The Book vs The Movie: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Book Written by Stieg Larsson
Adapted to Film by Steven Zaillian
Directed by David Fincher

I first read and fell in love with this book about a year ago, and like many other people, I was excited about the movie.

I watched the first half of the Swedish version, which was good but very graphic. I walked into the movie theater hoping Fincher had tamed this version down due to American prudishness and what have you.

I was wrong. There were a couple of very gritty, very real scenes. These aren’t a surprise to those who have read the book, but seeing it on screen as opposed to seeing it in my mind made it very real.

As usual, there were some differences between the book and the movie. The screenwriter explained some of these changes in an interview. I actually liked the changes, and I’m curious to see how they impact the subsequent movies.  

It’s hard to compare the two because a comparison means one is inevitably better than the other. That’s not the case for me with these two. They’re both great stories. The story in the movie was more streamlined, and, well, the movie had Daniel Craig.



Daniel Craig: What more is there?

I love reading, so I believe reading the book was completely worth it. However, the story drags at the beginning of the book, and the writing isn’t very good. It seems like it would be hard to argue with someone about why the book is so worth it when there’s a good movie to watch.

So, I would say these both stack up well against each other. I loved the book, and I loved the movie. And they’re both worth it.