Paul's Case The Movie example essay topic

Sometimes in movie production a film is developed from a piece of literature. Directors will use the plot of a book either to create a unique movie, or to give the audience a chance to see what their favorite book is like when acted out on the screen. Willa Cather's 'Paul's Case' is a good example of a work adapted to video. The movie has slight differences from the book, but the director Lamont Johnson follows the original closely. Most movies that are inspired by books hold some relation to the author's version, but are changed to fit the director's vision and perhaps make the movie more presentable. 'Paul's Case' the movie, beginning to the end, is basically the same, but slight differences were found in the characters' physical traits, setting, some symbolism, and the plot.

However, these changes were not significant enough to change the story as a whole. The character's appearance plays a key role in a story. It can suggest his personality and his motives. Paul's physical appearance would be considered a key issue for this story. The text describes him as 'very thin, with high, cramped shoulders and a narrow chest' (Cather 154).

This is key because Paul wants to be something he is not. He desires to be part of a life he was not born into, and really he has no background in the arts, and hardly any knowledge of it. Stereotypically, a person that fits his physical description is considered weak, ignorant, and rather pathetic. So, the portrayal of an awkward-looking Paul is important for the reader to know what kind of person he is. The movie, on the other hand, casts Eric Roberts who does not fit this description at all. He is tall, good-looking, and his well-developed body is inconsistent with Cather's Paul.

His age does not even to appear to be appropriate, because he is supposed to be a boy the age of seventeen. Roberts looks to be more in his twenties. These discrepancies will confuse the watcher of the movie. If he did not read the text, he will not know what kind of person Paul is supposed to be according to Cather. Symbolism is widely used to intellectually stimulate the reader or viewer.

For example, flowers were symbolized in both versions. The flower he wears in his lapel looks to not belong there based on his personality and the clothes that he wears. Just as the flower should not belong there Paul feels that he does not belong in his life. However, sounds were also symbols in the movie.

In the beginning of the movie, the viewer finds Paul waiting to meet with his professors, and a ticking clock heard over everything else. This illustrates the passing of time, or even that his time is going to be running to an end. At the firm, an adding machine, and this is telling the audience that money will be coming into play, and the train whistle at the end tells the viewer that he is thinking of his death or a way out. The director uses these to create a mood or as foreshadowing. There are small altercations that the screenplay that the director makes in the plot. In New York, Paul meets a student in the hotel.

In the text, he meets him in the evening or at nighttime. The movie shows this taking place during the day. This, however, is a minor detail and did not effect the running of the story. In Cather's version, the reader is presented with two sisters of Paul's. These are hardly mentioned in the movie. The book also illustrates Paul pushing his teacher while in the movie he is more aggressive.

The movie also has an over voicing of Paul's father as he is sneaking back into his house. This is not relevant to the text the director simply uses this to give the background of Paul and his father, and to look into his thoughts. The ability to know a character's thoughts is found when reading, but it is not found in the literal sense. In a movie a change like this is necessary to get the same experience that is found in the written version. While changing one form of something, whether it is a book to a movie or a poem to a song adaptation must occur. These differences between the text and the movie 'Paul's Case' are allowed because when filming or writing a screen play for something based on a book change is expected and sometimes necessary to have the movie make sense.

In 'Paul's Case,' Johnson does an excellent job of retaining the text's original qualities while enhancing it for the viewer's understanding. The changes made here are not that significant and quite possibly make the movie more appealing than if it was exactly the same as Cather's version. It is impossible to recreate something in the exact image of the original. In conclusion, the changes the director Lamont Johnson made to Willa Cather's 'Paul's Case' are minor and insignificant. As it is virtually impossible to recreate the exact original, it very closely follows Cather's version and gives the viewer almost the same outlook on the movie as the reader got from the text. This movie based on the book's minor differences made the in the character's physical traits, the setting, symbolism, and the plot have improved the story for the viewer instead of its reader, and they are not enough to cause a complaint.