I think that I would have to say that I was much more impressed with the film "Smoke Signals" than I was the story. I felt that the story was very good, but it left out a lot of detail that the movie was able to pick up on. The movie was able to incorporate some great details that the story left out that made the story ten times better. One of the biggest details that was left out of the story was the introduction of Susie and how she helped Victor realize that his father did love him and had wanted to return to him. The story completely left out the reason why his father was in Pheonix. It also left out most of the details of the journey that Thomas and Victor had getting to Pheonix and back. This is a big part of the movie.
Another thing that it left out was how close Thomas and Victor had become after the journey. It left out the part of Victor giving Thomas some of his father's ashes and how Victor had driven to the bridge in Washington to dump his father's ashes into the river. I also found it very hard to follow the story because of the constant flashbacks in time. It was easy to follow them in the movie because you could actually see them happening. When reading the flashbacks at first it confused me and then everytime I would have to tell myself Ok this is another flashback.
I have to completely agree with you. I usually like the book better, but not in this case. I really felt that the movie had more detail and had a more devloped plot to it. When I read the story I found myself asking why is Victor's dad in Pheonix? I felt like the story left out a lot of important details. After reading the story I realized that the reason Suzie wasn't there was because there wasn't a fire and Victor didn't need to realize that his dad loved him. So in the story Suzie didn't have a role to play.
ReplyDeleteHi Michelle,
ReplyDeleteI do agree with you that the story left out many details, and it was jumping around in the flashbacks. It made it confusing to follow, and I had to read it a couple of times. After that, I realized that maybe the author was trying to write a different version of the movie. One in which Thomas is treated respectfully by Victor, treated like an equal. It's almost as if it's Thomas' desired version.
Thanks, Carrie