Books and Movie Scripts (Screen Plays)--Challenges for Readers

In earlier posts I spoke of Dan Brown's The DaVinci Code which I recently listened to as an English audiobook, read as a Spanish companion book, and listened to as a Spanish audiobook.  Today I saw the movie--playing the movie in Spanish with Spanish subtitles.

Ron Howard was the director of the film and Dan Brown was one of the executive producers.  Having recently read and listened to the book so much, it was clear to me where the movie diverged from the book.  Some of the changes were to bring the movie-goer "up to speed" as things progressed during the movie.  Other changes seemed to involve representatives of the Roman Catholic Church in more negative ways that were shown in the book.

If you have read the book, the movie is enjoyable and you can spot the differences between the book and the movie.  If all you see is the movie, much of the richness expressed in the book is lost--along with much of the human dynamics expressed in the book.

I have had similar experiences with J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books and movies.  Knowing the book makes a lot of difference in experiencing the movie.