Screen Adaptations of Classic Literature Should Always Remain True to The Details of The Original Novel. :: essays research papers

There argon many issues involved with adapting a classic novel for the small screen, but probably the most important of these is the degree of fealty the translation should make with the original novel. For a director it is almost impossible to remain perfectly loyal to the novel. For instance,around the time of the first director, David Lean, filmmaking had not advanced to such a stage for it to be possible to, as shown in the playscript, animate the roots of a tree to look like dead peoples hands.Another problem in directly adapting the novel is that there is simply not enough time to include all the details of a book into a small length of time. Many directors today find this difficult and have to resort to leave out large, but usually unneeded, parts of the novel.The first adaptation of Great Expectations was directed by David Lean. Shot in 1946 this adaptation was in glorious black and white. It would have been possible to shoot the adaptation in colour, but possibly budge t issues might of occurred as colour filming was a new innovation and still quite expensive.The adaptation starts with the view of a large, leather-bound book entitled, Great Expectations. The book opens and a voice over reads the first few lines describing the character Pip. The voiceover is obviously a grown-up Pip reading. Wind sound effectuate are heard and the books pages are blown over and over until the scene fades to Pip running into the burial ground.The rest of the scene remains consecutive to the book almost exactly. The lighting is dark, to portray the time of dusk and this gives the scene a mystifying feel because you cant quite see all of the set.Close-up shots and over-the-shoulder shots are used to portray Pips and Magwitchs feelings. Panning shots are also sometimes used, not only to show the surroundings, but to also convey how the graveyard is getting darker.In conclusion, David Lean took the faithful to the book route when he directed the adaptation of Great E xpectations. The next adaptation was drected by Julian Amyes in 1981. Between Leans adaptation and Amyes adaptation, there had been countless stage performances of Great Expectations. This mean that most of the population knew of the story of Great Expectations. To ensure that Ames adaptation went down in history and wasnt forgotten, Amyes had to make a few changes to the story.