Landman Library - Arcadia University

I was surprised to see that one of my favorite books, Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh, has been made into a movie. The book deals with, among many other subjects, friendship, Catholicism and love. The story is told from the point of view of Charles Ryder, who meets the aristocratic Marchmain family while studying at Oxford. Charles quickly becomes fascinated with the family, partly because of their wealth, but also because of their foreignness (The family is an aristocratic Catholic family, a minority in England). Add to that the fact that Charles is an atheist, and the religious and class conflicts abound.

I like the book because every time I read it I have a different experience. At first I felt sympathetic towards Charles. After a couple readings, I found him to be a bit of a jerk. The characters were so complex I kept changing my mind. Can a movie convey that complexity? The book was also made into a well-loved 11 part television series in 1982 by the BBC, so it has a lot to live up to.

There’s the cliché that “the book is much better than the movie.” I don’t always agree. I think a book and a movie are two different mediums, two different forms of storytelling and almost cannot be compared. Sometimes if the movie is exactly like the book, it can end up being too long and tedious. I remember sitting through Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, which is very faithful to the book, and thinking, “When is this thing going to END?” Sometimes the movie is better when some edits are made. So when I found out that the new movie version of Brideshead skips some parts and avoids some characters, I was worried. But then I realize it’s the movie version and because it does not express itself the same way as the written word, I cannot make comparisons. All I can hope is that it inspires and entertains me as much as the book.

Have you been disappointed by a movie version of a book? Has a movie ever surpassed your expectations?