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Hinton Movies/ Tuck
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From: Sue Sherif <sue_sherif>
Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 17:51:32 -0800
It's interesting to read K.T.'s comments on the adaptations of the Hinton novels to screen, because I had studiously avoided the film versions for fear they'd be spoiled on screen. I'll be looking for them at my visits to the video store in deep winter.
I may have missed it, but have we gotten to the two screen versions of TUCK EVERLASTING? Again, I had avoided watching the earlier version because I find TUCK EVERLASTING in novel form to be so fantastic, but I succumbed to the hype for and the lure of the casting in the recent version. One of the attractions of TUCK in book form is that it is so "slight" in form but so substantial in depth of content. It's spare and elegantly written, but the theatrical movie version was so padded, and so quick to fill in the masterful blank spaces of the novel that I was aghast. Can anyone comment on the earlier, nontheatrical version?
I know the decision to adapt a book to a movie is a tricky one. I am sure that film-makers feel they are honoring that book, or at least their imagination of it. But they do have to contend with the audiences' various imaginations of the book as well. Sometimes I think it would just be better if the creative forces could just advertise a movie as being
"inspired by a novel by ...." and just let their imaginations fly from that point of departure. The end product could be something very different from the book. We'd have the benefit of the film maker's vision, and the film maker wouldn't be tied to our expectations about plot, character, and tone from the book. Then we might have the movie as a creative gift from the film maker and the novel intact from the author as a totally separate entity. Sometimes we do see that, but it might be good if we saw it more often!
Sue Sherif
School Library/Youth Services Coordinator Alaska State Library 344 West Third Avenue Suite 125 Anchorage, AK 99501
(800) 776e66 (Alaska)
(907) 269e69
(907) 269e80 (fax)
sue_sherif at eed.state.ak.us
Received on Tue 15 Jul 2003 08:51:32 PM CDT
Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 17:51:32 -0800
It's interesting to read K.T.'s comments on the adaptations of the Hinton novels to screen, because I had studiously avoided the film versions for fear they'd be spoiled on screen. I'll be looking for them at my visits to the video store in deep winter.
I may have missed it, but have we gotten to the two screen versions of TUCK EVERLASTING? Again, I had avoided watching the earlier version because I find TUCK EVERLASTING in novel form to be so fantastic, but I succumbed to the hype for and the lure of the casting in the recent version. One of the attractions of TUCK in book form is that it is so "slight" in form but so substantial in depth of content. It's spare and elegantly written, but the theatrical movie version was so padded, and so quick to fill in the masterful blank spaces of the novel that I was aghast. Can anyone comment on the earlier, nontheatrical version?
I know the decision to adapt a book to a movie is a tricky one. I am sure that film-makers feel they are honoring that book, or at least their imagination of it. But they do have to contend with the audiences' various imaginations of the book as well. Sometimes I think it would just be better if the creative forces could just advertise a movie as being
"inspired by a novel by ...." and just let their imaginations fly from that point of departure. The end product could be something very different from the book. We'd have the benefit of the film maker's vision, and the film maker wouldn't be tied to our expectations about plot, character, and tone from the book. Then we might have the movie as a creative gift from the film maker and the novel intact from the author as a totally separate entity. Sometimes we do see that, but it might be good if we saw it more often!
Sue Sherif
School Library/Youth Services Coordinator Alaska State Library 344 West Third Avenue Suite 125 Anchorage, AK 99501
(800) 776e66 (Alaska)
(907) 269e69
(907) 269e80 (fax)
sue_sherif at eed.state.ak.us
Received on Tue 15 Jul 2003 08:51:32 PM CDT
