Film Adaptations - The Bond of a Mother and Son - Essay Example

Film Adaptations In MLA Style 2 Thesis The more one watch movies and read books, the more onelearns the differences of the two. Literary works and movies are two different art forms and both evoke different types of enjoyment and pleasure. It is no surprise that a film adaptation of a literary work has some differences from the way it is delivered in the book and this is due to a number of factors: collaboration of ideas, different perspectives, artistic direction, etc. Although a direct translation of a literary work may not really work with a film adaptation, the literary essence of it should be captured. This paper scrutinizes a film adaptation of the literary work of Tobias Wolff, This Boy’s Life, based on his memoirs of his youth. This tackles the important parts of the literary work and examines whether it is portrayed in the film the way it should be delivered. The Bond of a Mother and Son This Boy’s Life is the author’s recollection of his youth. It is a book written in 1989 and adapted in film under Warner Brothers Picture. Tobias Wolff, or better known as Jack in both the book and the film, has an incredible bonding with his mother, Rosemary. His relationship with his mother is shown brilliantly in the film, although, his mother’s name in the book is different in the Last Name 3 film, which is Caroline. In the book, both Jack and his mother travel quite a lot due to his mother’s search for a better life for the both of them. Being left by his father, Jack, together with his mother, struggles hard in order to put an end to their unhappiness and money issues. At the onset of the film, Jack and his mother are in search of uranium, heading towards Salt Lake in their Nash. This scene is an important part in establishing the kind of relationship the two has, which is very well portrayed in the film. In the book, Chapters One and Two of Part I, it is explained that Jack’s travelling with his mother gives him an early exposure to the realities of life, which becomes the foundation of his aspirations to give his mother a good life and put an end their misery, (Wolff, Part I Chapters One and Two) which is delivered well in the film through its wonderful direction. Father Figure In both the film and the book, it is evident that Jack has terrible father figures. Roy, for instance, is a boyfriend of his mother who follows her from Florida to Utah and tries to get her by befriending Jack. He gives Jack a Winchester 22 rifle as a gift and takes Jack to spy on his mom at work. He makes it seem like a game and through this; he is able to get Jack’s friendship. In the scene where Jack is playing with his new gift from Roy, the rifle, he hears the creaking of the bed in the other room, realizing that Roy and his mother are making out. The musical scoring supports Jack’s realization that Roy only tries to befriend him to get to his mother without having to narrate his thoughts unlike in the book. Although in the film, some scenes like the ‘spying’ and other not-so-major things Roy does in the book are not seen. Overall, the film still does a great portrayal of a terrible father figure in Roy. Immediately after that, they leave Utah for Seattle to Last Name 4 escape Roy. The film is able to adapt well from the book in portraying an image of a mother who is always ready to fall for a relationship for the sake of giving her son a father figure he needs. She falls for the gifts and the company a man gives to her son but when she notices that it is all just to get her, she immediately escapes. “My mom had her own way of solving problems, she left them behind. That’s what she did with the Nash. She just left it there.” (Wolff, Part I Chapter Two) In the film, Jack’s mother throws the uranium detector in the trash right after she talks to a man who tells her that there is no uranium in Salt Lake. The arrival of Dwight, Jack’s new father figure whom his mother eventually gets married with, is an interesting event in both the book and the film. Dwight’s first appearance in the book seems to piss Jack off. When Dwight picks his mother at their apartment and goes out on a date with her, he observes his every movement with his tiger eyes on. It is adapted well in the film and it shows the viewers that Jack is affected by another man’s presence in his mother’s life. It is observed that Jack, for a while, has been the only man his mother spends time with after Roy. But Dwight, just like Roy, tries to befriend Jack with his promises and clever words. Jack eventually falls into this trap. (Challener, 39) Making an adaptation of a literary work is never easy especially if the author has already won recognitions for his works. (Langman, 25) In the adaptation of This Boy’s Life, the film has to possess an ambience of 3 decades back in order to achieve a realistic setting of the story. The production is successful in making it seem like it is a 1950s story. The Nash, the Winchester 22, the old-style luggage Jack and his mother use whenever they pack their things up to move to another place, the clothes, they hairstyle, the songs they play, the musical scoring, and all other Last Name 5 props they use to make the setting realistic. Jack’s Fantasies In the book, almost in every chapter, it is observed that Jack fantasizes a lot about living a life in wealth. He dreams about getting his mother out of the rut they are in by getting straight As in school, mingling with quality friends, going to a great school with his brother, Gregory/Geoffrey (in the film and in the book, respectively),and meeting his dad, Duke. The film lacks in establishing Jack’s dreaming. Although in the first 15 minutes of the film, a scene on a street is shown where Jack looks at the passers-by and fantasizes one to be his father who will recognize him. As he narrates, a man appears on the screen who Jack picks to be his dad, and the background blurs out, leaving the camera focused on the man walking towards him. The film does a good scene of Jack’s daydreaming. “Most afternoons, I’d wander around in trance. Sometimes I go downtown and store at the merchandize. Maybe I’d shoplift, maybe not. I used to imagine I saw my father coming toward me. I’d wait for him to recognize me. I knew it couldn’t be him though, he was living back East married to a rich woman. His nickname was Duke and that’s how I thought of him, as a Duke, living in a castle far away. A few minutes later, I’d pick up someone else.” (Wolff, Chapter One, Part 2) Although there are some missing parts of the book in the film, the adaptation is able to show the viewers the important aspects of the story; Jack’s bonding with his mother, the father-figures and the character of the protagonist, Jack. All three points have been well-established in the adaptation, which makes the film an excellent source of information without reading the book. The differences on the delivery are understandable since the film and the book are two different Last Name 6 forms of art that use different styles of exposition. A literary work doesn’t have any animation, which tends the book to be graphic and detailed to help the readers use their imaginings while a film adaptation is animated and offers a multidimensional take on the literary work. Alterations are normal provided that it excludes jeopardizing the original content. (Langman, 52) In This Boy’s Life, no alterations can be considered aside from the name differences; Caroline/Rosemary and Gregory/Geoffrey and the ending of the book and the film. The book has been a detailed memoir of Jack until its end while the film ends in the scene where Jack and Caroline leave Dwight after the biggest fight of Jack and his stepfather, which is followed by the intrusion of his mother. Additional information is provided through a short epilogue. Works Cited Top of Form Wolff, Tobias. This Boy's Life: A Memoir. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1989. Print. Top of Form Langman, Larry. Writers on the American Screen: A Guide to Film Adaptations of American and Foreign Literary Works. New York: Garland Pub, 1986. Print. Wolff, Tobias. Tobias Wolff: Reading & Discussing His Fiction and Non-Fiction. Syracuse, NY: Le Moyne College, 1990. Sound recording Challener, Daniel D. Stories of Resilience in Childhood: The Narratives of Maya Angelou, Maxine Hong Kingston, Richard Rodrigues, John Edgar Wideman, and Tobias Wolff. New York: Garland Pub, 1997. Print. Top of Form Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Top of Form Linson, Art, Robert Getchell, Michael Caton-Jones, Niro R. De, Ellen Barkin, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Blechman, Eliza Dushku, Chris Cooper, Carla Gugino, Kathy Kinney, Tobey Maguire, and Tobias Wolff. This Boy's Life: A True Story. Burbank, CA: Warner Home Video, 2003. Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Read More