A Critique of the Movie Adaptation of Lois Lowry’s Dystopian Novel The Giver

I will just say right off the bat: while I moderately enjoyed reading Lois Lowry‘s The Giver and give it credit for being an early teen-centric dystopian novel (before it nearly became a genre of its own), I am not a fan of the 2014 film adaptation, I have a number of problems with the execution which I do not want to make the focal point of this piece. I do want to focus on the look of the film and how the change in the look reflects a theme of the story and in turn, how it portrays its now familiar messaget When we start the film, it is entirely in black and white. The film wants to show us that this is a society where everyone is equal and there is no conflict and all seems ideal. The first film that comes to mind when I think of a stylish opening like this is The Mzard of Oz, The color choice in that film wants to emphasize the mundane of Kansas before bringing the Vivid colors of 02 to the screen, Here, the colors emphasize that this is a world without strife.

That there are no conflicting colors because this is a utopia, a world without conflict at least that is what we are led to believe when the story begins. Then as we follow Jonas after he has be chosen as the new Receiver of Memories and he sees flashes of color in some peculiarly edited flashbacks (looking more like montages you’d see in commercials for the most part). After the dreariness of these opening shots, we can connect with Jonas in wanting to see more of it Black and white for a film is now a stylistic choice as high-definition colorful pictures have become the movie industry’s bread and butter. Presenting a world without conflict can accurately be captured by using only one shade of colors Though that could also lead to a universal difficulty with adapting literature to film.

You can present a grand image on the screen, but it is incredibly likely that each member of the audience already has an idea of what the world looks like. If you present a fully developed View of that setting to an audience, that could lead to some disappointment or hesitation Perhaps this is an easy reason for some people to say that most film adaptations cannot compare to their source material: they already have a vision for the story, and a difference in that vision can lead to conflict. When that conflict comes from a story about uniformity, you can see the irony. Perhaps that would explain why Philip Noyce’s film was quick to give exposition and let the viewers get to the conflict as soon as possible. Whereas recent adaptations like the Hunger Games and Divergent have been split into a series of books and have multiple adaptations, The Giver features these characters and this central conflict in just one book. Though some readers will appreciate the relatively brisk pace of this story, it could also inadvertently be its downfall for adaptations.

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Granted, there are three other books by the same author that deal with similar themes and have some recurring characters but each volume has its own conflict. While one can choose to read those books and further explore this world if they so desire, the conflict we see in The Giver will be exclusive to that book. So what is the downfall? All of the world and character building and conflict and twists that are spread across multiple volumes in Hunger Games and the like have to be told in the p of one novel. Then most of those have to be condensed enough to fit into one 90 minute film, Even the earliest Harry Potter films with simpler themes and less character development pushed two and a half hours, and those are just two installments of seven (spread across eight films, however). Though I do suppose since The Giver isn’t terribly long, the shorter running time can be excused to a degree. If this film did set out to tell the story and message of Lois Lowry’s book and fail to make an impression on most people, what reasons could remain? This is unfortunately where we could start to point fingers at the film industry. What I read around the web suggests that this

adaptation was in the works for nearly 20 years. Jeff Bridges wanted to film and produce it along with his father, and when the elder Bridges passed away, the film was shelved and hung in limbo for nearly two decades, To finally get it made and into theaters in the 21’l century, Bridges had to give up some of the control to producer Harvey Weinstein. Since the producer has the money, they can have some say over the project. Hence, we get the 20-something Brenton Thwaites to play a 16 year old character who was 12 in the original story. Since this is an adaptation some 20 years in the making, we can point to the success of series‘ like, once again, Hunger Games and Divergent. How many films set in a dangerous future starring a group of either late-teens or young adults have graced theaters and met with varying degrees of success in the past few years? Aren’t the lead actors in said films usually cast a little older than the source material to appeal to a larger demographic?

Those stories also have quite a bit of action and makes them exciting to some, quite a contrast from this story. Whether you like those films or not, it’s because we’ve seen those stories and themes told so much that seeing it done here makes it feel a little bland. The Giver released long before either of those books that looked at the dangers of a utopia, which is quite a frightening realization. The message of embracing individuality and your own character has been told to us time and time again, to varying degrees of entertainment. While I do think it’s still a quality message for the younger generations, perhaps The Giver can wait until later years to be told to them. I don’t think the film is as necessary, but it is there for those who can’t get enough of the teens battling against some sort of authority I guess I’m just not one of those people.

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