives in New York and lives the luxurious life by buying fancy clothes and checking into a nice hotel. After eight days in New York his fun runs out when he discovers in the Pittsburgh papers that his father had reimbursed the firm and was coming to get him. "Paul had just come in to dress for dinner; he sank into a chair, weak to the knees, and clasped his head in his hands. It was worse than jail, even; the tepid waters of Cordelia Street were to close over him finally and forever" (Cather 11). After succeeding
With his whimsical, eccentric, and somewhat selfish outlook on life, every reader could relate—in one way or another—to Willa Cather’s protagonist in “Paul’s Case.” Paul, who just believed he was misunderstood, was continuously perceived as diverse and bizarre by his peers, neighbors, and even his own father. By not taking any interest in the dull, drab, and dim everyday life of the average person in Pittsburgh, Paul was consistently criticized and belittled by others. Along with not enjoying the typical endeavors as the average “normal” boy his age, Paul also grew up without a mother; therefore, Paul really did not receive any kind of parental love or affection. To add to it all, Willa Cather stereotypically portrayed Paul as being homosexual throughout the entire story.
During this time, Paul contemplates a plan to ask his father for a cab fare. He will tell his father that the money is to make it over to his friend’s house, when he is really planning on making his way to New York City. This escape to New York City is a way out of his life that he is struggling to get through. “The east-bound train was ploughing through a January snowstorm...” (Cather). Now, aboard a train to New Jersey, Paul is longing for the beauty of New York. After the train stops in Newark, Paul hopes to spend a night or two in town and then get on board another train that will take him to New York. The time part of the setting impacts the story greatly, since the story is based in the winter. Winter represents the end of things in literature and it is in this winter, that Paul goes on to commit suicide.
Behind every great movie, comes a storyline that is derived from a book however, most of the books to the movies have a great number of deviations. The screenwriters and other staff members to include the director come up with these deviations to enhance the plot in the attempt to make it a more interesting film to which in turn can make a better profit. The majority of differences that is found in films main objective is to enhance the mind. For example, when a scene has the ability to get a particular feeling out of a viewer, it is imperative to be able to understand the reasons for those feelings. The dialog and the visual effects of a scene sets a tone that differs from that of the book that it was taken from. Also, screen writers and
To begin books and movies are similar because they both tell a story. Essentially they tell the same story while keeping the protagonist, supporting characters, and settings the same. For example, The Great Gatsby is a dramatic romance story both in the film and the Novel. Both provide a sense of a fantasy; where the consumer of the film or book can escape there reality. The two
In recent years, it has become popular for many of America's great literary masterpieces to be adapted into film versions. As easy a task as it may sound, there are many problems that can arise from trying to adapt a book into a movie, being that the written word is what makes the novel a literary work of art. Many times, it is hard to express the written word on camera because the words that express so much action and feeling can not always be expressed the same way through pictures and acting. One example of this can be found in the comparison of Ken Kesey's novel, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and the film version directed in 1975 by Milos Forman.
It is very common to see a movie that has arisen from a famous novel, but
There have been many on-screen movie adaptations that are based on novels from the past. A great example of this would be The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The novel was written in 1850 and progressed the career of Nathaniel Hawthorne who lived in Salem, Massachusetts at the time. The movie adaptation was released in 1995 and stars Demi Moore as Hester Prynne, alongside some other award-winning actors, such as Gary Oldman and Robert Duvall. There were alterations made to the onscreen version that changed how the book and movie was portrayed, including: the time frame in which both begin are completely different starting points, the person narrating the tales are different, and the ending in the movie is dramatically different than the novels ending. Movies makers tend to emphasize or change parts of a novel to make it more exciting and relatable to the viewers, which is exactly what
Not only do books and movies create a story, they also offer people the ability to become lost in a fictional, or non-fictional, world they could not possibly dream of. Both books and movies are created by creative and intelligent people with a story to tell. Many times, books contribute to the creation of movies such as the Harry Potter series. Without the creation of the books themselves, the movies would have never been dreamed of. Movies based on books however, are altered to be able to fit into the runtime a good movie has. Books and movies are two of the best ways someone can become entertained by simply sitting down and taking time out of their day to either watch and listen, or read about a story many at times wish to become a part of. Books and movies are also similar in the way they allow writers to show their creativity. Writers of both are able to create stories they might have thought of since they were young teenagers. Writers of both are able to get their stories out into the public through books and movies.