Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/english/1666900-comparison-and-contrast
https://studentshare.org/english/1666900-comparison-and-contrast.
Fahrenheit 451 the movie vs. the book With the development of cinematic popularity, an issue of proper representation of different genre types inside one piece of art emerged. So, whereas there have not appeared any complications with music and visuals transition to movies, the book plot implementation on the screen becomes an object of constant and strict criticism. In fact, the central problem of stories demonstrated in the cinema is divergence between the individual readers’ perception of the book and film director’s opportunities to transform letters into visuals.
For example, the same complication occurred with the book “Fahrenheit 451” written by American well-known science fiction author Ray Bradbury and the screen adaptation of this story presented by Francois Truffaunt in 1966. Principally, neither the book nor the movie has up-to-date special technical effects, as the level of scientific development nowadays is higher than half a century ago. Nevertheless, unlike the movie, the book plot refers to the imagination of the reader.
On the contrary, owing to its constancy across the time, the movie as a visual representation of sense requires periodic elaboration to save public interest to the plot. Consequently, the book can touch the feelings of people from different epochs; in contrast, the semantic movie rapidly becomes old-fashioned and even comic.Another important discordance occurred in the plot. Mainly, the screen version saved all the key events from the book without any conversions. Both the book and the movie plot is turning around the story of firefighter Guy Montag whose social role on the contrary of contemporary vision on this profession is to find and burn books.
However, the problem emerged with the presentation of the plot. The book events are described by the author in such a way that reader’s imagination inevitably draws an image of highly contrasted high-tech utopian world full of fantastic speeds on the background of frozen morality. The correlation between outside development and internal stagnation is the central idea of Bradbury’s narration, but the movie absolutely lost that opposing because of trying to play the scenes literally. And so, the movie spectator does not understand the main idea of the story.
Finally, the movie made by Truffault particularly and cinema art in general face the problem of personal interpretation freedom. According to the recent brain scan research made by psychologists from Washington University, people while reading the book simulate each new situation, and so change their personal experience (Everding). Thus, mental work made by reader’s imagination has fruitful results in practical activities, as it influences the personal self-awareness, knowledge, and social behavior.
On the contrary, one of the problems raised by Bradbury in “Fahrenheit 451” is media control over the humanity that turns people into cowardly machines. Besides, watching the movie does not require any assistance of imaginative processes, because everything is already demonstrated on the screen. In order to sum up, the adaptation of the book on the screen is a highly doubtful action and provokes a strict estimation by readers. In fact, the example of “Fahrenheit 451” screen version demonstrates that even plot events preservation does not erase the problems in technical modernity, vital ideas representation, and personal development.
Therefore, the public popularity and time management attractiveness of the movie cannot replace an educational role of the book even in the modern world. Essay diagramWork cited:Everding, Gerry. Readers build vivid mental stimulations of narrative situations, brain scans suggest. Newsroom. St. Louis: Washington University, 2009. Web. 20 Nov. 2014.
Read More