What Is The Difference Between The Help Movie And Book

In Jackson, Mississippi, 1962, life is not “all that” for the colored woman and men living there. In the New York Times bestselling novel and movie, The Help, many stories is told about what it is like to be a working colored maid for a white family. Skeeter Phelan, a white daughter of a rich white family, seems to be the only one who thinks the point of view of the maids should be shared. Skeeter decides to interview these maids and turn their tragic, funny, worth sharing stories to the public.The hard times these maids go through is very realistic and dramatically shown in both the movie and the book. Although, they both share many genius differences. The biggest difference that stood out to me is the Character changes shown from the book
to the movie. Many characters personalities, characteristics and traits are changed. But for the not so obvious reasons I have discovered. These changes that were made had a huge impact on the viewers and how they viewed the movie. Many small plot moments and dialogue was changed throughout the movie. In the book, one of the white mothers named Mrs. Leefolt, is described as being a tall skinny brunette, but in the movie she is a sandy blonde, regular sized woman. This change was made to make Mrs. Leefolt look stupider. Her character is very self conscious and she is the only one of her friends that does not have a lot of money, the blonde hair change may seem small but it has a big impact on the viewer, it's giving her the stereotypical “dumb blonde” look. Another character change is during one of Mrs. Hilly (another white woman) heated conversation to her friends about the blacks having separate bathrooms so that their children don't catch the colored woman's “diseases.” The book does a good job of giving the reader an idea of how heated it really was by having her say “But the guest bathroom is where the help gpes” while she is refusing to use any restroom at all. But in the movie, the director has her sitting pin straight with her legs crossed and her chin pointed upwards and a slight smile on her face while she says this. By adding this to the movie, the viewers are able to see that Hilly really is the stuck up rich one in the group, small body movements and placements are key to describing someone's feelings.
Further into the book, another maid, Minny is applying for a job for a woman named Celia, when Celia first hires Minny, she tells her that her husband must not know she is bringing in a maid. One day, Mister Johnny comes home while Minny is working in the house, and Celia acts like she is scared for both Minny and herselfs life. In the movie, Mister Johnny comes home while Minny is working in the yard and kindly re-assures her that he is okay and happy to have her working for him. The character change here is how the viewers think of him before he is actually brought into the story, in the book he is said to be more of a mean man who Celia seems to be scared of. In the movie, Celia talks much less of him and it's more of a mystery to the audience what kind of person Mister Johnny really is. This was added to the movie because it gives the viewer something to think about. In the book Skeeter's father has a much larger part in the story, he is mentioned qutie often, especially when Skeeter found out about
Constantine. In the movie, her father says a total of 4 sentences and is shown maybe once or twice. The director did this because a majority of the movie is based on women and the strengths and weaknesses of them, so he purposely gave Skeeter's dad a small part because men are simply not important in the story. Another instance is shown is a small change is Skeeters character from the book to the movie. Skeeter gave Aibileen money when asking her to let her interview for the book as a bribery. In the movie, she is not at all the type of woman to bribe, she will not take no for an answer but bribery is not her key. Skeeter is very good at talking her way into what she wants, and that is exacly what she did in the movie, not a bribery. This was used to show how, once again, the women in this movie are strong. Celia Foote, a kindhearted, blonde, skinny waisted, white rich woman, living 20 minutes outside of town in a mansion the size of a mall. She's just about the only woman who jumps with joy hiring her first maid, Minny Jackson. Her character is shown very peppy and happy. She wears mostly pink colors and has a skinny waist and a large bust. Sounds like the perfect woman right? Celia is also 3 months pregnant, but during one point in the movie she loses the baby, it's one of the saddest most dramatic scenes in the movie. Her character is shown sitting on the bathroom floor, makeup running down her face, her beautiful blonde curls sticking all different ways. She is crying and asking Minny “Why is there so much blood?” while she is sitting in a pool of blood next to the toilet. The director showed Celia in a much different way during this scene. The fact that she is pretty, white, and rich, does not matter at this point. And that's what the director wanted the viewers to know. It is shown this way because the director wanted all of the weaknesses of each character to be shown.

This scene is shown in Celia's room, and her bathroom. Minny is shown by a flat camera angle walking towards the bathroom door to knock on the door and ask if Celia needs anything. The room is dark, most of the lights are off and the only light is the sun coming through the window. The camera follows minny around the room as she walks and when she slams open the bathroom door after hearing a loud crash. The camera is now showing minny from Celia's view, and is shown shocked and confused. The lighting is dark in the bathroom and Celia is then shown from the side, her face is now shown much and this part only lasts about 15-20 seconds. The flat camera angles are used to make the viewer feel up close and personal with this scene because it is a very sad plot moment in the movie. The dark lighting sets the sad, depressing mood easing up to Celia's miscarriage. Her face is not shown because she is embarrassed and she is shown in the rest of the movie being a quite confident woman, making this moment ten times more dramatic. This shows the audience the dramatic change in her character and how she is upset and very tired on the inside. Later during this scene, Minny is shown putting Celia into bed and covering her up with blankets and comforting her. This is making Celia look slightly weaker than how we normally see her and that's what the director was trying to help the audience see and understand.
This is and will always be one of my favorite movies, and i'm glad I picked this one, because it is truly a good story with lots of twists and turns.
I learned that there is a lot more to filming and putting together a movie than just getting some actors/actresses together and telling them what to do and say. There are a lot of small things the director can do to a specific scene or line that can change the viewers whole perspective. The dramatic lense is something that I think is underlooked by viewers. I Know it was underlooked by myself at least. I Have never really thought about how the characters really become themselves by their clothes, hair, makeup and other props. The cinematic lense seems a little more complicated and a lot more important. The cinematographer is in charge of the angles, lighting, sounds and other important things to make the set and the characters fit the storyline. Lighting is insanely important to shape the mood of a scene, and it's used a lot more than most viewers will notice. It most definitely has affected the way I look at movies now. I am constantly going to be paying attention to the camera angles and the lighting and the ways the set is put up. I look forward to looking at the costuming and makeup on a character that I have never payed much attention to. This project has changed my view completely on how and why directors put together a film. Its truly amazing to see something put together so perfectly and have a specific reason and
meaning for everything that is changed and done.