Why Can't Movies Be Like Books?

[Sauron the White]

WCH - I think you greatly misunderstand DeNiro's statement. This is this. This is not something else. This is this.

A book is a book.
A film is a film.

THE LORD OF THE RINGS is a book.
THE LORD OF THE RINGS is a series of movies.

The book is not the movies.
The movies are not the book.

To apply criteria from one to the other is folly and a violation of the reality of each.

[davem]

Originally Posted by Sauron the White

WCH - I think you greatly misunderstand DeNiro's statement. This is this. This is not something else. This is this.

A book is a book.
A film is a film.

THE LORD OF THE RINGS is a book.
THE LORD OF THE RINGS is a series of movies.

The book is not the movies.
The movies are not the book.
.

Yes, but. That being the case one should not use books as raw material for film. If the two media are so totally different that any book 'adapted' for the screen will end up a horse of a totally different colour then there is no point buying the rights, no point trying to make a movie of any book at all. Jackson should simply have written an original script for a fantasy movie.

What you're arguing is that the LotR movies, because they are movies, cannot be the Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien - however hard the director & his team try to make it into that.

Yet Jackson & his team did try & tell Tolkien's story - he carried a copy of LotR around with him. The artists & designers drew on Tolkien's descriptions - even occasionally (when their own 'talent' failed them) using his dialogue. Jackson repeatedly stated that he was trying to remain faithful to Tolkien. According to you this was a complete waste of time on his part, as, however hard he tried, he could never have succeeded.

[Sauron the White]

from davem

Yes, but. That being the case one should not use books as raw material for film.

Sounds like your dispute is with JRRTolkien and not Peter Jackson since JRRT authorized and licensed his books for just that purpose.

Or another way to look at it that an orange is an orange with all the properties of an orange. However an orange can be turned into juice. It is now something else. An orange is an orange while orange juice is orange juice. Does that mean that an orange should never be turned into orange juice?

One should not drink orange juice and complain that it does not have the texture or consistency or an orange because it is something else with its own texture and consistency.

[davem]

Originally Posted by Sauron the White

One should not drink orange juice and complain that it does not have the texture or consistency or an orange because it is something else with its own texture and consistency.

One can criticise the quality of the orange juice, particularly if it was made from the highest quality fruit, but tastes like its been through a dead cat.

[Sauron the White]

Good point.

I believe the professional film critics sampled that juice and pronounced it of very high quality and very very drinkable.

[davem]

Originally Posted by Sauron the White

Good point.

I believe the professional film critics sampled that juice and pronounced it of very high quality and very very drinkable.

I've yet to come across a 'professional movie critic' who wasn't in the job purely because they weren't capable of making a useful contribution to society.

I'm sure 'Professional movie critics' would have been first on the 'B' Ark:

Golgafrincham is a red semi-desert planet that is home of the Great Circling Poets of Arium and a species of particularly inspiring lichen. Its people decided it was time to rid themselves of an entire useless third of their population, and so concocted a story that their planet would shortly be destroyed in a great catastrophe. (It was apparently under threat from a "mutant star goat"). The useless third of the population (consisting of hairdressers, tired TV producers*, insurance salesmen, personnel officers, security guards, management consultants, telephone sanitizers and the like) were packed into the B-Ark, one of three giant Ark spaceships, and told that everyone else would follow shortly in the other two. The other two thirds of the population, of course, did not follow and "led full, rich and happy lives until they were all suddenly wiped out by a virulent disease contracted from a dirty telephone".(Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy -from Wikipedia)

[Sauron the White]

Allow me to add school administrators to that list of the useless. I taught in high school for 33 years and never could figure out just what they did to make more money than a teacher when they never taught a single child to read, write, count or think. Education is a very funny profession. The further you get away from children, the bigger your office, paycheck and title. I used to say that a good administrator was worth their weight in gold. And remember - gold is a rare commodity.

Have to make my post topical .... I would not put JRRT on that list of the useless. And I notice that in his professional academic career he was a hands on teacher and not an administrator. Bravo!