A good title can be the first introduction one has to a new film. A good title can excite, intrigue, draw curiosity, or confuse, annoy, and disinterest. You scan the weekly releases, looking for something to go see, and a film jumps out at you based on the name alone, so you look into it. It seems as well that book adaptations are increasing in popularity these days, due in part to a built-in audience, and the plentitude of wonderful books awaiting adaptations.

The reasons to retain the original title of a book when releasing it as a film seem plentiful indeed. Most books, if they’re being made into a movie, have the studio’s backing and a belief that the readers of the book will flock to the multiplex to see their favorite characters brought to life on the big screen. A dedicated readership can make or break a film, depending on how faithfully the book has been adapted. There are always going to be those people who despise any movie adaptation of their favorite book, citing the inaccuracy of the accents, the drab nature of the costuming... their reasons go on forever.

A real book lover will realize that changes have to be made to every book, so that it will translate well to the screen. This may mean that every character may not survive the stringent trimming process. However, if fans do not feel that studios have not been careful with the characters and story that they love, they could create a bad buzz for the film, and word of mouth can be a powerful weapon.

An entirely new title might be best if you’ve changed a significant amount of the story to suit more cinematic needs. For instance, if the book is far too long, and you’ve had to cut a large amount of the story and/or change the characters around (Little Children). Or if the original title is miserably bad it seems a wise decision to change the name into something not atrocious (Love in the Time of Cholera).

If the title is too long, it seems as if you should cut it down (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford). Another example, The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep. Why couldn’t we have left it at The Water Horse? Long titles tend to confuse, and it seems like most people will call it by some shortened name as it is.

In the end, the reasons to retain a title are as seemingly numerous as the reasons to discard and begin anew. However, I say that the original title should be retained the majority of the time, to promote the book as well as the film, since in most cases the book did precede the film, often by decades. True lovers of the book will always stand by it even if a film fails to capture the wonder of the story. Here’s to interesting titles, and faithful adaptations.

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