Pgs 1-15 NFTU Ciara

Honesty, what the actual fuck. It's only been 15 pages and I have already thought harder than I have this entire year. Atlas Shrugged has nothing on this book. Atlas Shrugged is basically a book written about a concept that would take up a single paragraph in Notes from the Underground. 

Dostoyevsky presents ideas that take a while to process, at least for me. I think it's obvious that he is presenting the idea of "ignorance is bliss", but it doesn't stop there; that would be too simple. Dostoyevsky argues that the clever, thoughtful person experiences an intense enjoyment when at his/her lowest point. This lowest point could be pain, shame, spite, anger, etc. After the first few examples, I still was not understanding the direction he was taking; however, the example of the toothache shed some light on his idea. 

When we are in pain, we want people to know we are in pain, and we want to make people acknowledge our presence and situation. The enjoyment comes from having a spout to vent from, and from having the ability to be the person you want to be. Pain provides and excuse for some of our censored emotions to come out with reason, and we love the fact that we can express our faults without explanation or verbal judgment. So we enjoy it.

Or I could be completely off. 💁

Kite Runner Movie vs. Book Comparison

                The Kite Runner movie was better than I expected although it ultimately fails at capturing what made the book truly great. What I think the movie did well was tell an entertaining story with the time constraints of a feature length film. Furthermore, I thought the actors playing Baba and Amir did a good job portraying their characters. The problem with the movie is that you are never as emotionally invested in the character as you are in the book. When reading the book, I was often awed by the raw emotion and tension that Hosseini can create. Although the rape scene was uncomfortable in both the book and the movie, I found myself more distraught when I read it then when I watched it. The movie also overlooks certain parts of the book that perhaps should not have been and consequently the pacing always seemed a bit off in my opinion.

                Baba remained my favorite character in the book and the movie as he was just as I expected him to be in the movie. Although he was very tough with Amir , his admirable qualities shine through in the book and the movie as both make him out to be generous , powerful , and comically cynical.

                Visually, I thought the move was superb and really made me feel like I was in Afghanistan , especially in the childhood scenes. Although Hosseini did an amazing job of conveying afghan culture through words, I thought the movie did it even better as nothing compares to actually seeing the scenes played out accompanied by a good soundtrack. The action scenes also seemed really well done as the final fight scene between Amir and Assef was thrilling to watch.

Another thing I noticed was that Amir’s troubled relationship with his father came across much better in the book than in the movie. Although Homayoun Ershadi does a great job of playing Baba in the film, the film will ultimately fail in conveying Amir’s inner thoughts concerning his father and as a moviegoer you never truly understand the emotional tribulations that make Amir act the way he acts.               

                Some scenes seemed very rushed as well such as Amir’s relationship with Soraya. In the book Hosseini makes it clear that in Afghan culture even expressing interest in a woman is seen as imprudent. In the movie Amir just goes right up to talk to her. Although this understandably flows better with western audiences I did not like the fact that Amir Rushes the process in the movie and it felt like the movie was distancing itself from its middle-eastern roots.

                Overall, I thought the film was done well but did not quite meet up to the standards of the book. Although the performances and cinematography was great, nothing could capture the raw emotion of the story better than written word.

Movie vs Book

            Books are almost always regarded higher when compared to their movie equivalents, and I felt that this rang true for the Kite Runner.  Although the movie as a whole was enjoyable, intense, and satisfying all together, when put in a direct comparison with the novel, the movie falls short.  Whether it was for a shorter time, or to prevent scaring audiences, the movie downplayed many of the violently striking scenes that were so intensely described in the novel.  One of the most important scenes from the novel is where Sohrab attempts suicide because he believes that Amir is going to put him back in the orphanage.  This helps to explain why Sohrab is so distant from Soroya and Amir at the end of the novel, and makes the reader understand why Amir is so satisfied with just one smile from Sohrab at the very end.  The ending of the novel makes more sense, because the audience clearly understands why Sohrab is so upset and has a lack of trust in Amir.  The suicide was completely glanced over, and I felt I didn’t quite understand why Sohrab was so upset.  He had a new life in America, and although not as good as his early years with his parents in Afghanistan, it far exceeded his slavery with Assef.  Another scene that I felt lacked the emotional power that was clearly expressed in the novel was when Ali and Hassan left Baba’s house to find a new place to live.  In the novel, Baba clearly expresses great sorrow and confusion as to why Ali is leaving, and it takes a great length of time for Baba to accept the fact that they are gone.  In the movie it is a relatively short, unemotional scene.  I did not feel a real pain in the actor’s portrayal of Baba when Ali leaves.  Considering how close Ali and Baba were, I feel the book more accurately represented the way the character of Baba would have felt.  Not all parts of the movie were bad portrayals of the novel.  I thought the scenery in the movie was amazing.  It seemed very accurate to the way that Amir described it in the story, and I feel that the director did a great job with creating a realistic scene of Afghanistan in the 1970’s and early 2000’s.  The way in which Afghanistan changed from 1970 to 2000 was also done very well.  The book went into great detail over the differences between the beauty of Afghanistan in the past, and the desert like conditions of the present.  The movie, I felt, accurately portrayed these changes and helped to form a better idea of the living conditions of Afghani’s today.  If the more emotional and violent scenes had been more accurately represented and present in the film, I felt that this movie could have been as good as the book.  It is just lacking the emotional power that the novel exerts onto the reader.  

