An Interpretation, Not An Adaptation

The movie did not meet the details that the book provided, and at times having read the book made the movie confusing. While watching the movie it seemed as though the person who wrote the script skimmed the book and assumed what belonged where. Although some parts of the film matched the book much of it seemed very disjointed and out of order, even by the standards of Billy’s life.

When Billy is in the ditch in Germany with Ronald Weary and the other two members of  “The Three Musketeers” there are a lot of changes from how the book told it. For starters, one of the two scouts goes off to check a windmill or something that I do not believe was in the book at all. In fact in the book, the two scouts leave together, ditching Weary and Billy, to go and shoot Germans, but end up being killed instead. In the film one of the scenes was very confusing, Ronald Weary, or at least I believe it was him the scene went by so quickly, said that one day there’d be a knock on someone’s door, and the guy would say, “Paul Lazzaro”, and let him think about that for a second before killing him. This makes the scene confusing for multiple reasons. First off, in the book neither Billy nor Ronald Weary met Paul Lazzaro until after they were captured by the Germans. Second, Ronald Weary died in Paul Lazarro’s arms on the train, where he convinced the member of the car that Billy was responsible for his death, if  Paul Lazzaro were in the trench, he know that it wasn’t Billy’s fault. Finally, Ronald Weary refers to himself as Paul Lazzaro leading to confusion as to whom he is really supposed to be.

At the conclusion of the trench scene in the book, Weary is about to kick a laughing Billy in the spine when the Germans capture them. In the film, Weary is holding his special dagger up to Billy’s neck. Additionally, when the two are captured in the book, Weary is given clogs and forced to give up his boots, while in the film he seems to recieve nothing in return for his boots and ends up walking with what seems to be ripped clothing wrapped around his legs.

On the whole, The film is alright on its own, but it pales in comparison to the book. With a multitude of changes throughout, the film is more an interpretation on how the script writer believes the book should have been written than an actual attempt to adapt the book into a film.