I, like many of the audience’s members, was captivated by Jordan Belfort’s outrageous actions in one of this year’s most popular films The Wolf of Wallstreet. I was honestly impressed by his ability to make millions of dollars effortlessly albeit illegally. I mentally pleaded with him to stop abusing so many illicit drugs for the sake of his children. And I sat wide-eyed as he sank his seventy-foot yacht off of the Mediterranean Coast. However I, unlike many audience members, was not enthralled with the big screen production of this fast-paced tale, but rather by the paperback autobiography written by Jordan Belfort himself.
Simply put, books tell better stories than movies. For five hundred pages Jordan Belfort was able to fascinate me with his outrageous life. Through my own imagination I was able to hear the voice of The Wolf, of Nadine the Duchess, of his children Chandler and Carter by how I thought they should sound. I sat with the Strattonites as they watched one of their bosses eat a live fish in the middle of the boardroom and felt the shock with them. Books allow the reader to engage in the story and emotion in ways impossible for movies to simply show. (Something I really struggle with is making my thesis clear, in my mind it’s “books tell better stories than movies”… was that clear to you guys?)
Something seems to always get lost in the movies. The transfer from imagination to expression is different for everyone. I find myself watching a movie adaptation of a book that I have resonated with thinking that is not how I imagined it. Something is lost in translation. (I was thinking about putting an example of how Daisy from The Great Gatsby was not how I imagined her to be. Do you guys think that is a good idea? Or do you think that more than one example would make the essay confusing?) There are two main elements to books: the story and the reader. It is a direct relationship where the reaction to the story depends entirely on the reader. Director preferences, acting abilities, set and production—all of these are variables could affect how the viewer receives the stories.
Movies also limit the time you can spend with the story. I can start a book whenever I want and spend as much time on it as I want. If something confuses me I can go back and reread it. When I am not physically with the book I can still think about the details, the characters, and most important, the story.
So why do we turn books into movies anyways? Books already have a fan base, so they’re easy to get excited about. According to Entertainment Weekly, nine out of the ten most anticipated movies in 2012 were adaptations of novels or comic books. This is most likely because books are able to tell such great stories. When a story is so great, on some level it makes sense to turn it into a movie. The story can reach a greater audience. The main risk here is that we forget where the story started. The crisp pages of a new book, the way your mind and imagination grow, and how a story resonates with you is something that can never be replaced by a film real. (Here I was trying to show the opposite side of the argument as well, does it seem like I am giving too much support to the “opposing” side to a point where it makes my essay not credible?)
http://bookriot.com/2012/01/05/why-books-make-the-best-movies/
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/6-reasons-the-book-is-almost-always-better-than-the-movie/
I think your thesis is very clear and your detailed discussion about why you preferred book over movie regarding to The Wolf of Wallstreet is convincing. Even though your opinion about the book and movie is personal, the way you presented both strength and shortcomings of movie and clearly reasoned out why you preferred book makes most readers agree with you. For the last paragraph, it’s good to offer the opposite side of view, but I think you can talk out it earlier instead of in the very last of your essay because readers can easily be confused about your main point.
I think your introduction was really captivating; I thought it was going to go one direction, and then the end of the first paragraph surprised me with a totally different direction. I think your thesis was overall very clear. I think it was introduced well at the end of your first paragraph and expanded upon enough fairly early on for your readers to catch on. I think the addition of the Daisy sentences would be helpful to the reader, even if they hadn’t read the book. In your last paragraph I was a little confused. I think the distinction in talking about movies vs. books should be a little clearer because in some of your sentences it is difficult to decipher exactly which you are talking about. Overall, the flow of your essay was really great and I enjoyed reading it.
I think your thesis was pretty clear, so good job on that. I also think you do not need to use the Great Gatsby example because that may be repetitive because I think your Wolf of Wall street example already get your point across. I felt that talking about why books turn into movies may be a little off topic in the conclusion, but I’m sure some people also think it was a cool way to wrap up your paper.
Darby, I thought you did a very good job with this essay. One of my favorite parts was the beginning. You made it very surprising – allowing the reader to think you were going to talk about how good the movie was, but then turning it around, to show how all of those positive qualities were also embodied in the book. One thing I would work on would be to create more transitions between paragraphs so that they are more connected. I think that would prevent them from seeming as if they are listed.
As for the clarity of your thesis, I actually thought it was very clear! Also, I would go ahead and add the Great Gatsby example. I think elaborating on some of your arguments, using examples, would be beneficial.
Darby, I really liked your essay. I thought your presentation and voice were great and you definitely made your point in a very clear manner. I thought it was funny how you inserted your thoughts/doubts about your writing into your essay, because it made me consider and reread some portions of your essay again before moving on. About the example part with Gatsby & Daisy, I thought that example was good because I remember thinking the same exact thing when I watched the movie. However something to consider is the person who has not read Gatsby or even watched the movie; they might not think your example is as strong. Maybe if you provided more examples about how the book was different than the movie for The Wolf of Wallstreet, then it would relate to the essay more plus it would help your point more. Overall great job!
Darby, I really like your argument, and I agree with many of the points that you made! I do think that your thesis could be worded slightly differently–maybe something like “Books allow the reader to engage in the story and emotion in ways that are impossible for movies to allow.” since you’re comparing the ways that books and movies allow the viewer to experience the story. Although I’m not sure if my suggestion make sense, after looking at it for so long.. Also, in response to your question in the second pair of parentheses, I don’t think that using more than one example of a book/its movie adaptation would be confusing because the main focus of the essay is about books and their movie adaptations in general, as opposed to specific examples. I also really like that you pointed out that sometimes it does make sense to turn a book into a movie, instead of only considering one viewpoint; this made your essay very credible and reasonable.