Sunday, March 11, 2007

If The Title Is "Heidi," Fraulein Rottenmeier Had Better Be Rotten.

Why is it that whenever Hollywood makes a movie out of a beloved book, the writers feel they have to take the plot, characters, location, everything about the book that made it beloved, and change them? WHY MUST THE SCRIPTWRITERS DO THAT? I hate it.

They take a friendship and turn it into a romance. They take London and make it New York. They take cousins and make them lovers. They leave out characters and events that are absolutely crucial, but then, after the book is altered so much, nobody and nothing in it are really all that important. They change names. They change ethnicities. They change occupations. They change motivations. They change time periods. They change who does what. Nothing is safe. Nothing is sacred.

By the time the movie appears, the only thing it has to do with the book "on which it is based" (hah, what a joke) is the title. And sometimes, the writers change that, too.

Can anybody give me a good reason for this? IS there a decent legitimate viable reason? I mean, one that has nothing to do with money? Or with tailoring it for a specific popular actor? Or catering to people who don't read and have short attention spans? I would love to hear a good reason. The only reasons I can come up with are really, really stupid ones.

I hate leaving the theater with the distinct impression that the writers of a movie changed it because they think I wouldn't be smart enough to understand it as the book's author intended it to be. That there MUST be romance. That there MUST be violence. That some guy in Hollywood who never even read the original book thought it would be better for profits if there were liquor and cigarettes and a hint of scandal. When Hollywood scriptwriters change the book, I feel condescended to.

Also, I hate my mirror.