On The Road - Official Trailer 2012

[fishwax]

1. it's weird how they changed the opening line of the book

I'm not one who gets terribly hung up on details being changed in adaptations--movies and books are different formats, and being strictly faithful to the source material isn't necessarily going to be the ideal choice for the new work. If details are changed to good effect, or in such a way that they bring enough advantage to account for what might be lost, that's fine.

Still, it seems odd to change the opening line as they do. I can't see the purpose of it. Maybe it will become clear in the film (or maybe that particular narration is strictly for the trailer and won't be used in the film), but I can't see it yet. The opening line is "I first met Dean not long after my wife and I split up." I'm not sure why they're changing that to "my father died."

They also hacked up one of the more famous quotes from the book, about "the mad ones."

Still, I'll give it a chance when it actually comes out ...