Whenever there is a book turned into a movie, there is usually one person that claims that the book was better. Usually, I tend to think that neither is better than the other (the movie version of The Handmaids Tale is the exception) since books tend to highlight the author's use of literary technique in addition to plot summary to convey meaning to the work as a whole, meanwhile, the movie versions use visual and audio cues to add to the plot and meaning. They are two different ways of presenting material, and one needs to take in account of how one can convert the author's literary techniques and their influences on the story into a visual format. That said, the movie version of Beloved was well executed.
The movie tends to mostly follow the plot of the book and use of the original symbolisms and their meanings. For example, the detail of the tree-looking scar on Sethe's back and the puss forming on that scar. In the book, it was described looking like flower moments before Sethe was about to give birth to Denver. Flowers usually are associated with fertility and spring, and it's nice to see that such small detail was put into account. Although, one did not get references to trees as much as one did in the book, which linked it to the ideas of family and how one is intermingled with those one is related to, the visual interactions between other characters with Beloved helps one question that meaning.
As usual, there were scenes cut out that cut have been kept in. For example, Baby Suggs, Sethe's mother-in-law, focused on color before she died. She was especially fond of the color yellow, but she liked green and blue too. If this information was included in the movie, it would have brought more meaning to Denver's actions when Baby Suggs comes back from the dead momentarily to help guide her. When Denver leaves, she dresses in yellow and green. I believe it would have made a greater impact as a viewer. However, the times when red popped up in the novel, it showcased as a red light in the movie, and it related to the incident that Beloved died, and added an extra meaning to the incident as well as Beloved's actions as an older "person". Although some significant actions of Beloved was taken out, like her chocking Sethe and cruelly scaring Denver in the shed in which the incident happened on newspaper that covered the same incident that occurred, one got sense of her feelings about it.
