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April 12, 2005
Movie Versions of Books
Lance Mannion and Roxanne wondered about movies that were as good as or better than the book, based on the sad possibility that the movie version of "The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy" is going to blow chunks. Roxanne asks:
Lindsay laments that the Hitchhiker's Guide flick won't be as good as the book, which got me thinking that films made of books are seldom what fans expect. A notable exception is John Ford's The Grapes of Wrath which is far and away better than Steinbeck's story. Can you think of other films which are as good as the book or better?
Here are movies I think are as good as or better than the book:
"Jurassic Park"
The original "The Haunting."
"Psycho" (Okay, so Robert Bloch's "Psycho" was either a short story or a novelette, not a novel.)
"Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" (Overlooking the fact that Alan Rickman is about 30 years too old for the part of Professor Severus Snape.)
"Bubba Ho-Tep," another short story, this one by one of my favorite writers, Joe Lansdale.
Zefferelli's "Romeo and Juliet"
"Gone With The Wind"
"The Shawshank Redemption," a short story by Stephen King.
"Jaws"
"The Turn of the Screw" starring Deborah Kerr. There are several movie versions, and this is my favorite one.
"His Girl Friday," even though Lindy Johnson was changed to a woman for the movie. Rosalind Russell played her.
"Uzumaki" - The movie captures the insanity of the graphic novels beautifully.
Burton and Taylor doing "The Taming of the Shrew."
Jeremy Brett playing Sherlock Holmes in "The Hound of the Baskervilles."
"Like Water For Chocolate." The movie is much better than the book.
If any of my readers can think of movies I've left out, feel free to add them to my comments.
Update: Here are some more:
"Get Shorty"
"Foxfire"
"Frida"
"Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory," starring Gene Wilder.
"The Hunchback of Notre Dame," starring Lon Cheney.
"Jane Eyre," starring Olivia de Havilland.
"The Mirror Crack'd," Elizabeth Taylor's come-back movie.
"Misery." Kathy Bates deserved her Oscar.
"The Ninth Gate." Okay, I haven't read the book, but I liked the movie so much I'm going to find it and read it. Johnny Depp is great in this.
"Orlando," starring Tilda Swinson.
"The Relic." Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child are two of my favorite writers. I've read all their books.
"The Silence of the Lambs." I watched this one again yesterday.
"Wuthering Heights," starring Lawrence Olivier and Merle Oberon.
Posted on April 12, 2005 at 07:42 AM | Permalink
Comments
"Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" was an OK novel but Bladerunner totally transcended it. easily one of the best science fiction films ever (ever!).
also a much much (much!) better movie than all of the other godfuckingawful "adaptations" of PKDick - who has been spinning in his grave so fast that they've stuck leads in the ground & he now provides up to 53% of the energy needs of Fort Morgan, CO. true story!
Posted by: jam at Apr 12, 2005 8:35:46 AM
You're the second person I've seen mention "Blade Runner." I've never read "Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep." "Blade Runner" was a great movie. I have it on tape.
Posted by: Trish Wilson at Apr 12, 2005 8:43:26 AM
if you're into PKDick's work then it's worth checking out. but he wrote a number of better novels & stories. you should check out "A Scanner Darkly" before it gets ruined too....
sigh.
altho' thanks be to sweet Inanna it ain't Spielberg again! and Tom Cruise! gack!
Posted by: jam at Apr 12, 2005 10:09:28 AM
Better than the book - "Mansfield Park". Fanny Price is such an insipid heroine in the book, which is really quite un-Jane-Austen-like. It was much more enjoyable to see her portrayed with wit and spunk. The filmmakers conflated her with Jane Austen herself, having the character periodically read some letters written by Jane Austen.
Edmund was also less of an unsufferable prig in the movie than in the book.
Posted by: Lesley at Apr 12, 2005 12:36:45 PM
I don't really like Stephen King to start with, but "The Dead Zone" is a pretty good film.
Posted by: Crys T at Apr 12, 2005 2:18:36 PM
I take issue with your Shakespeare's. Claim the movies are better if you must. The ages won't agree with you. (A play lasts that many hundred years and those movies won't last one.)
The rest you can have. Not one among them is all that good as a novel.
A regular book snob, yes I am.
Posted by: atcooper at Apr 12, 2005 11:50:51 PM
The Big Sleep (1946) - I love the book as well, but the film is much snappier
Posted by: Sheena at Apr 13, 2005 12:53:19 AM
All of the oringal Sean Connery Bond movies.
Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye.
Paper Moon.
Posted by: Lance Mannion at Apr 13, 2005 12:38:09 PM
Pick any of: F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu (1922), Todd Browning's Dracula (1931--the one with Bela Lugosi), or Werner Herzog's Nosferatu (1979), in comparison to Bram Stoker's Dracula.
(I think good film adaptations of plays are a bit of a cheat, incidentally. It's not like "the book" was meant to be primarily read as a book in the first place.)
Posted by: Rad Geek at Apr 16, 2005 1:28:38 AM
atcooper, you can be a book snob here. I'm not a book snob myself, but I can respect someone who is. I did think that the Shakespeare movies I mentioned were good, but you're right - nothing could hold a candle to the plays.
One exception could be Lawrence Olivier's "Hamlet."
Yes, on Browning's "Dracula" Rad Geek. I liked both versions of "Nosferatu," but I prefer Murnau's. I read a story in a folklore book that I immediately recognized as "Nosferatu." Sad to say I don't remember which book it was in. It wasn't presented as fiction. It was folklore, but I can't remember which country it was supposed to take place in.
I prefer Sean Connery's Bond as well, Lance. I haven't read Ian Fleming's books, though. I'm stuck between "Dr. No" and "From Russia With Love" as my favorites.
I've never read "The Big Sleep," but the movie was fantastic.
Posted by: Trish Wilson at Apr 16, 2005 5:00:29 AM
"Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye."
Ah yes: I rented that a year or so ago. I've never read any of the books, but I loooooove Elliot Gould!
Posted by: Crys T at Apr 18, 2005 4:21:30 PM
How about Forest Gump? The movie was far better than the book because it was more focused. Personally, I don't think it would take too much work to make Douglas' Hitchhiker better than the book. How anyone could expect a book that is so attention deficit to be made so literally into a book is beyond me.
Posted by: Mike B at Apr 25, 2005 10:09:03 PM
