Books to Movies

[Andy Turnbull]

Mark's post in the Watchmen thread got me thinking about the relationship between books and their movie adaptations.

Now generally if you discover the book first you will almost always have a greater appreciation for the film and sometimes vice versa.

But what if any filmed versions of books do you feel stand up to the books that they were based on.

Kicking things off I would like to say The Godfather and American Psycho have films that while not quite as good as the books more than hold their own.

Anyone else?

Andy

[Mark_Stevenson]

Good choices there.

A lot of people seem to prefer the film of 'A Clockwork Orange' to the book, however I prefer the latter. The film is great but I think it's aged less well than some of Kubrick's other work, whereas with the book it's very easy for me to imagine Alex and his droogs wearing hoodies and fake Burberry caps, flick-knives at the ready. It's a book that I find is becoming more and more prescient.

Mx

[grahamthomson]

I watched the film version of Stephen King's The Mist just this weekend, which has a different (and actually better, I think) ending than the book (or novella as it's known).

[Grand Moff Muffin]

I think 'The Ninth Gate' starring Johnny Depp is better than 'The Dumas Club', on which it is based.

Usually, though, I only find films stand up to the books they are based on when they are given a running time that is too long for cinemas. I consider the 'Lord of the Rings' extended versions to do as much justice to the book as a film ever could, though I wouldn't say the same of the shorter theatrical releases.

The films I've seen of 'The Count of Monte Cristo' and 'War and Peace' are insults to the books of those names. However, the big budget TV series based on those two books (starring Gerard Depardieu and Anthony Hopkins respectively) are fine adaptations.

The same goes for 'Gulliver's Travels', which has never had a satisfactory cinema adaptation, but had an excellent lavish TV mini-series starring Ted Danson.

Martin

[legios]

I would agree that the mini-series version of Gullivers Travels was the only one that was up to much - it was the only one I've seen that actually attempted to adapt the whole of the source material for a start.

I'm inclined to say that the films Night Watch and Day Watch stand comparison fairly well with the book Night Watch. They have a bit of a different feel in places, especially the latter film, and diverge quite considerably in places from the actual plot of the book, but they hew sufficiently close to the spirit of it that I think the transmogrification between media is forgiveable and they still maintain the emotional intent which is the important part

Karl

[The Doctor]

I loved the book 'The Iron Giant' by Ted Hughes but loved the film version (The Iron Giant) even more, even though it takes huge liberties with the source material.

-Ralph

[jameso]

Feb 2, 2009 17:01:51 GMT Andy Turnbull said:

Now generally if you discover the book first you will almost always have a greater appreciation for the film and sometimes vice versa.


Andy

I wouldn't agree with that, I've always found if I've already read the book I find it hard to enjoy the film.

I think the Fight Club movie is probably better than the book.

[Andy Turnbull]

Apologies - what I meant to say was that if you discover the book first you will have a greater apprecation for that as opposed to the film. The perils of typing while gassing on MSN.

Andy

[jameso]

I was wondering if there was a typo in there!

The first time I can recall specifically reading a book before seeing the movie was with Jurassic Park, which kinda ruined the film for me because I spent most of it thinking 'that's not how it is the book'. I'm much better at appreciating both takes as being in separate medium's now.
Even now, I'm always a bit surprised how many films are books. I mean, 'everyone' knows the famous ones, but I had no idea Slumdog Millionaire was a book. Sex Drive, the teen comedy that was out a few week backs was even a book.

[andrewbcalculating]

Slumdog Millionaire is based on the book Q & A by Vikas Swarup.

|<o>|

[Mark_Stevenson]

When I was a child, one of my favourite films was Diznee's sweet-old-nanny spy adventure 'One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing'. Imagine my surprise at finding the book upon which it was based was a quite bawdy sex comedy.

Mx