Novel vs. Film: To Kill a Mockingbird

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Novel vs. Film: To Kill a Mockingbird

"It's a sin to kill a mockingbird," explains Atticus Finch to his children (To Kill Dir. Robert Mulligan). Neither the novel nor film version of To Kill A Mockingbird is better than one another, just different. "It's no secret that adapting a novel to film can be a perilous affair. A movie, even when it's good, doesn't often convey the feeling of the book it's based on. But in this case screenwriter Horton Foote treated the Harper Lee novel - about a Depression-era Alabama lawyer and his two children - with love and respect, and the director successfully evoked the novel's sense of childhood mystery and tenderness." (Dashiell) The same characters were the same heroes and the same characters were killed so the movie still resembles the book yet the directors choose to change some ideas around causing a different perspective while still maintaining the same morals. Some minor differences between the movie and the book include the book being much more descriptive and easier to understand where as the movie is harder to understand due to the fact that there isn't any narration. The book also has more suspense while the movie moves too fast and cuts out scenes. The movie moving too fast causes it to be very predictable. Three major differences that stood out include missing characters and characters perceived differently, essential scenes left out and the way the book shows individual people while the movie shows the relationships in action. The book versus the movie shows clear differences but the morals are all still the same. ...

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To say both the book and the movie of To Kill a Mockingbird were closely related would be an understatement. Though neither was better or worse, the movie and the book were completely different. Minor differences between the movie and the book include one being easy to read due to narration, and one moving too fast causing the story to be rather predictable. Major differences that changed the whole viewpoint of the story consist of missing characters and characters perceived differently, important scenes left out, and the different was the book and the movie represent the characters and relationships. Overall, the book represents two children trying to enjoy their childhood while becoming good people in the process and the movie is based around a wrongful trial of a black man in the South. Both were works of art but neither was identical.

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