Why Aren't Adaptations Faithful?

No book to movie adaptation can be 100% loyal. It's impossible, and even if there were the option, the movie wouldn’t be very good. That doesn’t mean it’s a good thing when writers scrap the original plot of the book, however. The best adaptations fall somewhere in the middle, but are extremely rare. I’ll list here a couple of reasons writers will make the changes they do, and whether those changes are a good thing or not.

1. To appeal to a larger audience. This is why Katniss Everdeen is white, Percy Jackson is sixteen , and Hermoine Granger has nice hair. It’s to prevent potential (white male) ticket buyers from thinking that the movie’s trying to be too politically correct, or that the movie’s for kids, or that the main female character isn’t attractive enough. I think all of these are rather silly reasons, and that offering more diverse characters that are accurate to the source the movies would not only appeal more to the fanbase, but also to viewers that rarely have the opportunity to see themselves in mainstream movies.

2. To better explain what’s going on in characters heads. This can go either way for me. If the writers achieve this by adding a scene that lets you learn more about the character, I’m okay with it. If they try to do this by over explaining the character (having them narrate their feelings, or have other characters explain what's going on) then I’m not okay. Of course, this can go the other way as well, and the writers give you no insight into the character's head at all. This leads to the brooding main character with a traumatic backstory stereotype. It’s not really that great either. The worst part would probably be narration. It’s difficult to find book adaptations that don’t include some kind of monologue or explanation in the first scene. While some movies play it off well, it’s better to not include it at all. It can pull you out of the story, and treat the viewer like a child by creating a large info dump rather than explaining the plot through acting, because this is a movie.

3. To fit the time limit. While I personally wouldn’t mind a seven hour long movie completely loyal to the book with perfect casting and an excellent soundtrack, usually movie budgets don’t allow it. And not a whole lot of other people will want to watch it either. Soooo, the book will need to be slimmed down, scenes (hopefully filler) will be cut, and minor story arcs will be removed. All fans of the book can do is cross their fingers and hope the characters and plot won’t suffer too much from it.

In the end, all we can hope for is that the writers try to stay as faithful to the book as possible, and only make changes that are absolutely necessary.