The obvious downside is that fans of the novel can't help but compare the film to the novel. If the movie deviates too far from the novel, or tampered with the plot in it intelligently, it will definitely be scolded by people. For example, the Jin Yong dramas in the Wang Jing series usually have this problem. But what if the movie was shot 100% as the novel was? This way is also not feasible, because the film is only about 2 hours long, and the script of the film must choose and adapt the plot of the book. No matter how it is changed, people will use the height of the novel as a yardstick for the quality of a movie. Therefore, adapting a good novel into a movie can save a lot of advertising costs, but sometimes it is a thankless thing.
Closer to home, after watching the movie version of "The Kite Runner", my most direct feeling: the taste is like chewing wax. The adaptation of the novel by the film has only flesh but no blood, only the skeleton but lacks the soul. I think the main reason why the novel touches the hearts of so many readers is that it moves people with love. As for the movie, to use an inappropriate analogy, it is like those beggars on the street who kneel on the ground with a sign around their necks, and the ground in front of them is densely written with chalk on their tragic experiences, although they are also telling the story. The story, but the pedestrians who come and go are indifferent.
where is the problem? The big question is the script, or the script. First, the front padding is too short. From the beginning of the film to the time when the father and son escaped from Afghanistan, it took a little over 35 minutes, and how many plots should be condensed? Because the time is too short, the foreshadowing of the friendship between Amir and Hassan is not enough. After the accident of Hassan, the description of Amir's inner struggle is also rushed, and even the character of Ali is almost downplayed as a passerby. How can people who haven't read the original book feel the feelings between Amir and Hassan from this simple plot? Second, although the length of the novel is divided equally according to the three major parts of childhood, America, and redemption, the length of the film is limited. The film version also divides the length of these three parts equally. The direct consequence of the average effort is that the narrative of the film has no focus at all, and it feels like a novel is shown in PPT. If I were a director or a screenwriter, I would compress the part of my life in the United States and increase the length of the two parts of childhood and redemption, and have a purpose.
Another thing I don't like is that the director and screenwriter have deliberately amplified their ideology. Anything in the book that involves the Soviet Union or the "Republican", even if it's a very subtle plot, is moved to the movie. I don’t think this is accidental. I read the novel from the beginning and found that all the plots involved in the book are really preserved in the movie. I met Soviet soldiers on the way to escape, and scolded Russians in American taverns. When my father was seeing a doctor, he met a Russian doctor... It really is "one of them can't be missing". And the screenwriter didn't think it was enough, and "genius" adapted two plots that did not match the novel. First, in the movie Amir's father fled in a hurry after the Soviet invasion because he often made remarks against the "Republican", so he was afraid of giving it to the river. Second, at the end of the film, even Assef did not let go, using his words to express his dissatisfaction with the Soviet Union and XXism. I'm a little suspicious of whether the old American adapted the novel into a movie to show the Afghan people or to take this opportunity to whip the corpse of the Soviet Union again.
PS: There is another flaw in the movie: Assef’s stainless steel glove is a very prominent prop in the book. I don’t know why it disappeared in the movie? Isn't it because of cost savings?
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