The Book VS The Movie
Laskar Pelangi: The Book VS The Movie (Part1)
Laskar Pelangi becomes one of the best-selling novels in Indonesia after published by Bentang Pustaka in 2005. The amazing story of ten different children from Belitong Island in the early 70’s is successfully grabs the Indonesian citizens to read the book by themselves. Achieves so much popularity and everyone’s excitements makes the Laskar Pelangi’s author, Andrea Hirata, considers making his awesome real-life story into the big screen. And finally, in September 2008, the movie Laskar Pelangi was officially released, directed by Riri Riza, the well-known Indonesian director. This movie also starred by popular Indonesian stars such as Tora Sudiro, Cut Mini and Slamet Rahardjo.
And as everyone thought before, Laskar Pelangi movie becomes a box office movie in Indonesia. Since the premiere on September 25, 2008, the movie had reached 1,3 million audiences. And not only the general citizens, public figures and government figures were also wanted to see this movie. But, the success of a movie is not only because of the audiences, but also because of the quality of the movie itself.
Technically, the movie is about the visualization of the novel itself, but the movie can’t make the visualization as good as everyone’s expectations. Why?
First, the narration of the novel gives a special taste to the novel itself. The strong narration gives the readers a random imagination that makes the readers' feel like they’re also take part of the story. But, when the readers watch the movie, they can only feel that their imaginations are very far from that.
Second, the novel Laskar Pelangi is about the story of Ikal and his friends, about his school life, his childhood and his vision of life. But the center part when we see the movie is only the education part. Even though it isn’t really bad, but as the reader, we have to know that the novel is beyond what’s in the movie.
Laskar Pelangi: The Book VS The Movie (Part2)
Third, there are some parts which are added to the movie, like ‘the PN teacher’ which is played by Tora Sudiro. The director said that these roles were added to shorten up the duration. But the fact is, these roles don’t build the story into a good story. Indeed, these roles are not yet important, so these roles actually can be deleted.
Fourth, there are some important parts of the story, such as the carnival part and the science competition which aren’t showed up very good. Actually, these parts are the most emotional parts of the whole story and must be the best part of all. But, in the movie, these parts are only used as additions.
Fifth, the stars who played Ikal and his friends in the movie are ordinary kids who don’t have any acting backgrounds. We don’t know what is the reason picking these kids to play these very important roles, but in the end, the characters of the children aren’t showed up very good. Their characters are drowned by the domination of the well-known Indonesian stars.
Every single thing has it's own bad and good sides. And the text above is just our point of view. So, it's your turn to make your own judgement.