A Lesson Before Dying: The Movie vs The Book

In this post I won’t be judging the entire novel with the whole movie but rather the first half of each respectively. I finally realized why people would tell me that it’s better to read the book rather than watch the movie. I could say with confidence that the novel is WAY better than the movie. Not only did they change a lot of things but I felt as if they skipped key points in the movie. The book is more descriptive and expressive than the book is.

One of the main differences I realized in the book and the movie was how much less descriptive the movie was. At first, I did not like how much the novel would describe a certain place. However, further into the book a painted a lot of imagery in my mind which allowed me to get a better sense of what was really happening. I understand that it is a movie so I am watching what is happening, however, it would have been better if they could explain more things through the characters. I also realized that the movie may have skipped some of the chapters that were in the novel. They never showed Grant and Miss Emma being patted down by the deputies. The also didn’t show the several visits between Jefferson and Grant before he began to open up.  These were only a few of the differences in the first half of the movie and the novel.

I know there were many differences, but, there were also some similarities that I appreciated. I enjoyed the fact that they showed how Jefferson started out in the situation he was in with Brother and Bear. After reading the first chapter, I was enticed to see how everything really went down in the movie. I hope that the second half is as good as the book was.