Movie v. Book

          While the story of The Kite Runner itself is remarkable no matter in which way it is told, I felt that the book ultimately captured the emotions of the characters best, while the movie was more successful in emphasizing the context of the setting and the vibrant Afghan culture.

          Though it understandably had to make some cuts due to the limited time frame, the movie version was mostly accurate to the book. In fact, watching the movie highlighted certain details that I never really thought about before. While the book always mentioned how Hassan and Ali worked around the house, actually seeing the two, especially Hassan in his diminutive stature during Amir’s party, carry around trays hit the point closer to home. I also found it immensely interesting and telling the way the blue kite was framed and placed in an in-your-face manner on the staircase in Amir’s house; this little touch truly elaborated on Baba’s pride for Amir’s kite-running win, something I thought the movie depicted accurately.

          In addition, I felt that the Afghan culture came out particularly well in the movies. The wedding scene and intense kite-running tournament portrayed a vivacity that I thought the book could not completely demonstrate, and the Afghan-American culture also came out more clearly due to the constant switch between languages by the characters. Details such as the political speaker on the radio in the beginning and the kabob-selling on the streets not only allowed me to visualize Amir’s city better, but also helped bring to life the vast difference Amir felt between the past and present versions of Kabul; the stoning scene was particularly heart-wrenching to watch.

          But while I liked many aspects of the movie, there were also some that I felt took away from aspects crucial in the book. For one, Baba did not cry or beg when Hassan and Ali left; I thought this downplayed their importance to him. In addition, I felt that the movie version of Baba’s character in the US was not as unsure or somewhat meek, as in the book. Another detail that truly bugged me was how completely different Assef was from the book. Instead of a blue-eyed blonde around the same age as Hassan and Amir, he was significantly older and larger with brown hair and eyes. At Amir’s party, he did not seem to command his parents, or actually his father in the movie, and did not present Amir with the Hitler book; I thought that this scene in the book was essential in establishing Assef’s deranged nature and foreshadowing his powerful control.

          While I did like the movie’s kite-running ending, I felt that the book’s ending and movie’s ending were in too different contexts to compare; without Sohrab’s suicide attempt and the struggle to bring him back to the US, the movie’s ending was significantly more light-hearted and hopeful. Overall, I felt that due to the movie’s limited time frame, the scenes skipped around more to cover all the events without the same emotional investment the book put into the characters. Without a doubt, though, the movie is still a great supplement to the reading due to how successfully it visually impacts the audience.

Book and Movie comparison

      People often say that films cannot compare to the original material. This notion is absolute true in the case of the Kite Runner and the film. As a stand alone project, the movie is actually very good. But after having read the novel, I feel that the movie failed to capture the emotional intensity that the novel does so brilliantly. One of the main problems in the movie, in my opinion, is it removed the grittier, more violent scenes. These scenes are hard to swallow but very necessary. The movie essentially edited the entire last act of the novel. The film decided to completely remove Sorayb's attempted suicide and his painfully slow transition to "normalcy." His torturous silence after the event made much more sense in the novel than it did in the movie. Though the transition to America would be hard for any child, it's less believable in the movie. I assume that time constraints affected the decision, and it by no means ruined the film or compromised it. But I did feel it sort of rushed the ending and left some questions unanswered for those that have never read the book. Another aspect that left me confused was the character Assef. Many times he was described as blonde with blue eyes... but in the film, he is very clearly Afghan. I'm not sure if the filmmakers forgot this detail or felt it unnecessary, but I was distracted looking for a "blonde" Assef when the audience should be focused on the thematic material.

It's hard to fully connect to actors when I've already envisioned the character's appearances and gestures. That being said, the casting decisions were excellent. I thought the child actor that played Hassan brought the appropriate amount of quiet nobility, and similarly, young Amir portrayed the pained sullenness that was written so vividly in the novel. Amir's and Baba's relationship in America was also very well developed and extremely believable. I felt that relationship was most faithful to the one I witnessed in the novel. All in all, the movie was enjoyable and left me satisfied with the ending. But in my opinion, it cannot compete with the novel.

