Review of The Old Man and the Sea (1990) by Yassine B — 13 Mar 2016

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD.

I find both the book and film version of The Old Man and the Sea very enjoyable. I personally find the book is far more in-depth and has a slightly less cliche plot than the movie. While remaining faithful to the key elements of the original story, the story is slightly modified in order to be more seemingly fit for a film. I hope to analyze some of these changes and similarities in this comparative essay.

The book has a lot of more easily identifiable symbolism (see my blog prompt on symbolism). Virtually everything in the book symbolizes something else, something meaningful. I felt like the book's symbolism is far more emphasised, so much so that one may feel more of the symbol than the literal object.

The most noticeable difference between the book and film is the addition of two new characters, an American writer and his American wife. These two newly-wed characters have little to no impact on the main storyline, I feel like they are implemented in the story solely to make it less boring to the more modern audiences. They have almost no direct contact with Santiago in the entire duration of the movie. These characters don't even exist in the book. I feel like these two new characters are quite useless to the plot. The time and effort spent on constructing the side-story of the couple is a waste, I think the director should have directed said time and effort into directly making the original story more interesting.

A minor similarity I find is the point of view the stories are told in. They are both in 3rd person omniscient. The movie also shows the side of the American couple. The main 'thoughts' that I see emanating from the movie is just from Santiago talking to himself.

Despite the many differences, I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. The book is better in my opinion because it is far more detailed and allows the reader to interpret the imagery in their own way. Some may argue that the lack of special effects is to blame for the faults of the movie, but I beg to differ. I don't think fancy special effects are required for a story about an old man fishing in the sea.