Little Women Book vs. Movie

I am examining the wonderful and classic novel Little Women and the most recent film version of the story, released in 1994. After reading the book and rewatching one of my favorite movies, there are several minor storylines from the novel that were cut from the movie, which is both disappointing and understandable. Many of the scenes that were left out from the novel helped to establish character depth and develop each individual further than the film version was capable of doing in its allotted time frame. For example, in the movie there is really no mention of Beth's shyness (it is simply suggested through her actions), or of her overcoming that shyness to become friends with Mr. Lawrence. The wonderful scene in the novel where she fights with herself before gathering her courage to walk over to Mr. Lawrence's house and thank him for giving her his piano is one of the most defining moments for Beth, but in the movie the thank-you is very understated. This being said, I found both Beth and Mr. Lawrence to be slightly underdeveloped in the movie. Mr. Lawrence appears in only three scenes, while many of Beth's key moments also vanished. Jo's wonderful tomboyish nature is also severely tone-down for this version; however, the movie still does a good job of emphasizing her boyish ways. She does not say "Christopher Columbus" nor any of her other slang words. We never see the scene where she longs to go be a soldier fighting in the war and wishes she were a man. Moving on to the oldest sister, Meg, the movie transformed the her character from someone who longs for finer things and tends to be snobbish into the wise, motherly, older sister who does not care about such things. Lacking is the wonderful moment when she realizes that she does not care about Mr. Brook's poverty as she defends her love of him against Aunt March. With Amy, her humorous quest for a perfect nose is mentioned twice in the movie, but there is never a scene showing some of her efforts such as her wearing the clothespin on it at night to make is straight, nor do we get enjoy watching her artistic endeavors such as her attempts to make a plaster cast of her foot. Furthermore, movie viewers only see a few of the many lessons portrayed in the book that transform the four sisters from young girls into little women, the book's namesake.
While there are many obvious differences between the Little Women novel and most recent movie version, I still found the film to be enjoyable even with its many cuts. The movie did an excellent job of portraying the characters as they were in the novel. There was excellent dialogue and an interesting storyline; the characters simply weren't as developed as they were in the novel itself. However, with both time and budget constraints, I think it would be difficult to take on a novel of this magnitude without having to cut out some of its more minor details. Overall, I give the movie an "A."