Books versus Film: A Case Study of "Atonement"

At the Oscars, in the category of best picture, there are two distinctions: Best picture from material previously published or produced, and best original screenplay.

But where do they get the material for that?

Aliens?
Divine inspiration?
Woody Allen?

Short stories, yes. Paintings. Songs. All of those. But - the most obvious (and the most ambitious) is certainly the novel. The superlative Sistine Chapel of writing endeavors. Ian McEwan's epic novel, Atonement, is grandiose in a much subtler way than the film. Though each are confined on a simple medium (paper and plastic, respectively), they are both epics, without refute. McEwan takes luxury and delight in the most intricate of descriptions. In the scene by the fountain and the breaking of the vase, we find out why it is the most expensive possession of the Tallis family - that Mr. Tallis' brother fought in World War One, found it from a destroyed museum, and died a few weeks before armistice. Rich details like these are simply not practical for the medium of film.

At variance, director Joe Wright's already legendary five-minute tracking shot from Dunkirk is an impossibility to paint in prose. That is, the effect would be lost. From the chaos of shooting wounded horses, to drunken soldiers riding a carousel in celebration, to the scale of 3,000 men on a beach in France - gives the viewer the most accurate portrayal that one can hope to achieve (barring virtual reality and actually being there, of course). We see what the jaded, war-weary Robbie Turner does, experience what he does, feels his struggle through pictures, not words.

So which medium is better? Can it be phrased in such simplistic terms? Or does each have its own particular merits?

Yes.

Quote of the Day: "The cost of obvious daydreaming was always the moment of return, the realignment with what had been before and now seemed a little worse. Her reverie, once rich in plausible details, had become a passing silliness before the hard mass of the actual. It was difficult to come back."
Atonement, Chapter Seven