Books vs. Movies
Photo by Mominah Tariq
As Time Magazine puts it, “in the beginning was the word. Later came the film. And now comes the fight over which is better.”
While I have your attention, let me remind you that this is an opinion piece. Everyone has their own opinion, but you all are fortunate enough that you get to listen to my side of it, BUAHAHAHAHAHA. Anyways for me, books are, and always will be better than movies, and I have some pretty good reasons to prove it.
Books Allow You To Picture The Story Your Way:
Books provide you with the chance of imagining the whole story the way you want to see it. Through books you can imagine settings and characters whichever way your little heart desires. Whereas through movies you are bound to see the whole plot through the eyes of the directors because they are the ones who get to choose the cast and all of that for you. So, frustrated, you mostly end up saying, “that’s not how I pictured it!”
Unlimited Time:
With books you can take as much time as you want to read. Books are also published after quite a lot of time putting ideas together, writing, editing etc. This is not the same case with movies. Sure, we can say that movies take time to be filmed but they certainly don’t take as much time as a book. Movies are only 1.5-3 hours long, and you cannot take your time with them. The scarce amount of time provided forces the directors or whoever is in-charge to delete certain scenes to fit the whole thing. Mostly the scenes that get deleted are the ones that we like the most or are the ones which make the most sense, and let’s be honest here, that’s no fun.
Most of you will agree with me on this, movies are not great at making us feel what we feel when we’re reading the book.
Portraying The Image:
Now this is the real deal. How the actor or actress portrays the character’s personality matters the most to all readers attached to the book, but when they aren’t successful, our hearts shatter into a million pieces. You can’t trust movies with this kind of thing, whether they have the right cast for the right parts. For me, most actors in movies are not successful at acting out what the book’s story puts in our mind, which just ruins the whole thing for me.
The Feels:
Most of you will agree with me on this, movies are not great at making us feel what we feel when we’re reading the book. When you’re reading a book, you get these amazing chills and feels as if you’re the one in the story. It makes you feel like you’re on top of the world, and you can take all the time you want to feel it. Unfortunately, this is not the case in movies, you just miss out on those and you don’t get all that time because the movie goes on and shifts to the next scene. It’s gotta keep runnin’. The main reason we miss out on all of that is basically because the person acting it out is not that good at displaying the emotions required. Or the movies either just cut that precious scene out, since it’s not considered important. Dialogues are just added to the whole scene. NOT cool.
So these were I think some of the most strongest points that I believe prove that books are, and always will be better than movies. Always. Well at least for me they will.
But, in the end, YOU are the one who gets to make the decision. So what do you think #Warriors? Which one wins the crown for you?
Mominah is a freshman at Wakefield. She loves to interact with different people and is a big fan of music. She also loves to play tennis!
Anonymous • Mar 15, 2016 at 1:18 pm
I strongly disagree with the claim that “books are, and always will be, better than movies.” Some movie versions are better than the book, and some books are better than the movie. And, without a doubt, movies have their advantages.
The first advantage that movies have is the social aspect of movies. You can got to the movies with your friends, but you can’t do that with books – not in the same way. Your friend laughs during a movie in a funny scene with you, but can’t do that while reading a book. After reading the book, you can talk about it, but you can do that also with a movie. I’d say that it feels better to watch a movie with your friend(s) than to read a book with them.
The second advantage is the emotions that movies can give you. Although movies can’t instill emotions into the reader in the same way books do, they do have one serious advantage: music. Good music often makes movies memorable because how they evoke emotion to the viewer and how they can even get a memorable beat into a person’s head (for example, Star Wars’s many memorable themes).
And lastly, movies don’t have to follow the book precisely – if they did then the movie versions would be terrible. Many of the scenes that are cut out don’t need to be there, as exposition or characters can often be displayed in simpler ways than book. Remember the saying, “A picture is worth 1,000 words,” so extra scenes are often not needed to help establish something. Also, books aren’t perfect, and often times movies can fix those faults when they recreate it.
Books, as a whole, have never and will never be always superior to all movies. Sure, most people would agree that Harry Potter is a better movie than the Room, but Inception is definitely better than the Twilight books. Books have their advantages and movies have theirs, but one isn’t just better to the other – it’s up to you whether you like a particular book more than a movie.
Elena Arrowsmith • Mar 15, 2016 at 10:31 am
I really liked this article because I feel almost the exact same way about everything that was touched on in this article! Books always give you so much more feeling and emotion than a movie ever does.