The Kite Runner novel versus the movie adaptation: Which one was better?

Blazing Reader,

It took us a month or two, but my wife, son and I finally finished reading The Kite Runner — one line at a time in English and Dutch.

Afterwards, we decided to watch the movie adaptation.

Sadly, the movie served as a painful reminder that it's really hard to adapt a great novel into a great film.

The script ended up being so abridged (butchered) that I wonder how anyone could enjoy the story unless they had already read the book. Many of the best sections of the novel were completely amputated. For example, in the book, Amir spends weeks recovering in a hospital after being beaten up. In the movie, he doesn't even bother with stitches.

Similarily, the conversation Amir has with his fiancée about her promiscuous past is a few awkward sentences in the movie, while it takes pages in the book to unravel.

The acting, too, was rather placid. I'm not sure if this was the fault of the actors, or the choppy dialogue they were forced to read.

One exception, however, is the speech the head of the orphanage gives, when he tries to justify why he allows the Taliban to abduct one orphan a month so that he can save a hundred. The movie is worth watching just for that one scene.

Or, I can save you time and you can watch the clip right here:

Cinematically, however, the movie was brilliant. I would have loved to have seen this on the big screen. Whether it was a kite fight above Kabul or a gas station in 1970s San Francisco, the visual recreations and camera angles were a work of art.

I'd give the movie three stars, while the book deserves five. Oddly, too, many of the most hardhitting and most violent moments in the book were toned down or eliminated for the movie. All in all, a disappointing adaptation that lacked the complexity and depth of the book (which, you can buy through my Blazing Pine Cone Shop).

John C.A. Manley

PS The Kite Runner, one of the world's bestselling novels, is also one of the most banned books in America. Find out why.

PPS For more about movie adaptations check out: Is the book always better than the movie?

John C. A. Manley is the author of Much Ado About Corona, All The Humans Are Sleeping and other works of philosophical fiction that are "so completely engaging that you find yourself alternately laughing, gasping, hanging on for dear life." Get free samples of his stories by becoming a Blazing Pine Cone email subscriber.