Movie versus Book

Overall, the movie did a good job accurately describing the tone and movie and capturing certain details that were explicit in the book. From the perspective of someone not knowing the issues with the Russian invasion or the dichotomy between Hazara and Pashtun, I think movie does a good job at giving insight to the background of the Afghan culture. I appreciated that the movie kept in certain details and lines directly from the book which really complete the story. The part where Hassan comments about why Amir’s character did not just smell onions to get the pearls, or when Rahim Khan tell’s Baba that children are not coloring books that you can fill in with your favorite color are small details yet really important to the character development. The movie even went as far to put the details of coating the kite string to make it better in the kite flying tournament, and Baba pushing his Russian doctor away from him. In the movie Baba did not give Hassan the surgery for his lip his birthday, but instead takes him out to get a kite. I think that the director used that to find a way to show viewers the liveliness and beauty of Kabul, because the contrast between post and pre war were more than evident after Amir returns back. After Amir goes back home the city was completely dark and tense which was the complete opposite of how it was in his childhood. 

One of my favorite things about the movie that the book is unable to do was that they actually spoke their language. This made the movie so much more authentic and thought it was a really good choice by whoever made the movie. I bet finding bilingual actors made the initial making of this movie even more difficult. 

The most noticeable thing that the movie left out was how everything happened after Amir got Sohrab. A really emotional and intense part of the book for many readers was Sohrab’s suicide attempt. Without that scene you still got a good sense of Sohrab’s pain especially when he talked about not wanting his parents to be alive to see him  dirty and full of sin. The director probably thought that the same core meaning of the book was not lost when taking out that scene and it would have been flat to watch Amir make phone calls about getting Sohrab into America. It would have been nice to keep that scene, but to do that it would extend the movie with some details that the director thought were unnecessary or simply too long. If the suicide attempt was kept in the movie then all the issues about paperwork and visas would have to be added and if they  did not do it complete and right I’m glad they did not do it at all because thats not the type of heavy subject that should be rushed through.