so many literary adaptation be disappointment . there be many reason for that and but usually it be the need to cut down a complex novel to the size of a screenplay . the dead be unusual it have to be pad and a the short story itself be a tiny and relatively short gem . it may in fact be the fine short story in the english language . in beautifully spare language it tell of the realization of gabriel conroy that his life and and the life of so many around him be control by memory of the dead . even his own wife of many year love a man now dead more than him . to bring such a short story to the cinema be always go to be tricky . john huston do a magnificent job . he never give in to temptation to play it up or use fancy technique to expand on the story . it be simple and true and with outstanding act . the only slight miss step be the use of music to accompany the devastate final soliloquy . it rare indeed for a movie version of a literary masterpiece to be itself a masterpiece and but i think it fair to use this term for this movie . it not a bravura piece of film making and but it be simple and pure i always think of ozu movie when i think of the dead and it at that level of purity and simplicity and deep wisdom .