Book or Film? SHARK ATTACK

There is a long tension between books and their film adaptations. Readers often feel superior to film-buffs for ‘having read the book first’. I can confess that I am quick to jibe ‘the book is better’ because I feel it is my default.

But I wonder why we need this tension. Cinema and writing are their own art forms, that needn’t be set against one another.

I personally don’t know anymore whether to feel excited or downright fearful when a book I have enjoyed has been announced as an upcoming film. My first thought is: ‘Has the director even read the book?’ or ‘What if this character doesn’t look how I imagined?’. It is difficult and I used to have a strict rule on reading the film before the book, but I don’t think I follow that anymore!

The author of the book, Fight Club, (apparently) said that the film did what he was not able to do with his writing (But the first rule is, not to talk about it!).

Often fans have agreed and there are other small instances where the film might have been better than book! Which absolutely shocks me to say.

There are many instances in my life where the book vs. film debate has changed or altered slightly. For instance, the very famous Harry Potter books while the films were coming out. I had the first 3 books read to me, and then picked them up on my own when I became a more confident reader. I have never considered anyone else for the role of Harry, Ron and Hermione, probably because of how soon the film came out after I had read the first book.

I reconsidered this when, in the stage production of A Cursed Child, a sequel to Harry Potter, Hermione was cast as a black woman. It made me think how easily we accept character appearances when they are given to us visually. Our minds, and the media has a very ‘White’ focus often, we almost unconsciously expect whiteness for our favourite book characters, without acknowledging the multitude of ethnicities that make our society up. I think this is changing in both literary and TV circles - The big screen needs to catch up!

Oh, the Drama….

Another difficulty is actor choices. Hollywood love to pick their leading man or woman, with little heed to what readers think. When I first read Jane Austen’s Emma, despite Austen saying Emma was a brunette, the Emma in my head was always blonde. That was because I (criminally you might think), watched the Gwyneth Paltrow Emma film before reading the book. More recently the production of Emma again cast Anya Taylor Joy as a blonde Emma which suited me again!

Big Teeth

SO with all this in mind, along with my love for Shark films, I picked up the book Jaws.

Jaws is one of my favourite films. Probably one of the most famous films of all time, if not just for the music, it is hard to believe it was a book first, and yet it was. Despite jibes that it was ‘just a movie script’ and having exhausted the film on my 500^th watch, I picked up the book.  

I found it almost amusing that it is categorised as a ‘horror’ book. Imagine me reading horror!

The writing wasn’t anything special, and at times, obscure. There was deep misogyny running right throughout the book, which, thankfully is mostly left out of the film, focusing rather on the sharky stuff !

The misogyny and often predatory behaviour of the male characters in the book is, of course, linked to the real predator in the water - A BIG SHARK!!

Similarly the nature of the town being a holiday resort, once a year for rich urbanites from New York, almost mimics this prey-predator image. As much as the New Yorkers leach off the small town for the summer months, the town equally is dependent on the tourists for its year-round survival.

The town and importance of the visitors is central to the film of Jaws too. To save the economy town or save lives from a big fishy monster in the depths? A difficult one!

Film or Book

In my opinion, if you watch the film first it does not, as I previously thought, ruin the book.

If I enjoy a book and a film of it is released I used to always vow never to see it, thinking it might spoil my image of the story.

I’ve changed. I’m always now excited to see what other people choose to draw out of a book, and what bits and why they may leave out.

A film can’t show everything. A book may have more emotions, side plots and forgotten storylines along the way. But film is of course largely visual, so vast descriptions are supplemented with set design and characterisation etc. That leads into choosing good actors too.

Don’t decide

If I go home unhappy or angry at the director, so be it; I can go home happy in my little book bubble, knowing that they just didn’t get the book HAHA, loser.

Jokes aside, I say let’s stop the competition of book or film. Just like a bad book, a bad film is soon forgotten and just put down to experience. This should be the same for bad adaptations - just try again in a few years or LEAVE THAT BOOK ALONE !!! Some things are just better left on the page.