Book versus film: Blindness and Blindly

I have recently read a novel titled “Seeing” written by Jose Saramago, Nobel Prize winner in Literature in 1998.

This book reminded me of a film I had seen regarding the first novel written about the same subject.

As far as the novel is concerned, it was written in 1995 and Saramago titled it “Blindness”, although, the title in Spanish was “Essay about blindness”. This caused a strong controversy among intellectuals about whether the writing was an essay or a novel. In any case, I had just finished the sequel.

As I was saying, I had the opportunity to watch “Blindly”, the movie I have mentioned.

After all, the novel is thought provoking, it raises many interesting questions about human behaviour in critical situations. Although It’s difficult to predict what the end could be, everybody knows it won’t be happy.

Clearly, It’s  a well-written book but so depressing, It can made you lose the trust in the human being.

Basically, the writer destroys all kind of values and good feelings, and he shows us his characters as savages. They will be able to kill one another in order to get some advantage.

When Saramago forces them to go to hell down, one light of hope arises and little by little a new way in their relation starts opening.

Obviously, expecting the film accuracy with the textbook would be ridiculous, in this case, how long should the film be?

The director needs to sum up the plot  and he left out a lot of reflections .

However, the dark and oppressive atmosphere was grasped, as well as of the characters’ feelings are reflected through shocking scenes.

In conclusion, I recommend both the book and the movie, as they are complementary. You should read the book and try to imaging the place when the plot is developed. Then you should watch the film and you probably won’t be disappointed about the choice of the set and you will enjoy when you remember the book through the dramatic scenes enhanced by visual effects.

By Paco