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Interview with Toni Morrison

The Book and the Film: A Comparison

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The Book and the Film:
A Comparison

When a novel is adapted into a film it is not often a seamless transition. Changes rarely favor the original material. Beloved is no exception to this. The following are some of the distinct differences between the novel and the film:

(Note: if you have not read the book or seen the film yet, the following contains SPOILERS)

Due to the inevitable storyline compression that must occur when converting a three hundred page novel into a two hour long film, many aspects of Beloved's plot were modified. Notable among these are the following:

Sethe's boys, Howard and Buglar, run away together in the film but each alone and at the age of thirteen in the novel.

Denver is played by a small, thin actress, but in writing, she is described as being a larger woman.

In the film, Paul D and Sethe do not show disgust for each other after making love for the first time. The complexity of their relationship was lessened somewhat in the interests of streamlining the plot of an already lengthy movie.

Denver does not see a dress with its sleeve wrapped around her mother in the film version, and when Beloved actually arrives, her dress is black instead of white, with nothing covering her scarred neck.

Because they are separate from the main plot line, elements of the 1855 story from the plantation were largely left out of the film. Descriptions of Sethe's and Paul D's old masters are left largely out of the film, as are many descriptions of schoolteacher's cruelty. The film neglects to mention the book he was writing, comparing the slaves to animals. Several of the Sweet Home boys, whose roles were only part of the 1855 storyline, are cut out entirely. Halle is mentioned, but Sixo, Paul A and Paul F--the characters and their sad fates that help elaborate on the horrors of slavery--are left out of the film. Paul D's past is also abbreviated and largely cut out.

Sethe also seems to have an exceptionally easy time giving birth to Denver--in the film Denver is born moments after Sethe begins feeling the pains associated with childbirth.

Many townspeople and minor characters were left out of the film in order to streamline the plotline and create effective pacing. Ella does not make an appearance in the movie, nor does the white family who provided housing for Baby Suggs and eventually Sethe and her family.

The description of Baby Suggs is particularly bleached out in its conversion to film. Her longing for color while on her death bed is left out of the film. There is no mention of the town's jealousy toward her, and no mention of the party that made the townspeople especially jealous and unwilling to warn Sethe that the white slave-hunters were in Cincinnati. Because of this omission, the pride theme from the novel is significantly weakened.

Unlike the disturbing set up that is used to describe how Beloved’s spirit has put a demonic-type hex on the house, the film conveys these images with rather watered-down phantasmagoric effects that only succeed in giving the film a B-movie atmosphere. When Paul D enters 124 for the first time, he is assaulted by somewhat cheesy red lighting effects that seem out of place given the serious tone of the film and its content.

The complexity of Beloved herself is largely lost in the conversion to film. In the novel, her main purpose is as a healing force, bringing the past to light and forcing other characters to deal with it and move on. Toward the end of the novel, her presence is killing Sethe, but she also reunites her with the estranged townspeople, her family and her past. She opens up old wounds, but causes them to heal rather than fester. In the film, much of this complexity is lost and Beloved appears more as a demonic force. She is a demon who must be exorcised and her removal from 124 in the end is a great triumph rather than an ambiguity.

To the filmmaker's credit, for an adaptation, it stays remarkably true to the novel. There is no need to cite the many aspects of the film that are true to the novel, for such a list would contain almost all aspects and plot points of the film. Visually it stays true to the book's Ohio setting--the landscape, costumes and accents are all believeable. Notably, the gory and horrifying scene in which Sethe kills one of her children and attempts to kill the other three is accurately and tastefully portrayed--the filmmakers do not shy away from the truth of the story in order to create a less offensive film and also refrain from exploiting and sensationalizing the gory aspects of the novel.