Fahrenheit 451 Essay

Fahrenheit 451 “Comparison” Essay Ray Bradbury’s novel, Fahrenheit 451, differentiates from the cinematic form of the novel directed by François Truffaut in numerous ways. Bradbury states, “The movie was a mixed blessing. It didn’t follow the novel as completely as it should have. “It’s a good movie: it has a wonderful ending; it has a great score by Bernard Hermann. Oskar Werner is wonderful in the lead. But Truffaut made the mistake of putting Julie Christie in two roles in the same film, which was very confusing, and he eliminated some of the other characters: Clarisse McClellan and Faber the Philosopher and the Mechanical Hound. I mean, you can’t do without those!” Other than the characters in the story, including the score and alternate ending of the film, the movie was superlative. The characters in the story have precise roles and by leaving them out/altering them from the movie hinders the characterization and the originality of Bradbury’s novel. The major alterations in Truffaut’s film deals with the characters and their significance to the novel and movie. A change in his film was getting rid of the Mechanical Hound. In the 1950’s, Bradbury wrote the book in a futuristic perspective. Therefore, the Mechanical Hound could have been a little too high-tech for Truffaut’s 1960’s film and the reasoning for it being left out. However, Montag may have felt it necessary to have Mechanical Hound in the movie because it contributes to the futuristic look being portrayed in the novel. Another character that was totally left out of the film was Faber the philosopher. In the novel, Faber was basically a physical conscious of Montag’s. Some may see how Faber could have been left out of the film due to the little impact that he would have created in the movie. Although, Bradbury would consider him essential for the cinematic version of Fahrenheit 451 because certain events in the novel, such as reciting the poems to Mildred’s/Linda’s friends, would’ve