Blindness - the movie

Oh wow. I am both excited and somewhat hesitant and scared of what this might be like.

Jose Saramago's book, Blindness, is one of the best books, both powerful and chilling, that I have read in a long time. The intentionally ironic eye-opening nature of this novel and it's social commentary on human nature is so raw and well done, in Saramago's own unique style, that I am afraid that even acclaimed director Fernando Meirelles will be unable to capture the true essence of the book.

Sure, we all "know" that in general the book is better than the movie version. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to lead us to read more and watch less. But I feel that when certain film adaptations come along, particularly when it is a book we have always loved, they bring with them an increased level of trepidation and doubt. I would love to see this movie, because, as I cannot say enough, I absolutely loved this book. But will the movie live up to the awesome power and composition of the book? Almost assuredly not. So... why should I wipe away the images and emotions and raw feelings generated by my imagination while reading this book, that would be otherwise forever associated with that world, and replace them with what could turn out to be a well-attempted, but vapidly poor collection of images and feigned emotion? Can film ever come close to paying homage to the original literary work?

This is why I have reigned back in my initial burst of excitement at seeing this trailer. I am worried it will be a disappointment. It won't be as good as the book. And the frightening, intricate mural that Saramago painted in my long term memory will be wiped away and painted over with a county-fair-air-brushed summary. A poor excuse for a representation of the original work. Of course there have been other films that have awoken similar fears, such as Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia, even Into the Wild. Of those, I guess LOTR was the only adaptation that I thought was done well enough to justify its production.

The underlying question to me about our culture in general is, if we know that the film isn't going to be as good as the original piece of literature, why do we continue to go see the movies instead of reading the books? Is it because we are too busy and don't want to sit still for hours or days to read a book when we could just sit in a dark theater with hundreds of strangers and see the "whole" story (or at least the good parts) in a matter of hours? It is because we want to be visually stimulated, as in being force-fed the reality of the story, instead of mentally stimulated such that our imagination is the one painting the vivid pictures for us? Do we just want to see our favorite actors and actresses (each bringing with them a veritable train of subconscious character associations from previous films we have watched) slide into a new costume and claim the face of a character we previously pictured as looking very different? Or are we on some level convinced that our own perception and the images we generate while reading could not possibly be as good as those manufactured and created by a film producer with the help of special effects? After all, he is a professional... right?

I don't know. I guess I need to leave it at that, but as you can tell, I am really worried about this movie. A feeling that has suppressed my excitement about seeing this amazing story on the big screen. I have felt the same way about other film adaptations in the past and I just hope this one can live up to the greatness of the novel.