The Body Novel vs. Movie

     There are several differences between the movie and the novel of The Body. To name a few, first, only Chris died in the movie and the part about Ace and his friends were depicted in more details. There were two metafictions, the Stud City and the Pie-Eating Contest, but only the second one was shown in the film. Also, the director tried hard to show each character’s characteristics through their words and actions. For example, he showed Teddy and Vern walk in front of Chris and Gordie with two different conversations. People would have different views about whether the novel was better or not.


     I always believed that a movie cannot be better than the book it is based on because it cuts so many important parts and the actors might not exactly match the characters. However, this time I was wrong. After reading the book, I thought it was an okay story because there are many stories similar to this plot. On the other hand, when I finished watching the movie, I was fascinated. The young actors fit the imaginary characters inside my head perfectly and the little changes made by the director were actually better than the book. For instance, the dream that Gordie had in the night beside the fire was better chosen because it showed the emotional stresses Gordie received due to his brother’s death. Also, from the movie we see that Gordie and Dennis were closer to each other compared to the book and this helped people feel the sadness and pain. These subtle changes helped me become more interested in the story itself and the themes it was trying to show. I’m glad the producers didn’t stop filming this wonderful piece of work because of certain obstacles they faced.