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Bookworms and Movie Maniacs : Literary adaptations in cinema
iView Author:Aditya Mani Jha
(Kharagpur, India)
EMAIL: amj91288[at] gmail [dot] com
Title: Bookworms and Movie Maniacs : Literary adaptations in cinema
Following are three out of the five nominees for the Best Film Academy Award: Atonement, No Country For Old Men and There Will Be Blood.(No Country For Old Men finally got the nod from the Academy sages.)
In case you are wondering what are the ties which bind the trio, the answer is they are all literary adaptations , based on novels by Ian McEwan, Cormac McCarthy and Upton Sinclair, respectively. Although adapted screenplays are not a new thing, the recent trend shows an upsurge like never before. So what is it that attracts writers and directors to bring out the reading glasses?
For one, one of the biggest hurdles of filmmaking is easily overcome when you have an engrossing story on hand. While some directors prefer not to tinker with the storyline, often people take a leap of faith and provide their own intriguing takes on well-beloved works of literature. So, while a film like say, Atonement, is praised by the pundits for being rigourously faithful to the novel, films like The Bourne Identity, or Vishal Bharadwaj’s masterly Shakespearan duo Maqbool and Omkara have been lauded for doing just the reverse: Providing an original and audacious interpretation, or even reworking, of an existing(and popular) storyline.
In some cases extrapolation reaches such dizzying heights that the end product can often be called a bona fide original. For instance, the Coen brothers were not too pleased when they were nominated for an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for O Brother,Where Art Thou? , whose script is, at best, very loosely adapted from Homer’s epic Odyssey. Hell, will they call James Joyce’s Ulysses an adapted work next? Never mind the pioneering stream-of-consciousness narrative, the mind-boggling erudition or the immense influence it had on a whole generation of writers……..
Ethan Coen quipped during his Oscar acceptance speech for No Country ” Now we have only adapted from Cormac McCarthy and Homer!” For innovative extrapolation , I often recommend a lesser-known film called “The United States of Leland” which starred a very young Ryan Gosling , Don Cheadle and Kevin Spacey. The story of a young boy who commits a seemingly senseless and cold-blooded crime owes something to Albert Camus’s classic novel “The Stranger”. Now, the novel(one of my faves, by the way)is often cited as an essential philosophical text which highlights themes of absurdism and existentialism, the basic premise being that the human existence is basically pointless and the search for meaning in one’s life is ultimately futile….. Boring, right???? Wrong! The film beatifully highlights the young boy Leland’s bleak world-view and his mounting disillusionment with the way things work out, by replacing Camus’s “outsider” with Leland, a boy who could be your brother, or your son.
Similarly,another important factor while adapting literary works is the transfiguration of cultural idioms and symbols: In this respect I really admire films like Omkara. I mean, the way the Great Moor Othello was anointed as Omkara Shukla , the “Addha Brahmin” or half-caste deserves applause. Ditto the characterisation and performance of Al Pacino as Shylock in The Jew. Of course among literary characters portrayed on the silver screen, messrs Pacino, De Niro and Brando cast a long shadow for their unforgettable acts in the Godfather trilogy. Among film-makers , the Merchant-Ivory team, complete with Ruth Jhabvala as writer was somewhat of a specialist , having made dozens of adaptations from diverse writers like V.S.Naipaul, Kazuo Ishiguro, Anita Desai and Jhabvala herself.
Talking from the point of view of Indian films, literary adaptations have been few and far in between: The Apu Trilogy and Shatranj Ke Khiladi were masterpieces by that ultimate auteur Satyajit Ray(who also made the outrageously funny Goopy-Bagha movies) but these have been the saving graces in an otherwise thin field. Some other notable mentions are Angoor, Devdas, Parineeta, or in recent times Pinjar……I have already talked about Omkara and Maqbool.
This sudden show of interest has had an unexpected consequence in the literary world: More and more authors are starting to write their books keeping an eye on Hollywood and prospects of screenplays and multi-million deals: Case in point being Thomas Harris who wrote Hannibal Rising, a prequel to his famous novels The Silence of The Lambs and Hannibal, immmortalised by Anthony Hopkins in his portrayal of the serial killer Hannibal Lecter on the silver screen. This novel is unique in the sense that Harris was simultaneously writing both the novel and its adapted screenplay for the impending movie!!
Finally both the movie and the book were released at nearly the same time. No wonder the novel reads like a series of smart-aleck movie shots and gratuitious set-pieces of celluloid violence and gore. The tension and grit of the earlier Hannibal Lecter novels has been lost forever, sacrificed at the altar of big studio Hollywood and that apocryphal,ephemeral quantity called “market forces”
A parting thought: Last year’s Academy Awards ceremony was the worst in terms of eyeballs. Has this got something to do with the fact that three of the films were based on works by “serious” or “literary” writers rather than guys like Ian Fleming or Stephen King(whom I admire actually) whose works have got greater mass appeal? Anyway here’s my list of favourite literary adaptations,in no particular order(and I’ll be very interested in your own lists!).
1. The Shawshank Redemption
2. No Country For Old Men
3. Lord Of The Rings
4. Forrest Gump
5. Midaq Alley(this is a Mexican film based on the eponymous novel by Egyptian Nobel Laureate Naguib Mahfouz)
6. Shatranj Ke Khiladi
7. The United States of Leland
8. Schindler’s List
9. Road To Perdition
10. The Godfather(Last but not the least, by a long way!)
Some others I hope to catch soon are Orson Welles’s and Roman Polanski’s versions of Macbeth, as well as Akiro Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood.
