Individual Presentation Exemplar with Annotations
How many of you have watched The Hunger Games? Twilight? Harry Potter? Divergent?
The Fault in Our Stars? The Hobbit? The Lord of Rings?
What do these films have in common?
Firstly, they are all highly successful, box office hits. Secondly, they are all films that have
come from books. Some of the books were highly popular before the films, others have
become popular as a result of the films. But either way, these films do not do the novels
justice. Today, I am going to prove to you that books that are made into films are always
disappointing. The pen is mightier than the film!
To start with, books that are made into films never have enough information. They never
fully capture the detail of the novel for example, the carefully developed plot. There is
always that part in the film when you think, ‘that never happened in book’. Recently, I
watched Insurgent – the sequel to Divergent – and they created a completely different plot
for the film. Changing the plot was disgraceful. Can you imagine spending years creating
and perfecting the plot , the characters and the setting of a book only for it to be changed to
suit the whims of a film director?
In the book, the main character’s parents are dead and she is looking for something – she
doesn’t know what - to finish what her parents started. In the film, the government – who
are the bad guys - have found a box and need a Divergent to open it. In both the film and
the book they find the same thing (I won’t tell you what!) but in the book there is no mention
of a box whatsoever!
Similarly, in novels, the writer carefully brings characters to life – their thoughts, their
feelings, the reasons for their actions. Films, which are much shorter than novels, do not
have the time to include this detail and the medium of film makes it difficult to let us see into
the character’s mind to really understand their feelings and motivations the way a book does.
For example, the novel, The Fault in Our Stars, is written in the first person narrative. The
main character, Hazel, tells us in her own words her fears about how people will be
devastated when she dies and how responsible she feels about that. Although the film uses
the line “I’m a grenade and at one point I’m going to blow up and I want to minimise the
casualties,” it does not fully develop this important part of the book - it affects how she acts
with her mum, her dad and with her friend, Augustus.
My second reason for disliking films that are derived from books is that they discourage
people from reading the books themselves. I have found that the number of non-book
readers has nearly tripled since 1978. This is shocking and can be attributed to the
increase in popularity of TV, films and video games. One person I asked admitted that they
hadn’t read The Fault in Our Stars because the film was coming out anyway. If this
continues literacy levels will drop drastically.
Literacy across learning in secondary schools, 2015-16
Comment [note1]:
Asking questions to engage the listener.
Asking questions to emphasise a point.
Opener to begin the talk in an engaging
way.
Comment [note2]: Asking questions to
engage the listener.
Comment [note3]: Linking phrase
Comment [note4]: Opener to begin
the talk in an engaging way.
Comment [note5]: Use of anecdote or
analogy to appeal to the audience.
Comment [note6]: Rhetorical
question to emphasise a point.
Comment [note7]: Use of indignant
tone to engage the listener.
Comment [note8]: Linking phrase
Comment [note9]: Linking phrase
Not only that, they are missing out on a really relaxing and enjoyable past-time. Reading
gives you the chance to escape from the world into things that you would never get the
chance to experience in real life.
Finally, these films prevent people from being imaginative. Books exercise your imagination,
like trying to picture a setting in your mind when you are reading the book. But in films,
imagination is not required. Everything is already imagined for you: how the characters react
to things, how they look, how they move, the setting, the mood. Everything is laid out in front
of us; all we have to do is watch.
Doesn’t that make you feel lazy? Doesn’t that cause you to miss out on what your own
imagination could have brought to the scene?
Someone else is imposing their interpretation of a story and a character on you; you do not
get the chance to picture things for yourself. When reading a book you have a certain image
of what character looks like but when that book is made into a film, the image you created is
destroyed and replaced with something totally different.
For example, in The Hunger Games, the mutts were meant to be animal or monster versions
of the tributes. Each one was recognisable in the novel as one of the dead tributes but in the
film, they just looked like pit bulls. Also, the chapter in the book where the mutts attack
Catto, (sorry, spoiler alert!) cleverly lets your imagination go into overdrive as they savage
him all through the night. In the film, Katniss kills them quickly and again, you have no
chance to be imaginative.
Comment [note10]: Summarising
statement
Comment [note11]: Linking phrase
Comment [note12]: Using repetition
of phrases at the beginning or end of
sentences to strengthen the point
Comment [note13]: Asking questions
to stir the emotions of the listener.
Comment [note14]: Informal tone use of ‘you’ to engage with and appeal to
the audience.
In conclusion, I am not trying to say that the films should not be made. I’m saying that the
films are not yet good enough – they will have to majorly improve to ever be anywhere near
as good as the books they come from. If you don’t already read, I urge you to start…books
are better than their films. As I said at the start, the pen is mightier than the film!
Comment [note15]: Concluding point
Thank you for listening and remember… Never judge a book by its movie!
Comment [note17]: Twist on a clichéd
phrase to appeal to audience.
Literacy across learning in secondary schools, 2015-16
Comment [note16]: Using repetition
of phrase to emphasise a point.