It took two decades. Jeff Bridges spent twenty years trying to get the giver movie by lois lowry off the ground, originally envisioning his father, Lloyd Bridges, in the titular role. By the time it finally hit theaters in 2014, the YA dystopian landscape had shifted. It wasn’t just a quiet philosophical fable anymore; it was competing with the high-octane spectacle of The Hunger Games and Divergent.
The result? Something that felt caught between worlds.
If you grew up reading the 1993 Newbery Medal winner in middle school, you probably remember the "Sameness." You remember the chill of the stirrings, the crispness of the apple changing color, and that haunting, ambiguous ending on the sled. Translating that internal, psychological experience to a big-budget Hollywood film was always going to be a massive gamble. Some people loved the visual representation of Jonas’s expanding world. Others felt the soul of the book was traded for a generic "chosen one" action plot. Honestly, both sides have a point.
Making the Black and White World Pop
Phillip Noyce, the director, made a bold choice right out of the gate. He started the film in literal black and white. It’s a literal interpretation of the book’s Sameness, where the citizens of the Community have lost the biological ability to perceive color or depth.
As Jonas, played by Brenton Thwaites, begins his training with The Giver, the color bleeds back in. It starts with a flicker of red in Fiona’s hair or the skin of an apple. It’s effective. You really feel the sensory overload that Jonas experiences. However, the movie aged up the characters significantly. In the book, Jonas is twelve. In the film, he’s roughly sixteen or seventeen. This change wasn't just for aesthetics; it was a blatant attempt to shoehorn in a romantic subplot between Jonas and Fiona (Odeya Rush) that barely existed in the original text.
Lois Lowry herself has been vocal about this. In various interviews, she mentioned that while she understood the "Hollywood" need for a love interest, it changed the fundamental nature of Jonas’s isolation. In the book, Jonas is a child losing his innocence. In the movie, he’s a teenager leading a revolution.
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The Casting Gamble: Bridges and Streep
You can't talk about the giver movie by lois lowry without mentioning the heavy hitters. Jeff Bridges is the Giver. He plays the role with a gravelly, weary weight that perfectly captures a man burdened by the world's entire history of pain and joy. His performance is the anchor of the film.
Then you have Meryl Streep as the Chief Elder.
This character was vastly expanded for the screen. In the novel, the Elders are a faceless, bureaucratic force. In the movie, Streep becomes a central antagonist. She represents the terrifying logic of "Sameness"—the idea that if you eliminate choice, you eliminate conflict. "When people have the freedom to choose, they choose wrong," she says. It’s a chilling line. It reflects a real-world philosophical debate about the trade-off between security and liberty. But by giving the "villain" a face, the movie lost some of the book’s existential dread. The book suggests the system is the monster; the movie suggests it's just a strict lady in a grey robe.
Why the Ending Changed Everything
The biggest point of contention is the climax.
If you've read the book, you know it ends on a note of "did they or didn't they?" Jonas and Gabe are on a sled, freezing, hearing music—or maybe just imagining it as they die. It’s beautiful and devastating. Hollywood doesn't usually do "maybe they died."
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The film opts for a high-stakes chase sequence. Jonas has to cross the "Boundary of Memory" to release the memories back to the people. There are drones. There are desert landscapes. There’s a literal physical barrier that looks like a shimmering force field.
It feels... loud.
By turning the release of memories into a physical event triggered by crossing a line, the film sacrificed the internal struggle. In Lowry’s prose, the memories are a burden of the soul. In the movie, they're more like a software update being pushed to the cloud. This is where the 2014 adaptation struggled most to find its identity. It wanted to be a deep, pensive indie film, but it had the clothes of a summer blockbuster.
Real-World Influence and Legacy
Despite the mixed reviews, the film did manage to visualize things that were previously thought "unfilmable." The "Memory of War" sequence is particularly jarring and well-executed. It uses grainy, handheld footage that looks like real combat newsreels, contrasting sharply with the sterile, perfectly manicured Community.
It also sparked a resurgence of interest in Lowry’s broader Giver Quartet. Many fans don't realize that The Giver is actually part of a series including Gathering Blue, Messenger, and Son. The movie tried to weave in tiny threads from these books, but it mostly stood alone.
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Looking back, the movie serves as a time capsule of the YA boom. It features a young Taylor Swift in a small but pivotal role as Rosemary, the previous Receiver of Memory. Her scenes are brief, mostly appearing as a hologram or a fleeting memory, but they highlight the tragedy of the position. Rosemary couldn't handle the pain; she chose "release."
Essential Takeaways for Fans
If you’re revisiting the film or watching it for the first time, keep these nuances in mind:
- The Color Theory: Pay attention to how the saturation increases. It’s not just "adding color"; it’s a metaphor for Jonas’s emotional maturity.
- The Elders' Philosophy: Don't just see the Chief Elder as a bad guy. Listen to her arguments. They are rooted in the very real human desire to avoid suffering at any cost.
- The Rosemary Backstory: This is the most faithful part of the adaptation. It explains why the Giver is so hesitant to train Jonas and the stakes of failure.
- The Sled: Even with the added action, the sled remains the central symbol of the journey from the known to the unknown.
To truly appreciate the depth of the story, compare the film’s "Memory of War" with the book’s description of the boy in the field asking for water. The movie uses visual shorthand, but the book uses sensory detail that lingers in the mind far longer.
Read the book first, then watch the movie as an "alternative vision" of the Community. It’s the best way to avoid the frustration of the changes. The 2014 film didn't replace the book; it just provided a different lens through which to view the cost of a "perfect" world.
Actionable Next Steps
- Read the full Giver Quartet: If the movie left you wanting more context on how the world fell apart, Son provides the most direct answers, following Gabe's birth mother.
- Compare the "Release" scenes: Watch the scene where Jonas's father performs a release on a twin, then read that chapter in the book. It remains one of the most chilling sequences in children's literature.
- Explore the 1993 Newbery Acceptance Speech: Lois Lowry explains the real-life inspirations for the story, including her father's memory loss, which adds a layer of heartbreak to the Giver's character.