17 Responses to “Bookworms and Movie Maniacs : Literary adaptations in cinema”
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Midaq alley is the one with Salma Hayek in it?
my list
1) Trainspotting
2) Shawshank Redemption, Raging Bull
3) Thin Red Line
4) The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
5) The Motorcycle Diaries
6) Sideways,
7) All Kubrick Films :)
8) The Player & The Long Goodbye(Altman version)
9) City of God
10)Shatranj Ke Khiladi
So many more…
Traffic, Black Friday, Adaptation, Lawrence of Arabia, The Graduate, Forest Gump…..
Well-written.
Writing a book so that it may be adapted into a movie defeats the very purpose of making a good novel, I feel.
The films that you’ve mentioned were based on very good books. None of the authors wrote with the mind-set that the book will be made into a film. If Ian McEwan had done that, I don’t think we’d have ‘Atonement’ or for that matter ‘No Country…”. I guess in this film the Coen brothers could actually capture the terror that oozes through every scene in the film by selecting very good actors - Brolin and Bardem - who actually lived their roles. Of course Jones too - it goes unsaid.
Sairoese Ronan, in a way, did that for Atonement. Her’s was the only performance that actually stayed with me much after the movie was over. Apart from the background music which was superb for the theme.
So in a way the actors too are the key for brining a novel alive on he big screen.
You mentioned ‘United States of Leyland”. You know what I felt so weird, but in a way expected, about the film - that they couldn’t show the actual act of Gosling committing the murder. The manner in which he kills the kid is brutal but through out the film his character is so calm, seemingly worldly-wise mouthing “gyan” about life and its importance that its just not possible to show Gosling in a rage. Which he was when he killed the boy. I don’t know but this has just etched itself in my head.
I feel that a good novel just serves as a good starting point for a film-maker to adapt the story to the big screen. At times it works, at times it doesn’t.
The film-makers makes it work on the big screen; not the book.
@ Tejas: Yes its the one that has Salma Hayek in it. Based in the poor neighburhood of Mexico, its a nice film with a very sad but apt ending. Shown many times on Zee Studio and now its been shown at the on-going Osian Cinefan film fest too.
since all my favourites are already mentioned above ..id mention some which arent…
the bourne series specifically The Bourne Ultimatum
Goodfellas
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
One flew over the cuckoo’s nest.
Fight Club
hell…most of the good movies made from the books….
Nice piece, Aditya. But I think what you say vis-a-vis Indian cinema and lack of literary adaptations baring exception of a few like Ray is slightly exaggerated. Hindi cinema in earlier years saw a lot of literary adaptations (independent/art cinema in Hindi has a number of examples throughout) and regional cinema has been consistently witnessing literary work getting translated onto the big screen. Yes, unfornutalely, unless one attends a festival, there is hardly any chance to see these films, unlike the easily accessible Hindi and Bollywood cinema.
I guess we are missing the late Anthony Minghella here.
Most of his work was based on adapted screenplays.To name a few :-
1)English Patient
2)Cold Mountain
some other gems (not by Minghella)
3)Kiterunner
4)one flew over cuckoo’s nest
5)Godfather
6)The Namesake
7)The Bridges of Madison county
8)To kill a mocking bird
9)The bridge on river kwai
10)Forrest Gump
11)Bourne Series
@Arthi V
Yes, principally it is the film-maker in whose hands the fate of the film rests, literary adaptation or not….that is, if they do not fall into the trap of over-simplifying evry subtle point made by th author……
@Ashvin
Interesting that you mention Fight Club…… it is one of those cult movies which actually skyrocket the book’s popularity…… I read the book before I saw the movie. but many of my friends did it the other way round!
@Utpal
You are right, Utpal. For instance, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, perhaps the most accomplished Indian director alive, has recently made a film based on short stories by Vaikom Muhammed Basheer, but again, because of the regional language factor, most of us will not catch it unless it’s in a film festival…..
Utpal,…even Goopy Gayne Bagha Byne is an adaptation from a story by Ray’s grandfather !
and what about GhareBaire, Parashpathar, Devi,Teen kanya, Charulata. The list goes on for Ray !!!. Then Mrinal Sen’s Bhuvan Shome. Gautam Ghosh’s Antarjali Yatra…etc.. A hell lot still to mention from Indian Cinema !
all you guys missed the most successful book adaptation
in bollywood..Guide.Also a very acclaimed one like Teesri kasam.
Hi Aditya,
The Film by Addor based on Vaikom Mohammed Basheers work is Mathilukal( The Wall).It was made in 1994. His latest movie is 4 Pennungal based on story by Takazhi shivashankara pillai. Both movies were not able to bring about the beauty of the books on screen.
Right you are Pritish….. Guess I got my writers mixed up!!! Hoping to catch the movie anyway!
what about pinjar adapted and directed by dr. chandrapraksh dwivedi?
@Ajay
I did mention Pinjar in the article….. this was a novel I had read in Hindi…. I thought that the film was a very commendable effort, especially the brilliant Manoj Bajpai.
Great list there…agree with most of the names mentioned there…surprised that Cracking India by Bapsi Sidhwa was not mentioned…