John Irving Essay, Research Paper
It is very common to see a movie that has arisen from a famous novel, but
there are some major differences seen when the transition from paper to
screen takes place. The director of a movie has to try and fit a complete
novel into an hour an a half to three our movie. Sometimes this adaptation
works very well and the same points can be found if you read the book or
watch the movie, but sometimes it does not work and some very major points
and circumstances can be lost. In the World According to Garp the director
George Roy Hill did a good job in fitting the major parts of the novel into
the big screen adaptation.
The movie, although a flop in the box office, received great reviews.
One reviewer remarks, “The film bombed at the box office but remains an
absorbing, if uneven work filled with intriguing–and eccentric–characters.”
(Jean Oppenheimer). The easiest thing to do when looking at the novel in
comparison to the film is to look at what was left out. In Garp there were
some instances that were changed for time sake, but nothing major was
forgotten. The biggest change that I noticed when watching the movie is
that they leave out all of the novels Garp writes. In the book we get to
read passages from all of his books, but in the movie the only thing we know
is that he is a writer and we never find out what he writes about. One of
the major characters that was changed for the movie was a girl named Ellen
James. Ellen James is a reoccurring character in the novel. She is an
eleven year old girl who is raped by a bunch of men and afterwards they cut
out her tongue so that she can not tell anyone about what they did. After
this happens Ellen James begins to have women followers who cut out their own
tongues in protest of what has happened to the small girl. Throughout the
book we are introduced to many of these protesting women, “the Ellen
Jamsians”. T.S. Garp actually ends up adopting Ellen toward the end of the
novel. When the movie introduces Ellen James it does it through a letter
written from her to Garp and we never actually see who she is. This is a
very common thing to do when transferring the writing to the main screen,
when the director can’t show all characters because of time restraint. If
George Roy Hill had tried to bring in Ellen James as a major character he
would have sacrificed a great amount of valuable time.
Time is not the only limiting factor when making a movie out of a novel.
Another main reason for changing a part of the novel for the movie is income
problems. In the movie version of The World According to Garp the director
chooses to change the setting of a scene from the book. Garp and his mother
travel to Europe in the novel, but when brought to the movie they go to New
York. The one problem with this change is that the main point of going to
Europe is lost. When Garp and his mother choose to travel abroad they do so
for cultural sake. They both plan to write a novel and want to learn more
about the world before doing so. Some of the instances that happened in
Europe where easily changed when brought to America.
The final problem that will arise into any novel to film adaptation is
the problem of filming a thought. In a novel a thought process can be easily
demonstrated through writing, but how do you visually show what a person is
thinking? George Roy Hill solves this problem in one scene by having Garp
open and close a set of Venetian blinds. Every time he opens them there is
something different in the window. This action shows the audience what is
taking place in Garp’s mind at this particular time. Most of the time the
ideas and thoughts of the character are just left out or a use of a narrator
is imperative. When the thoughts of a character are left out you get a
character that is hard to level with because you don’t know what is going
through their mind. When we do get inside of a characters head we can
sympathize with the actions that are taken.
When you make a novel into a movie you must be prepared to change a very
important piece of work. The reasons for changing the work are for time
restraint, income limit, and the problem of bringing thought into a visual
account. In the film the World According to Garp the director George Roy
Hill does a great job in bringing the literature to the screen. There are
very few changes made to the work and the ones that were made were justified
and did not change the story line too much.