The soft spoilers are not actually spoilers, they are only some thoughts of mine regarding certain novels put on screen, by that resulting in a different outcome. Anyway, between two creative expressions of the same idea, the novel, and the movie, I prefer the novel. One exception comes to my mind, though, and this is the first Harry Potter book. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is definitely better on screen.
Soft spoilers in The Hoods by Harry Gray
[source for The Hoods]
Soft Spoilers in The Hoods
Maybe you know that behind one of the best movies ever made, Once Upon a Time in America, stands “The Hoods”, a novel written by Herschel Goldberg aka Harry Gray. Nowadays I thought it a little bit obscure, but at the times it was published, it was quite famous, especially because Herschel claimed it was based on real facts. Reading the novel, long enough after I watched the movie more than ten times, I discovered a better story, more coherent, less cinematic. I liked it enormously. I found out that the rape becoming consensual sex scene when the gang robbed the jeweler, happened only in Noodles’ imagination. Also, Noodles loved the girl who lived with him, the girl killed by the police in the movie.
In the book, you never reach the end shown in the movie, and Noodle is a much better judge of characters.
The gang is not exclusively Jewish, there are two Italians and an Irish in their childhood group. What is absolutely undeniable both in the movie and in the book is that Max Bercovicz successfully manages to screw everything and everyone up.
Barney’s Version by Mordecai Richler
Another movie slightly different than the book it was based on, is Barney’s Version. The book was written by the best Canadian author, Mordecai Richler. This is one of my favorite books of all times. Unlike the movie, the action at the beginning takes place in Paris instead of Rome, but in the movie, an important character is totally missing. It is important because he becomes Barney’s archenemy. The book also left unclear how Barney’s best friend disappears, leading to the jealousy murder suspicion. In the movie, what happened is logically suggested. Actually, Barney doesn’t really know, hence the title: “Barney’s Version”.
Barney’s Version by Mordecai Richler
[source for Barney’s Version]
Paul Giamatti doesn’t even resemble Barney, who was tall and chunky, more appropriate for his wife and the love of his life played by Rosamund Pike.
David Egger’s The Circle
The third movie who comes in mind is David Eggers‘ The Circle. The Circle would be a very good movie if Mae Holland was played by someone else, not the ultra-feminist Emma Watson, and if the dissident Circle founder wasn’t black. Anyway, the book is tenths times better than the weak manifesto the movie makers wanted to imply. In the movie, the lack of privacy and the invitation to show everything you do in the open, for everyone to watch, literally, not only the authorities, is eventually presented as something necessary to prevent global terrorism, and it is not that bad. Also, a lot of definition for the main character is missing, but I found it correct, it would have been too much for Watson to carry on. She only succeeded to transform the movie into something tailored after herself, a forgettable, mediocre form of entertainment. This is not at all the same with the book. The book stirs the very things that Edward Snowden warned the public.
Facebook and Google are not your good friends. One of the first investors in Facebook, and actually the first financial base of this privacy invader corporation is Peter Thiel (a customary Bilderberg Meetings attendee since 2007). Google, another invader, was actually made with CIA and NSA funds, it didn’t grow “organically” in a campus dorm. The recent privacy regulations and compulsory cookies’ consent stuff is just dust in your eyes. For example, because of GDPR, I can’t read LA Times from anywhere in Europe; their website is not a GDPR adept. Instead, I cannot unsubscribe with my Gmail from their newsletter, their junk futilely filling my inbox.
In the end, I really hope you all read and enjoyed The Hoods, Barney’s Version and The Circle. If you also watched the mentioned movies, it is even better.
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