The Giver by Lois Lowry
Title: The Giver
Director: Phillip Noyce
Author: Lois Lowry
Release Date: August 15th, 2014
In a seemingly perfect community, without war, pain, suffering, differences or choice, a young boy is chosen to learn from an elderly man about the true pain and pleasure of the "real" world.
From the Book:
Jonas' world is perfect. Everything is under control. There is no war or fear or pain. There are no choices. Every person is assigned a role in the Community. When Jonas turns twelve, he is singled out to receive special training from The Giver. The Giver alone holds the memories of the true pain and pleasure of life. Now, it is time for Jonas to receive the truth. There is no turning back.
Thoughts:
The Giver, a book I hated in high school, mainly because it was forced on you. For me to pass english it was mandatory that I read The Giver, and recite some poetry. I absolutely hate books that I am forced to read, mainly because it's just not my style at the time and innately I just wasn't going to enjoy the book with it being crammed down my throat. Any school that forces their children to read a book, should be forced to read a book as well, the entire staff, and not something easy or enjoyable; lets do something like Pretty Little Liars, Twilight, or how about The Morganville Vampires.I am leery on this movie because of what I do understand about the book. The Giver is chuck full of metaphors, similes, and satire. How can do you do that and express it visually? I am curious on just the major portion of the book and the interpretation aspect will make it through the cuts and retakes. To be honest, I don't look for this movie to do all that well. I want it to for the YA community and to see more books get optioned for movie rights. I just have my reserves about this one.
Okay so lets take a step back and I'm going to look at this again. It's been years since I have tried to stumble through this book, and I frankly don't remember anything about it at all anymore. So both the synopsis from the book and the movie are nearly identical, well that's a good start. Maybe they'll stick to the book. Yet, I find in a world without any pain, pleasure, war, well frankly everyone got Botox and can't feel any emotion. Great. However there is a person, The Giver, that seems to burden everything and gets a "real" life, and Jonas is chosen to receive special training. Hold on, so one person gets reality when the rest face some parallel substance? So what makes this unique again? And where is the antagonist or any sort of problem? It just seems like the movie and book should be renamed, The Life of Jonas.
So, having looked at the trailer again, I have to question something else that strikes me as very unoriginal. From what I have gathered, the community or society views that if people have the right to choose for themselves, it will always be the wrong choice. So they have taken that choice away with some injection. I have read the similar dystopian plot over and over, that frankly it's not fun or interesting anymore. Maybe this is the first book to start that movement, I don't know, but still. I understand if they don't want to change it, and are sticking with the book. It's just simple, boring, and predictable.
