Necessary Editing?

..........are some things in a book better left out of the film?......

I really enjoy reading Entertainment Weekly.  It is informative about upcoming films, DVD releases, music, books and much more.  You know what else I like about it?  I will give you a hint: It's what they leave out.  All of the celebrity gossip and paparazzi junk.  You know, the negative and mostly false stuff.

Any who, I was reading EW #1081 for the week of December18, 2009.  In it there was a very interesting article about the film Lovely Bones, book by Alice Sebold and screenplay by Fran Walsh, Phillipa Boyens and Peter Jackson who also directed the film.  It seems that choices made by the film team to leave out certain aspects of the book are drawing criticism from some people and critics.  What is left out is a scene showing how a 14 year old girl is violently raped and murdered.  Why would leaving such a scene out draw criticism?  The movie is about a young girl who is murdered, isn't that bad enough?  Why is it necessary to show the audience exactly what happened and put a young actress through the emotional strain of shooting that scene?

Fran Walsh stated that they tried to sketch out the scene on a computer and it was so horrible that crew were walking out of the room.  She had a very good point when saying that you can visualize a scene from a book in a way you choose, but it is completely different when you see it on a 50 foot wide movie screen.

It is still a mystery to me why some think visualizing that horrid scene for movie goers is such a necessity and not staying true to the book.  It isn't like they tell you all those terrible things didn't happen.  I myself applaud the screenwriters for leaving the scene out.  My imagination, as well as most people's, needs no help.  As the extremely talented Clint Eastwood once said,

"Audiences aren't stupid.  You don't have to show them everything."

 You are absolutely correct and very wise, Mr. Eastwood.

Also, if you read my last blog, I will watch the movie first and read last.  That is, if I read at all.  It may be too disturbingly graphic for my taste. Any items I blog about will be put into my amazon store so you can look it up easily.  Just click on the link or product widget on the left side of my blog screen.

Pattie Hart