Great Novel Into An Equally Great Film example essay topic
449 words
Spike Jonze's film Adaptation dealt with the difficulty of putting a written work to film. In this film, Nicolas Cage plays the character of Charlie Kaufman who is faced with the difficulty of writing a screenplay for Susan Orlean's The Orchid Thief. One of the issues that Charlie Kaufman finds himself up against is the wordiness in the book. He reads parts of the book that, on the page, are very intriguing; however, because the words take place in the head of Susan Orlean and do not describe a situation occurring, Charlie finds it difficult to figure out how to accurately convey the emotion of the words into film. He considers voice-over but realizes that, in order for it to still convey all of Susan's or his own thoughts, it would have to continue through a large part of the film. The parts that intrigue him the most, such as her opinions on flowers, would not be very interesting or exciting even if they could easily be brought to the screen. Additionally, the idea of a feature-length film entirely about flowers, particularly one type of orchid, and a man who tries to breed them, is not very enticing. Charlie finds it hard to translate the book into something appropriate and exciting for viewers.
Charlie also wants to try to keep the screenplay true to the novel in an accurate transcription. He wants to make no changes to the plot or characters. The main problem with this is that he sees himself in the story. In his interpretation, he sees the writer of the book, Susan Orlean, speaking directly to him about his life. However, because he wants to be sure that he is accurately depicting the moral of her book, he and his brother attempt to learn more about Susan Orlean's life. In doing so, Charlie realizes that what he believed she was trying to say in her book may have been inaccurate.
Thus, he realizes he would not be able to stay absolutely true to her novel. He cannot follow his own interpretation of the morals in the novel without adding his own story to it upon filming. In order to make a film interesting, as Charlie realizes, he must deviate from what he knows to be the true form of the novel. The sole matter of his own interpretation of the novel forces him to put some of himself into the screenplay. Charlie's difficulties and realizations display the frustration that directors and screenplay writers often experience when they try to turn a great novel into an equally great film.
