Comparison of movie to the book

As in most cases, the book well exceeded the movie. It's difficult for a movie to capture the same emotions and feelings that a book can because a book allows one to see into the mind of the narrator. A book also allows for the imagination to paint a picture. The way I saw the characters from the book were nothing like the characters casted for the movie, except for Baba. The actor who played Baba looked like a strong and elegant individual but also had a bit of the "bear" quality which Amir expressed constantly in the book. I thought that that fear that Amir had towards his father was important to the story and not having included that in the movie did some damage on reflecting the relationship between Amir and his Baba. 

Assef was another character in the movie that looked NOTHING like I imagined. As a kid, I depicted him as a really tall and big dark skinned bully who towered over everyone else, but in the movie he was a scrawny white boy who didn't look very threatening at all. The movie didn't even include Assef using his brass knuckles which was a symbolic threat towards Amir and Hassan. The scene at Amir's birthday did not at all touch on the fear that Assef inflicted on others. In the book, Assef was so cruel that even his parents had a bit of fear towards him which let the readers know that this was a pure evil boy; the movie didn't even include Assef giving the book on Hitler to Amir! There was no way the movie made the viewer hate Assef as much the book did so Assef's inhumanity wasn't clearly shown. The resemblance of the young Assef to the older Assef in the Taliban wasn't clear either and honestly, the old Assef looked nothing like the younger one. The younger Assef was white skinned with black hair and the older Assef was much darker skinned with brown hair. In the book, Assef had blue eyes and blond hair which I believe was an important element because it showed how different he was and how alike he was to the Aryan race that Hitler wanted to create and Assef is basically viewed as the reincarnation of Hitler. 

What wasn't included in the movie that truly damaged the story was the exclusion of Baba buying surgery for Hassan. This was the factor in the story that showed how jealous Amir was of Hassan and how Baba seemed to have more loving care towards Hassan than anyone else. Instead, the movie had Baba buy Hassan a kite which wasn't as personal as the surgery. Based on the movie, one could tell that Amir had a bit of anger towards Hassan because he got all of Babas attention, but the book revealed the core of his hatred. 

I'm happy that I had never seen the movie before I read the book because I'm sure that the movie would have ruined the story for me. The book was overall so much more emotional and really grabbed me by the throat and made me feel everything the characters felt, whereas the movie was just a way to pass the time.