Characters are the backbone of any good story. There would be no Lord of the Rings without Frodo Baggins, or there would be no Hunger Games without Katniss Everdeen, there are so many examples I could use, and Marcus Zusak’s The Book Thief is a prime example of capturing the importance of characters and relationships. It’s always risky turning a great novel into a successful film and Percival’s take on The Book Thief is a brilliant example of failure.

When reading Markus Zusak’s novel, The Book Thief, readers were taken to another world through his extraordinary ability to build characters and relationships that readers empathise with. However, in comparison, the film directed by Brian Percival did not compare, as it lacked the inclusion of important relationships by failing to establish and include key characters and moments. Is the film even worth it?

In the novel, Liesel and Hans developed a profound father-daughter relationship which was pivotal to the story of how Liesel developed a love for reading. However, leaving out key scenes meant that this was not achieved in the film. In the novel, Liesel never knew how to read and continues to have nightmares about her dead brother and wetting the bed. After changing her sheets, Hans, which is her foster father, found a book that she had taken called the gravedigger's handbook.

Including this personal moment in the novel illustrated to the readers the beginning of their connection and relationship. By Zusak using the oxymoron “a stranger to kill the aloneness and brute strength of the man’s gentleness” (Page 37) this displays to the reader that although this is early in the novel and Hans is still a stranger to Liesel, his character is represented as warm and comforting. While Liesel still has nightmares in the film, the lack of including important dialogue such as “Shh, I’m here, it’s all right” (Page 37) jeopardises the depth of their relationship.

 In comparison to the novel, where this relationship grew over time “After three weeks, he held her” (Page 37), Percival used editing to cut this scene short, only making a three-week relationship, into a rushed 15 seconds. The profound father-daughter relationship which was pivotal to the story was hardly accomplished through Percival’s rushed attempt at this scene.

Zusak captured the hearts and emotions of readers through his incredible development of key relationships and characters like Max and Liesel. Although the film attempted to construct a similar representation to the novel, it didn’t create the same effect as the novel did. For example, in the novel when Max had to leave the Huberman’s house Zusak used imagery such as “Liesel could still feel his mouth on her forehead. She could smell his breath of goodbye” (Page 267) evoke a deep emotional response from readers.

The use of imagery in this scene demonstrates that their relationship was deep and meaningful, therefore setting a serious and sombre tone leaving the reader heartbroken.

Although Percival included this scene in the film the character Max wasn’t represented as a key character. Thus, the relationship between Max and Liesel was not as significant to the viewers. Although Percival has used Dramatic devices such as dialogue like “it's for your good, it's for your family” and Liesel responding with “but your my family”. and additionally, adding film devices such as dark lighting and eerie background music symbolize that this is a significant scene in the film, creating a sad tone to make you feel bad for Max and Liesel.

But because the depth of their relationship wasn’t created as something important, the eerie background music and the dark lighting were never going to be enough to capture the hearts and emotions of the audience. Percival underestimated the importance of a character like Max and tried to make a relationship that took half of a novel to create into a short scene.

   
When reading Markus Zusak’s novel, The Book Thief, readers were taken to another world through his extraordinary ability to build characters and relationships that readers empathise with. However, in comparison, the film directed by Brian Percival did not compare, as it lacked the inclusion of important relationships by failing to establish and include key characters and moments. Because Brian Percival made the greatest example of a failure, by trying to convert the same emotions that Marcus Zusak’s The Book Thief has, does this failure destroy the legacy of The Book Thief?