List the three types of literary adaptation, then briefly explain which one is reflected in the film They Shoot Horses Don’t They? and why

What will be an ideal response?

Answer: The ideal answer should include:
1. The three types of adaptation are the loose, the faithful, and the literal.
2. Much is usually eliminated from a novel as complex as Horace McCoy’s grim masterpiece about a 1930s marathon dance contest. The novelist can focus on only a few details at a time in a linear sequence. Movies can bombard us with hundreds of details simultaneously.
3. As critic Leo Braudy has pointed out: “The muted emphasis on gesture, makeup, intonation, and bodily movement possible in film can enrich a character with details that would intrude blatantly if they were separately verbalized in a novel.”
4. For example, in the novel, McCoy can tell us what was going on in the grueling race pictured, but only selectively, with a few telling details. The movie version, shot partly in slow motion, shows us all the agonized faces and twisted bodies of the contestants, who are exhausted to stupefaction, as they doggedly trudge forward, supporting and even hauling their collapsed partners, while the cheering spectators urge on their favorites. It is a choreographed vision of Hell.
5. Because much is eliminated from Horace McCoy’s novel in the film version, even though it does maintain the same feeling, Sydney Pollack’s film adaption must be considered a faithful adaption, not a loose or a literal one.