The Translation of Novel to Film

Readers know that I love film, both as entertainment and as art. I see a good number of movies and review some of them on this blog spot. I also read widely. I enjoy novels, especially modern novels that are filled with drama and human character development. One of my favorite novelists, especially in his earlier writing, is John le Carre. John le Carre is actually a pen name from an English writer who wrote some pretty stunning stuff about spies during the Cold War era. He was also the master of the betrayal theme in story-telling. Some of John le Carre's novels have become films. Readers of his books often dislike the films. This is a common experience when a novel is made into a film script. But John le Carre has a far better grasp of this process than most critics. Regarding one of his novels becoming a film he said:

The job of the movie (writer) is to take the minimum intention of the novel and illustrate it with the maximum of freedom. In movie language, in movie grammar, there's hardly a line left, hardly a scene in tact, that in this movie comes directly from my novel, yet I don't know of a better translation from novel to film.

The modern communicator must learn to translate from novel to film in order to be heard. The preacher and writer who learns this will be far more effective, at least in my view of things.