The Book Thief Book Vs Movie

The Book thief tells the story of a young German girl named Liesel. Liesel sees her brother die in front of her and end up getting adopted by Hans and Rosa Hubermann. While struggling to deal with the lost of her brother, the reality of Nazi Germany and trying to hide a jewish man in her basement, she finds comfort in stealing books and sharing them with others. The Book Thief book by Markus Zusak is better than the Book Thief movie directed by Brian Percival. The narrative character poorly uses the narrator Death. The details the removed took away from the effectiveness of the plot. The set designed was unrealistic and poorly designed.

Brian Percival's and his team's biggest and most obvious hurdle was finding an effective way of using

the narrator death. The ultimately failed that goal. Roger Allam’s creepy voice portrays Death. Since Death seems like a creepy stalker who randomly decides to have a particular interest with this one girl Liesel. Whereas in reality he was meant to be a paranormal force whose job is to end people's life. But at the same time he feels remorse for what he has to do and for what the he sees. As well, the movie uses death at the beginning then he doesn’t talk till the end of the movie. This then makes Death seems useless and unnecessary. It also leaves the viewer wondering why Death suddenly takes an interest in this one girl. The book describes answer to that question is that he doesn’t know but at least they acknowledge the question. The book is told from the point of view of Death, whereas the movie makes it seem like it’s from Liesel’s perspective. This then causes the movie to loss some of the uniqueness that makes the book stand out more then other books because books that include the paranormal force of Death makes him be his stereotypical description. The movie could've been much better if they took out Death or if they found a way to portray throughout the movie like the book does.

Much like most books that get turned into movies, the director needs to decide which parts are necessary and which parts aren’t.

When there’s change there is always a risk,The Book Thief is no different. On top of leaving out too much details, Percival also changed the plot. All though the book and the movie both acknowledge that Liesel and Max didn’t instantly become best friends, the movie leaves and important element that brings the two closer together. The element is dreaming. In the book, Max and Liesel bonds over the dreams they dream. Liesel tells Max about her nightmare of watching her brother die all over again and Max's tells Liesel about his nightmare about leaving his family behind and his dream about fighting Hitler. Theses nightmares and dreams help break the ice between the two and help Liesel realize that the jewish men that society tells her to hate isn’t that different from her. The movie focuses more on the fact that they both have lost their mothers because of Hitler. If the movie would of included Max and Liesel’s bond over their nightmares and dreams, the relationship between the two would of been even closer. Thus making it more powerfully when he decides to leave and for when he sees her after the bombs. Another detail that the movie decided to remove was Liesel and Rudy stealing fruit. Before Liesel steals her first book from the mayor's house, she and her best friend Rudy find a group of older boys were they often steal fruit from the farms. This was Liesel first experience with stealing and also give the reader an understanding of how poor Rudy and Liesel was alongside most of Munich. In addition to leaving theses two elements Brian Percival also changed the plot line of The Book Thief. He made Rudy find out about Max and changed the story of the book in the river. This was one of Brian Percival biggest risk when it coming to changing the plot line. This risk didn’t pay off. Making Rudy find out about Max changed the plotline and

changed the scene about the book falling in the river and Rudy fighting Franz Deutscher. This changed it for the worse, as this short scene looked sloppy and unnaturally to the actors. In the end it took away from the mystery about someone finding out about Max. As well, the movie changed the mayor's wife's character Ilsa. The movie changing the mayor's wife character that it leaves the audience the option to question why she never tells anyone about Liesel’s mischief. The book makes Ilsa out to be a frail , weak, depressed old woman who can’t get over the disappearance of her son. where as the movie she appears to be the complete opposite. Even though they both acknowledge the fact that she can’t get over the death of her son. The book makes it seem like Ilsa is protecting Liesel because she reminds her a lot of her son and turning her into the Nazi would be like giving her son to the Nazi. Whereas in the movie you get the sense that she doesn’t need Liesel.

Mark Rosinski was the main person involved in the making of the set design. He made an unrealistic scene. The movie makes the reality of Nazi Germany seem like it wasn't as bad as it actually was. While reading the book, the reader is reminded countless times as how bad and poor “heaven street” and most of Nazi Germany was. While watching the movie, the viewer gets more of a sense that Liesel and the rest of “heaven street” is middle class instead of lower class like the were meant to be portrayed as. Even the supposedly rich part of Munich looks to modernized considering the time period The Book Thief is set in.

The actually acting of the five main characters, were all extremely well done. Liesel (played by a young Sophie Nélisse) is a brave, fearless young girl who didn't understand the reasoning behind Nazi Germany. In a time where it seems like everything is going down hill she finds comfort in stealing books and sharing them with others. The movie makes Hans Hubermann(played by Geoffrey Rush) Out to be a kind hearted, caring and sincere person, who always does the right thing even if it means that he'll be hurt. The movie makes Rosa Hubermann played by Emily Watson out to be the complete opposite of Hans, a fiery at times abusive women. How ever she has a heart of golden and soft spot for those she truly cares about. Max (played by Ben Schnetzer) is a jewish man whose life can arguably be a carbon copy of Liesel's. He's kind hearted, sincere and caring who feels bad for putting the Hubermanns at risk. Then there's Rudy Steiner (played by Nico Liersch),who in the movie was made out to be mischievous, athletic and at times stupid boy who tries his best to protect his best friend Liesel. All five characters personality and appearance were extremely close or exactly like they where in the book. How ever there's only so much that great acting can hide. As the removal of key elements from the plot and changing other elements. That combined with the poor use of the narrator Death and a terribly designed set made the book far better than the movie. So if you're thinking of watching the two hour long Book Thief movie, here's a better idea pick up the book and enjoy an amazing novel instead.