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.