Don’t Judge a Movie by its Book

Bill Watterson once said, “Books are almost always better than the movies made from them, because there are things books do well and things movies do well, but usually those things won’t overlap.”  Nowadays, thousands of books are turned into movies. An example of this, is “The Pedestrian” written by Ray Bradbury. On August of 1951, the author Ray Bradbury released one of his most cherished stories, “The Pedestrian“. Bradbury introduces his short story by giving the audience a glimpse of the future. The story shows an extremely structured society where technology has eliminated human activity. The inspiring short story  was  later released as a movie, allowing us to observe “The Pedestrian” from two different mediums.  Although they bear some superficial similarities, the difference between the short story and movie are striking in the areas of setting, characters, and plot.

First and foremost, a crucial difference between the movie and book is the setting.  The setting in the short story “The Pedestrian,” takes place on a misty evening in November of  2053. The author uses detailed descriptions in order to demonstrate the extremely structured and futuristic society in the story. Bradbury gives the audience a clear picture of an isolated and completely silent neighborhood where technology has eliminated all types of human interaction and activity. The atmosphere in the story is dark, cloudy, and hopeless. Bradbury use  crafty sentence structures, which successfully convey an image of solitude and technological evolution; “Sometimes he would walk for hours and miles and return only at midnight to his house. And on his way he would see the cottages and homes with their dark windows, and it was not unequal to walking through a graveyard where only the faintest glimmers of firefly light appeared in flickers behind the windows.”  Throughout this description, Bradburry compares his neighbors to people who are dead to the world, with only the light of the television screen flickering behind the windows.  In contrary, the setting in the movie contains an important difference. In addition to the isolated neighborhood, the movie adds an extra location, which is Bob’s house. The setting shows the actual device consuming his life and sucking his soul, making evident the impact of technology and how it has helped the natural world to banish.  All though , the short story contains vibrant and vivid details of the the setting, the movie gives us a concrete image of the technological control in the society.

In addition, one of the most important and essential differences between the movie and the short story  is the characters. We are introduced to the protagonist of the short story, Mr.Leonard Mead. The protagonist of the short story lives in the period of time where most people in his society stay at home and allow themselves to be influenced and controlled by technology. In contrary, Mead has a different lifestyle. The protagonist has an interesting passion for the outside world and late night walks. He enjoys the  solitude and freedom of walking throughout his neighborhood. Leonard Mead carefully observes the empty and lonely lives of the citizens in his society, who have been brainwashed by technology.  Mead is considered different in his society. His different life style is seen as potential danger and harm to the government. Seeing that the citizens in the society are perceived to be under constant surveillance in terms of technological control, Mead questions the existing social and political systems of his society. In the other hand, the movie introduces another character named Bob, who is Leonard Mead’s Friend. Similar to everyone in the society, Bob has lost the experience and knowledge of the outside world, due to the influence and attachment  of technology. We can clearly observe that Bob is a cautious, nervous, and discreet character. Adding another character to the story has helped the audience identify the differences in between Mead  and the citizens in the society. It has also helped the audience gain a wider understanding and knowledge of the context of the story.  Even though the short story gives us a brief description of the protagonist, adding another character in the movie has helped the audience identify the differences in between Mead  and the citizens in the neighborhood.

Last but not least, one of the most vital differences between the movie and book  is the  plot events. The short story begins as Leonard Mead peacefully  walks through the empty streets of his neighborhood. Throughout his perspective, we can see how much he enjoys being outside and walking in the quiet darkness. Leonard Mead is the only one outside, which gives him the advantage of exploring the mysterious world all by himself.  After walking various streets, a police car stops.  The police car starts asking him a various amount of questions.  For some reason, Mead ends up getting arrested. He is later sent to a psychiatric center due to his weird behaviour and actions, which don’t coincide to the expectations of the society. Whereas, the plot in the movie is completely different. The movie starts when Mead silently walks to his friends house. Once Mead arrives, he finds Bob sitting in his couch looking at his viewscreen. Here, we can observe that everyone in the society is completely addicted and absorbed by technology, therefore  Mead believes that something is terribly wrong with the society. Disturbed, Mead tries to  convince his friend to go walking with him. After various attempts of trying to  convince  his friend, Bob agrees to join Mead in his walk.  Their journey begins as  they start walking throughout the neighborhood. Bob is completely surprised and amazed by his surroundings. He is starting to notice the beautiful characteristics of the world around him. Together, they walk peacefully and quietly through the sidewalks, wearing sneakers to prevent them from making any noise. Suddenly, Mead and Bob get spotted by a police helicopter. Similar to the short story, the police helicopter starts asking various questions to both pedestrians. The police helicopter only arrests Mead due to his irregular behaviour. However, Bob is set free.  In comparison to the short story, the movie’s  main purpose is to show how human relations have been completely destroyed in the dystopian society. In other words, individuality has been demolished by the prevalence of technology in the society. To conclude, the film’s use of attractive and amusing plot events, successfully gather the public’s attention, making it more appealing than the short story.

Although they bear some superficial similarities, the difference in between the short story and movie are striking in the areas of setting, characters, and plot. After reading, viewing and analyzing the short story and movie, I have come to the conclusion that the movie was more entertaining and fun.The movie provided a brief but clear explanation of the setting, plot events and characters. The film also provides clear evidence and examples of dystopian characteristics in the society. As a final point, we need to understand that books and movies will always be different; books are about words, while movies are about visuals.  “Books and movies are like apples and oranges. They both are fruit, but taste completely different.” Stephen King