A Book Or A Movie?

A couple of weeks ago, I finished reading The Guns of Navarone, a very entertaining novel by Alistair MacLean, who served on the Royal Navy during World War II. Of course, later as a novelist he relied on his previous war experiences to create very compelling (yes, finn5fel, compelling) stories and characters that reached the public. Or at least that’s the case with this novel, his best one to many readers, and the only one I’ve set my paws upon.
I probably would had never read this book. But my father bought it for me on his last trip to Egypt. He loves me so much... Two egyptian pounds in an old books store, figures! Anyway, I added it to my bookshelf pendings section and didn’t even think a bit about it. Until I almost ran out of books to read. I had only four or five to go, and I was really in the mood for a short reading. With not much more than 250 pages, I decided to give TGoN a try. And I finished it in no more than eight hours... on a ten minute basis, during the short bus trips that I do to go to work. Quoting myself, that’s the way of the survivor these days.
The point is that I really enjoyed the book. MacLean provided me with a very interesting story, that springs almost immediately into action and never reduces its pace. Keith Mallory, a renowned New Zealand mountaineer now enroled on Allied forces during WWII, is chosen as the leader of a strike team group entasked with the suicidal mission of puting to silence two dreaded guns that are blocking the Allies on the Aegean. The book starts as Mallory is being waked up and addressed at what his mission is. He’s to leave immediately, so from page ten we’re taken on an action-packed rollercoaster, just until the book's very last few lines.
Apart from this, and from the great narrative and the most credible dialogues with which MacLean fills the book, two are the main reasons for me having liked it so much. The first: the author’s great character portraying. Almost any one of the main players has a full developed personality (maybe except for Casey Brown, who at times I even forgot completely that appeared on the book). And that is not only because of each character’s dialogue lines, but also of their actions, of the decisions they make all over the book. One and the other suit the characters like a glove.
The second thing about TGoN that I really liked is how the plot develops. Our main stars are spotted by the enemy since the very first time they put their feet on hostile ground (sorry about the small spoiler). And the bad guys do everything they can to stop them. Of course, at the end they can’t (and I’m sure this revelation doesn’t count as spoilery), but the thing is that all the characters put every effort into escaping or capturing (depending on the side they’re on). The bad guys aren’t stupid nor Grand Moff Tarkinly prepotent people who couldn’t catch a crippled dog even if it was barking loudly in front of their noses. They’re real, smart people (well, at least on the expected percentage) and all of them act accord to it. That, for me, is a very good reason to read and enjoy this book.

Just like any other successful WWII book, it was made immediately into a movie. I hadn’t seen it at the time, so there’s no need to say that I ran to watch it the very moment I flipped the novel’s last page. How could I not? I love movies. Correction: I LOVE movies (in big fat block capital letters), and this one, based on the booked I liked so much, included Gregory Peck, David Niven and Anthony Quinn as its main characters. Hardly could I resist.

Well, I’ve got good words and bad words for it. It is a good movie, not to doubt it, and all the cast behind it is truly impressive, just as their brilliant performances. I suppose the main reason I dislike it was the typical “book fresh in mind” syndrome. It’s not too a bad adaptation, but there are a couple of unforgettable things. I know that a book and a movie are different mediums, and of course are in need of different languages. To capture the essence of a novel, some changes must be made, some lines must be said by the non-original characters... You all know that Peter Jackson stuff. All of that is true. But this movie is filled with changes that actually weren’t needed at all. The strike team does not resemble at all the one depicted in the book. Were there were five characters, now there are six, with names, nationalities and almost everything else changed. Thank god they maintained more or less the most important three of them.
And, also, where in the book not a single woman appears, now there are two. Two beautiful women that really don’t belong were they are. Did this story needed a love story? Not to mention two?. Definitely not. But there they are, unnecessary and undeveloped. They don’t add almost anything to the story, and even confuse it and slow it a little bit.
I’m not saying more. In essence, it is a good movie that I wish had seen right after reading the book. Or that I had seen it before reading the book at all. Anyway, if I got to choose… give me the beautiful printed words this time.