Movie to book Comparison

         Realistically speaking, the movie itself is not horrible. Having read the novel before hand, there is a sort of bias that accompanies you as you watch the movie. Hosseini is so careful to give his readers every single detail there is possible which in turns allows the reader to have this perfect image in their head of how the scenes would play out in “real life”.  Though these details are advantageous while you read the novel, they do take away from watching the movie because they make you upset when any sort of detail or account is left out, or so I feel.

            Already from the beginning there are minor discrepancies occurring between the film adaptation and the novel itself but none of them seem to truly affect the story line all too much. The film starts towards the middle part of the novel and then goes back to the beginning, but I did not find that to be much of a bother. What I did find very interesting of the film is that in all the scenes where Hassan and Amir are running, Hassan is always in the lead. Amir, though sometimes only by a few steps, is always behind him. I found there to be some meaning behind this. It is an unarguable fact that Hassan is “advanced” in many ways. He is past the “filter of distortion faze” even as a child, he is forgiving in all aspects, and kind to a point that it is sickening. Amir on the other hand is nowhere near passing his filter of distortion phase. I thought that the fact that he is literally behind Hassan when the boys are running around was symbolic of how he is also behind Hassan mentally.

            The rape scene was portrayed exactly how I had initially imagined it in my head.  I think a lot of credit should be given to the child actor that played Hassan. The only thing that seemed to be off from the film and the book was Assef’s age. By the description given in the novel, I had thought of Assef as being of the same age as Amir and Hassan. In the film he seemed to be about two to four years older than them. The fact that he was older in the film did make the rape a lot more scarring on the audience, because a boy of that age should have known better (as should have someone their age too).  I think a lot of credit should be given to the child actor that played the role of Hassan. The way he portrayed Hassan after the rape was done marvelously. He had this sullen look on his face but still some sort of pride when he gave Amir the kite. The way he reacted so subtly to Amir asking what had happened, even though they both knew what happened was also done well.

            Though I was pleased with the majority of the film because it corresponded well with what was going on in the novel, I was extremely upset with the ending. Without sounding grotesque, I was upset that Sohrab’s suicide attempt was completely disregarded. I think that the suicide attempt really magnifies the fear that Sohrab felt towards the orphanage and it also explains so much of his sorrow once he got to America. By leaving it out, the director excluded what I thought to be one of the most important scenes in the entire novel. 

-Talia Akerman