Juan's movie vs. book comparison

The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini was a ground breaking novel published in 2003. Shortly thereafter, the story was converted into a motion picture. When comparing the two works, there are certainly notable differences in not only the overall plot, but in the development of the story as well.

To begin, the plot was altered from the very beginning, where we meet the older version of Amir first. In the novel, Hosseini introduces us to Amir's younger self first. In doing so the reader is also able to see Amir's thought process, establishing a better relationship between the reader and the protagonist on an emotional level. This aspect is essential to the development and overall enjoyment of the story, thus leaving out from the film an important element. Unlike the book the film only shows the direct actions of the characters and what happens in the story. When given introspective one is able to comprehend the story much better, and in the end, because the watcher of the film is not given the privilege of knowing Amir's thoughts, the character from the film and the character from the book are different.

Subsequently, the most noticeable difference, in my opinion, between the novel and film is the intensity in each. The novel's descriptions and overall plot are much more intense than those of the film. Intense can be an ambiguous term, thus by intense I mean that the novel impacts and affects the reader much more than the movie does on the watcher of the movie. For example, the scene where a boy's father shoots himself after the trip in the gas tank is removed entirely from the film. While this scene is unimportant to what happens in the overall plot, it does add to the mood of the story. In the end, this particular scene contributes to how harsh the conditions were and how much Amir had to go through, evoking a feeling of empathy from the reader. Another scene that was crucial to the intensity of the novel was that of Sohrab trying to commit suicide. This scene puts the cherry on top of the intensity sundae as not only the idea of a child attempting to commit suicide, but the imagery as well, can be shocking to a reader. In the movie, the story ends with a happy ending, avoiding this scene. Perhaps producers have done studies showing that audiences prefer happy endings and thus they altered the ending of the story accordingly. Because this scene was cut out, the story was changed entirely and one can even say it was made inaccurately.

One final noticeable difference between the story and the book is the emphasis of a cycle. In the novel, a cycle exists between the moment that Hassan was betrayed by Amir and the final moment when Amir says to Sohrab, “For you, a thousand times over!” This cycle is seen in the scar that both Hassan and Amir obtain, one from an operation and one from a fight with Assef. It is again seen when Hassan and Amir both say “For you a thousand times over.” Finally, it is seen when Assef physically hurts both Amir and Hassan. This is why Amir feels healed when Assef delivers the beating he does. In the film, the evidence of this cycle is nowhere to be found as it is certainly not emphasized like it is in the book.

Overall, I believe that the details included in the book made it better than the movie. As a result, I enjoyed the book, which is one of my favorite books now, much more than the movie.

Maya's Movie vs Book Comparison

        After watching the movie and reading the book, I can decidedly say that I enjoyed the book more than the movie. I feel like Hosseini’s writing style and the descriptions he chose to incorporate were able to capture the characters’ emotions and the strain that most of the events in the novel caused better than the movie. I did not dislike the movie, but I feel like it lacks a certain something the book has. The first half of the movie, for the most part, stayed true to what happened in the book. However, the director chose to leave out a lot of major plot points during the second half. 

        First off, I think the director chose to cut what he did because it made Amir seem, in my opinion, like a more agreeable main character. In the book, he comes off as more self-centered and kind of spineless. The first time I noticed this was when he is shown at the orphanage looking for Sohrab. Instead of his driver becoming outraged by the director of the orphanage essentially selling children to the Taliban, Amir is the one who decides to speak out. This scene portrays Amir as someone with a strong moral compass who isn’t afraid to voice it; as anyone who has read the book knows, this usually is not the case with Amir. It also draws a parallel between him and Baba. Baba spoke out against the cruelty being shown to the woman in the van by the Russian soldier and Amir did the same for the orphans. 

        Also, there is never a point in the movie where Amir shows apprehension towards leaving Soraya and risking his safety in Afghanistan. When Amir ultimately travels to Pakistan to meet with Rahim Kahn, Kahn doesn’t mention an American couple that could lift all the responsibilities of taking care of Sohrab off of Amir’s shoulders. The movie shows Amir’s journey to retrieve Sohrab as something he is doing completely out of his own will and not because he feels obligated to save a blood related family member. 

        The only thing I have no idea as to why it was cut is the entire scene with Soraya’s infertility. I feel like that was such an integral part to Amir switching from feeling obligated to save Sohrab to actually wanting to go save him so that he and the woman he loves can parent a child together. It was a big plot point in the book but it was never visited once during the movie. 

        With respects to the actors, I feel that the actor who played Baba did the best job. His performance was truly convincing. I believe he did the best job of portraying his character the way he was in the book.