Tyler Oaks on the Move: Books on Screen

The maxim is to never judge a book by its movie. Readers’ opinions tend to be strong when they watch favorite books play out on screen. Even when it’s Hitchcock, Manderley just isn’t Manderley. When we read books, we first meet the characters and are inducted into their worlds, even allowed inside their minds. The reader vanishes and we become part of another life. We’ve really lived at Wuthering Heights, and when Catherine haunted Heathcliff she haunted us as well. Books provide an insider’s perspective. The audience isn’t made up of spectators but active participants in the story. Readers create their own film version of books in their heads and are entirely present as the story unfolds. Anyone else’s vision on screen can be seen as competition, good or bad.

On the flip side, movies allow readers to visualize aspects of books that are foreign to them, especially with period pieces or stories set in less familiar places. The screen version of a book adds the powerful sense of sight to give the viewer a clear understanding of what the setting is like or what people really wear; everything is a visual backdrop of the characters’ everyday worlds. How can Mr. Darcy not look like Colin Firth? Sound plays this role as well. Before watching “The Lord of the Rings,” I never imagined what a wraith sounded like. Even though there is a gap between what is playing out on screen and the spectator in his seat, devices such as narration allow private thoughts to be revealed, the character’s head read aloud, I had a farm in Africa. And of course, nothing beats good acting and portraying a character for who she is, especially when a look alone reveals the character and her intentions to the core. The British do it best.

Truthfully, I’m fully guilty of loving both books and film so I recently asked friends in both industries which books make the best movies. The reality of the transition is that less than one percent of books even get optioned for film. Even after that, it’s safe to say that less than one percent of those books ever make it onto the screen. Books that are action-driven make for better screenplays, and that doesn’t necessarily mean bullets flying. It can mean following the wanderings of Alice in Wonderland. Movie makers do need to be able to play visually, much the same way writers play with language. Books that are inherently visual make screenplays much easier to write and the transition from book to movie much smoother. If while reading a book a reader is able to see, taste, touch and hear everything as it happens, then the story is already that much closer to film in its original state. Think “Babette’s Feast.”

Different arts call for different modes of expression. It’s inevitable that books must change in order to be expressed through film. The screen version of stories can be quite different than what the author intended, and authors take this in different ways. Alan Moore publicly disassociated himself from “V for Vendetta” when the film version of the comic book series he co-created was released. Other stories such as “No Country for Old Men” change very little from book to movie. Large portions in the dialogue of Cormac McCarthy’s novel remain line for line on screen. No matter what the author’s take, successful at the box office or not, loved by critics or hated by the public, the simple truth is that movies are great for book sales. There is no argument against the fact that a movie, good or bad, offers incomparable publicity for the story in its original form.

Yes, purists love books in their original form more than their movies, and I suppose I agree with them most of the time. Because the attention of movie goers is short, movie makers are forced to tell a story in less than two hours, no matter how compelling the plot. While my vote is for reading and imagination first (since I like the movies in my head best,) films are inspirational in their own right because of their individual artistic expression, think “Casablanca” and “Room with a View.” Besides, it does work both ways; movies influence authors and thus their writing. Admittedly, my life and pen wouldn’t be the same without that Hitchcock obsession early on.

Tyler Oaks earned her Bachelor of Arts in Spanish from California State University, Stanislaus and her Master of Arts in Spanish from California State University, Sacramento. Tyler lives in California's Napa Valley with her husband and twin daughters. Tyler is presently at work on her next novel.