Oh, I see. Thanks for the clarification:)

It's because the movie is based on the novel missing the final chapter.  (The publisher didn't like the final chapter, so it got chucked, but the point of the story is in...the final chapter.)  After the movie gave the novel popularity, the publisher included the final chapter.

Anyway, in the final chapter, Alex (M. McDowell's character) acts on his own free will to cease his antisocial behavior.  That was the point.  True change is internal, not external.

Very good LisaV.  I agree, the truest type of change is internal; anything else is superficial and often an imitation of change.

Thanks Lisa, for the information! 

No problem.  I wrote that while my eyelids were propped open and a doctor was dropping liquid in my eyes, so I felt strangely compelled to be helpful.

I just finished watching Anna Karenina (1935). I read the book a year or two ago. The plot of the movie was enormously simplified and omitted a lot of information regarding the character's motivations. I didn't find Vronsky, played by Frederic March, very sympathetic. Basil Rathbone and Greta Garbo gave pretty good performances, though. Overall, I though the plot wasn't complex enough.

Isn't that with basically every book to movie adaptation?

No, there are quite a few movies I can think of where this wasn't the case. LoTR, for example, captured the plot of the books much better than I expected. And think of the Twilight series. There wasn't much to start with in the books, but the movies were pretty literal translations.

I guess it depends on the book. Tolstoy has such in-depth characterization. However, I've still seen very good movie versions of his books. War and Peace with Henry Fonda comes to mind.

I only watched LoTR movies and didn't read the books. I got a fairly strong sense that I was missing a lot. I wished I had read the books before watching the movies because they seemed that they were made for people who have read the books. The plot seemed all there but the character development was lacking and things didn't seem explained fully. Someone who had read the books would not have those issues.

I avoided the Twilight series completely and believe I am better off for it.

Books generally rely a lot on the inner narrative of the main character which is something that is often non transferrable in movie format especially with the time restriction. The importance of the inner narrative in the book and how well those ideas are put in the movie probably has a lot to do with how well it transfers.

Thanks, corrijean! I also liked the Greta Garbo version of Anna Karenina, and War and Peace!

On another note, I'm sorry you both read the Twilight series and saw the movies. This could be evidence that you're quite insane

Perhaps I just transferred the characterization in my own mind since I was already very familiar with the books. I've read them not just once, but 5-10 times, I'd guess.

I highly recommend reading them. If you want an easy start, you can always start with The Hobbit.It is fairly self contained, so if you decide not to read the others, you will still get a complete story. And it is pretty short. The prose is easy to read, not overly dense. And it is an excellent adventure story. It draws heavily on Anglo Saxon mythology. I've had an interest in many types of mythology since I read the Odyssey in sixth grade, so it really appealed to me.

I like to keep up with pop culture, and someone gave me the first book. It was such light reading, it didn't take me long.

I've only seen two of the movies. They weren't very good.

So I hear the vampire was hundreds of years old. Yet, he still went to highschool, possibly only to pick up young girls. Gross.

Yes, the story is gross. You can definitely tell it was written by a sexually repressed Mormon.

Hilarious!

The overwhelming impression from the story is sexually repressed teen angst.

Sexual repression is the leading cause of teenagers.

And yet you still watched two movies.

It's my nieces' fault. They are 14 and 15 years old. 

I'm pretty sure you can sue your nieces' parents.