Film Adaptation

Adaptation in film is extremely important because it provides two different outlooks within one production while still expressing the main idea of the original work; however, it can also be the same outlook between both productions. Humanity is notorious for differing opinions within society, and this helps people create new work.

Today in my blog, I will express the importance of fidelity in film production while exploring the ideas that coincide with adaptation. I will do this by examining the differences and importance between Poe Story, “The Fall of the House of Usher,” and Poe Story, “The Pit and the Pendulum.” By the end of the blog, you should have a deep understanding of fidelity in film and formulate an opinionated response to whether you agree with my understanding or if your understanding is different.

So, let us begin with why adaptation is so vital in the film industry. First off, everyone in the world has read an enjoyable book that they do not want to put down. When you read a congenial book, you become so invested in the characters, the plot, and the ending, you want it to become reality so that you can live through their experiences. That is the definition of adaptation, to read about something you love and later watch a film that captures the language and art behind the story. This is how film producers capture their audiences. However, if you love everything about the story and the film is completely different, you will become disappointed because the film is not faithful to the reading. But is it really a disappointment or is it that you did not expect the adaptation to be so different? Now, we can see fidelity in the in film “The Fall of the House of Usher.” This film depicts the story extremely well, we can see this by looking at the similarities between language and the overall plot. The story setting is very dark and gloomy, in the film, the opening scene you can observe the fog and dead trees creating a gloomy/ depressing feeling. This is how fidelity in adaptation is created, by articulating the language throughout the source and creating a setting to captivate that language. The film producer wanted to magnetize the story and did this by closely examining the language that the reading uses. This is what adaptation is all about, the ability to bring words to life. In contrast, creativity while creating the film is extremely difficult when the producer wants to be faithful to the film. My reasoning behind this is that they cannot change the text to fit their own objective which limits their creative mind.

Moving forward, there are an endless number of possibilities that go into creating a film using adaptation. As stated before, the human mind thinks differently from every other person, so the amount of creativity plays a huge role in film adaptation. But this also leads to a lack of feasibility if the producer wants to remain faithful to the original reading. The film adaptation “The Pit and The Pendulum,” strays away from the original source but stills reflects Poe’s story. Now, there are many similarities between the two films, but they are expressed differently. This is a regular occurrence within the film industry since most creators want to create their own work. This brings upon a problem to the audience because they usually only want to see the original story that they fell in love with. At this moment in time, the argument is that fidelity is not always the way to go but instead depicts the film using the directors' own ideas. This allows for creative thinking while also allowing the filmmakers to decide which details, they would like to include from the original source material. The advantage of this is creating new work while incorporating old ideas and drawing knowledge from those ideas. This also helps people open their minds to new work, and the fact that everyone in the world has a different opinion, so if everything stayed the same there would be no contradiction.

Next, I would like to provide another example outside of the two film adaptations that I have talked about, that film is Twilight. Many people all around the world indulged in the Twilight book series and absolutely fell in love with the plot, the characters, and of course the ending. The amount of detail that was provided in the books is what made them so desirable, so when the films came out, there was a lot of disappointment. Due to the fact that the film did not fully capitalize on the creativity that went into the books. Furthering, therefore, adaptation is such a vital part of filmmaking, because it creates a small community of opinions that leads to educated discussion. It proves the importance of fidelity in adapting a reading into film. Not one person will ever `truly know whether fidelity is the right or the wrong way to go because it is based solely on opinions. For example, I have never read the Twilight series, but I loved the films. In contrast, my best friend loved the book series and was extremely dissatisfied with the films. Now both opinions are correct because it is how you understand each other and the process of film adaptation. In addition, like stated before, it is hard to express creative thinking when you are faithful to the original source material, so the audience should watch film adaptations with an open mind and the ability to see the similarities between the original and the adaptation.

Moreover, there have been many other Disney films that have been adapted to create a child friendly film. For example, in the film Beauty and the Beast, the original story went like this, the beast was a young prince who lost his father, and whose mother had to wage war to defend his kingdom. The queen left him in the care of an evil fairy, who tried to seduce him when he became an adult; when he refused, she transformed him into a beast. Now, I am sure everyone has seen beauty and the beast and has loved the adaptation. This is an excellent example of how an adaptation of an original source can change the story but remain intact with the premise. If the film portrayed an evil fairy trying to seduce the beast it would not be as kid-friendly, and the audience would decrease because it was adult friendly instead of kid. This film illustrates the advantages of adaptation within the film community. Disney created a movie that was representable towards every age group, and it sprung from the original source material. This is a notable example of the advantages of straying away from fidelity and creating your own work.

Going back to the original two movies, “The House of Usher” and “The Pit and the Pendulum,” we can compare both movies by how they are portrayed. Professor Brems stated that “Pit and the Pendulum demonstrates that sometimes, fidelity is not the best way to examine a film adaptation. Though Corman’s film deviates from the source material, it does capture something inherent in Poe’s work; Corman demonstrates what interests him most about Poe’s stories, capturing his themes and critical ideas. (Brems)” This quote demonstrates that film adaptation does not always have to be “faithful” but could instead demonstrate certain aspects of the original source material. Many other people who have studied Film have expressed the same idea because creative work is extremely individualistic. One opposing view is one that I have stated before, the idea that if a film is being created, then it should depict the original source. This demonstrates that every opinion is incredibly unique.

Throughout this blog post, I have provided the various aspects of film adaptation, the importance of fidelity, the advantages of thinking beyond the original source material, and lastly, I have provided many examples of film adaptation. “The House of the Usher” and “The Pit and the Pendulum” are fitting examples of how film adaptation has evolved and became a hot topic within the film industry.