The Book vs The Movie

      Watching the movie, The Kite Runner, after reading the book helped me visualize what the actual story might have looked like in real life. Even though I did not picture the characters or settings how they were portrayed in the movie, I think that the movie gave me a more realistic point of view. Seeing how terrible the political conditions were in the movie during the scenes where Amir returns to Afghanistan helped me understand how serious and dangerous the Taliban really are.
      The movie gave me a better understanding of the dangers of the Taliban and what the living conditions in Afghanistan were like rather than the characters true feelings and their emotions. While reading the book, Hosseini did a great job portraying Amirs emotions and how he felt as a child growing up striving to obtain his fathers attention, to later on to facing his fears in order to save Hassans son. I felt angry when Amir began to mistreat Hassan and actually felt sad when Amir lost his father and was close to losing Sohrab after his suicide attempt. While watching the movie, I could not relate to Amirs feelings. Without Amirs true feelings being told, I felt a lack of connection and was unable to relate to the depth of the story.
       Towards the end of the movie, Amir was able to bring back Sohrab to his home without a single problem. By skipping Sohrabs suicide attempt, I felt that a lot was left untold about Sohrabs past. After losing his parents and becoming a personal slave for the Taliban, you can not expect a little boy to just accept the fact that he was moving to a different country and place his trust in a new family. Sohrab went through a lot for a child his age, let alone for anyone at any age, so I believe that his suicidal act was very realistic. It is normal for him to be afraid of trusting someone new and staring a new life, especially when he missed his old one so badly. Because Sohrab was so afraid and barely speaking, I thought this scene told you a lot about his personality, and leaving it out of the movie left a lot of his feelings untold.
       The book obviously has a lot more detail than the movie. I think that the makers of the movie expect people to have read the book before watching the movie so they have an understanding of what is really going on. I enjoyed reading the book more than watching the movie. It really does amaze me how the author could create a bond between the reader and the character, and I was disappointed when I did not experience that bond while watching the movie. I still thought it was a great movie, but nothing compared to the book itself. If I had not read the book prior to watching the movie, I believe I would have enjoyed the movie a lot more than I did.