The Literature vs Cinema Brouhaha: Taking Sides (Kinda)

Don’t you get annoyed by those snooty, uppity people who always claim that, between a book and a movie, the book is always way better?

You know the person. You’ll mention to them that you like the movie ‘Shooter', and they’ll immediately ask if you’ve read the book it was based on. When you tell them no, they’ll frown at you and shake their head sadly, as if you’re nothing more then a genetic accident who is so far beyond having the ability to form an intelligent thought that there’s no point in extending the conversation beyond what is considered polite and proper. Then, with an all-knowing-and-extremely-condescending look in their eyes, they’ll say, “The movie was good, but the book was better.”

We get it. You can read. It makes you sophisticated and intelligent. We’re so happy for you!

Okay, now that we’re all on the same page, it’s time for a shocking plot twist: I’m one of those snooty, uppity people!

Well, most of the time. I will admit that there have been times when I've liked the movie better. Take, for example, The Lord Of The Rings, where the books are filled with millions of characters with ridiculous names that can’t be spelled or pronounced, like Isildur. This leads to you constantly thumbing back to figure out if the person you’re currently reading about is just being introduced or if that happened fifteen pages back, although it doesn’t really matter because they inevitably will end up having no discernable impact on the plot whatsoever.

So I guess I’m not quite one of those people, and, in the interest of full disclosure, I should say that my philosophy is as follows: given the choice, I’ll always read the book first.

I got to thinking about this when I happened upon a display at Barnes & Nobles where they were selling True Grit. This has just been released as a movie (again) so the book is now being pushed to try and capitalize on the renewed popularity. I’ve been planning to watch the movie eventually, but as soon as I saw the book, I knew that I had to read it first.

This is my thought process behind my choice to start with the book and end with the movie:

1) Reading the book is much more of a time investment, so I’d rather be experiencing everything for the first time when I’m reading it.
2) When you watch the movie afterwards, even though you know basically what’s going to happen, you still get to enjoy the visuals, special effects, and music.
3) I’m kind of snooty and uppity.

Now, there is another category to consider here: When both the book and the movie are horrible and nobody should be exposed to either, unless it is being used as a form of torture to extract information from terrorists. One recently popular book series that has been turned into a string of movies immediately comes to mind. However, since I don’t want to be blacklisted by the entire female population of the earth, I’m going to stop here before I get into too much trouble.