Kite Runner Movie vs Book

Personally, I almost always rather the movies from the books. This was actually a rare case and I was more content with the book than the movie. The movie missed a lot of scenes that were vital in my opinion and that was what made me lean more towards the book. I understand that some scenes have to be cut in order to make the movie within a reasonable amount of time for people to sit down and watch it, but the director made some mistakes in which scenes to leave ad which to take out and also made some same scenes with different details that gave me a different feel from the book. The movie was almost identical from the book except for the first scene up to where Rahim Khan’s “there is a way to be good again” comes into play and Amir gets on a flight to Pakistan. In the movie, Rahim does not tell Amir exactly what he wants him to do with Sohrab about bringing him to the orphanage with the made up Americans in Pakistan, it is just sort of implied that Amir must rescue him and adopt him. This is important because it is supposed to show how Amir is dubious about going to rescue the boy and how he does not even want to parent his nephew in the beginning. The movie also did not depict Farid accurately. The movie did not show how hostile Farid was towards Amir until he learned of his intentions, and the movie also did not show Amir and Farid staying at Farid’s brother’s house. That scence was important because it showed how much importance was placed on honor, as the father rather feed his guests than his children, and is also showed the children’s lack of care for technology, but gratefulness for gifts. The orphanage scene was a big part of the book and the fact that no one attacked the director made it seem like they did not care too much that children were getting sold to Assef, I believe that to be a mistake from the director. Once the “man with the sunglasses” enters the story, I also saw that the movie missed some important details that demonstrated the Taliban’s ridiculous rule such as the player not wearing shorts or how you weren’t allowed to cheer for the game, only for the Taliban. I also noticed later in the movie that Assef’s famous brass knuckles were never introduced. This doesn’t make that big of a difference but it gave Assef more of an intense fear. In the scence with Assef, the director changes that he doesn’t say “hows the old Babalu” but rather talks about Baba, and Assef did not tell the guards to let them go if he walked out of there alive in the movie. They also did not show Amir laughing while getting his beating, which was needed to correlate the meaning to Assef’s story of the kidney stones. The movie did not show Amir in the hospital or how Sohrab felt like a huge sinner, being the reason he ran away to the mosque. It was not a bad movie at all and I enjoyed watching it, but when it comes to detailed imagery and important factors that make those small differences, the book did a much better job.