Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde – Book Vs Movie

Luka Stojanovic Mr. Horner 9/13/2010 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: Film vs. Book The book and the movie Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde weren’t too different. The 1920 silent film, “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” wasn’t too different from the book. Even though this film version of the book was silent, I could still tell what was happening in the movie due to the fact that I watched the movie as I read the book to be able to compare and interpret what was going on. The film and the book were actually very similar indeed. This is probably because the movie was silent and the director had to portray it more accurately to the book. However there were some differences between the book and the movie. One of the major differences is how each medium portrays the characters differently. In the book, Dr. Jekyll is portrayed as more of a scholarly character or a “doctor” but in the movie he is portrayed as a “crazy scientist. ” I like that the author did this though because it made the movie more exciting as opposed to the book. Mr. Utterson is also portrayed differently. In the book he is portrayed as a more honest character than in the movie. Mr. Utterson advises Dr. Jekyll against some of his actions in the book much more than he does in the movie, but again, the director does this for dramatic effect. The way Mr. Hyde is portrayed in the movie is very accurate though. The movie shows Mr. Hyde as truly being a monster just as in the book. The only difference is that in the movie, the transformation of Dr. Jekyll into Mr. Hyde is much more dramatic. The movie shows the transformation as being extremely gruesome and dramatic whereas in the book the transformation was more gradual and less extreme. Overall, I liked the book more than the movie, even though both were kind of boring and I couldn’t quite understand the book either. The author could have written the book in a more exciting fashion because quite often I would daze off as I was reading and would miss vital parts of the book. However, I thought the movie was worse because it was silent and the only sound playing was the eerie background music. I also didn’t like the fact that it was a very old, black and white movie.

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