Great books that were even better movies:
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faville-1 — 17 years ago(January 20, 2009 04:49 PM)
Well, Stephen King is certainly the exception. I don't know any critics who believe he's a talented writer of literary masterpieces. But then, neither was John D. MacDonald, his idol.
Some of the plots translate well to the cinema. Carrie. The Shining. Shawshank Redemption.
Ditto with James Ellroy. -
abadoo411 — 16 years ago(March 20, 2010 12:08 AM)
i agree that Simon Birch was a much better movie than A Prayer for Owen Meany was a book. though Simon Birch was drastically different than the book that it was based on. i just found a lot of A Prayer for Owen Meany to only be there as an excuse for the writer go on (and on in this case) about his own personal beliefs, and there is definitely room in literature to do that, but it has to be done with way more subtlety than the book handled it. i found Simon Birch's, happy, (and believe me it is happier) simpler version preferable to the heavy handedness of the novel's.
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student_points — 15 years ago(December 22, 2010 06:52 AM)
i know i risk eternal damnation by saying this, but i found the movie sense and sensibility much better than the book.
In the book, edward and eleanor are allready in love, jane austen doesn't explain their proces of falling in love, therefore the reader doesn't really care about their relationship. And then edward goes away, comes back again, goes away again it just goes on and on (a little boring)
It was done much better in the movie + the best scenes in the movie are actually not in the book: marianne standing in the rain and reciting that poem from shakespeare, brandon carrying her in from the rain, her being sick is also much more dramatic in the film than in the book.
All in all, a very good script i thought -
cyninbend-149-610489 — 10 years ago(January 23, 2016 04:49 AM)
I agree. I was going to read all the posts and then post this book. I thought it was better because of the visual beauty of the movie, tho some wit had to be traded, imo. But Emma Thompson's screenplay was fantastic. And I agree Marianne's illness was much more exciting in the book, as was the colonel's sexiness (RIP Alan Rickman).
I also thought the 6 hour (with commercials) A & E Pride and Prejudice was better than the bookit was nearly word for word but was so exceptionaltho it has disappeared for an entire generation!
The Client was better than Grisham's book, and The Pelican Brief gives the book a run for the money. Even The Firm was done so masterfully, that although the book was an A+ read, the movie never let us down for a second!
Three Days of the Condor was fantantastic as well.
The Maltese Falcon exceeded the book's ability to grip my attention although there was a bit of disappointment over changes I'm sure had to do with those censors. Characters that were gay.
John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath was one of the best books I ever read, but the old black and white movie tore me up equally. And Cannery Row was so much better than the stories that went into the script. It's one of my favorite movies, maybe John Huston's narration did it, but it was so great. From the failed pro scene, and the setting up house in the tank, to the frogs and the dance scene, I LOVE that movie.
Finally, the movie of Rebecca is at least as good as the book. Both great. -
paulbeardsley — 15 years ago(January 08, 2011 04:15 AM)
I haven't read Remains of the Day yet, but I started reading Never Let Me Go because of the imminent UK release of the film, and I am enjoying it so much that I've decided I will read Remains, even though I've seen the film.
Other books and films
I agree with another poster about Blade Runner. I've read a lot of Philip K. Dick's books, and I do not rate Do Androids Dream as 1st Division Dick (so to speak), although it is very good. (I'd put VALIS and Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said in the 1st division.) Whereas Blade Runner works brilliantly as a film.
Stanislaw Lem's novel Solaris is interesting and important in SFnal terms, but not a truly great book, IMO. By contrast, the film version is wonderful. (I am referring to the second of the three Solaris films - the 1972 Tarkovsky one. The 1968 one is not generally available, except for some excerpts on YouTube, and the 2003 one with George Clooney is not worth watching.)
The Godfather - definitely very good book, great film. It was a pleasant surprise for me recently to discover that some of the unfilmed material in the book made it into the second film. (Yeah, I've really got my finger on the pulse, haven't I?)
I don't think you can include 2001 because the book and the film were created together, but I thought 2010 the film was vastly better than 2010 the book.
I can't think of any others. Most film adaptations just make me think, "Did you even read the book?" -
crooked_spoons — 15 years ago(January 28, 2011 05:49 AM)
Atonement and No Country for Old Men will forever be far superior films than they could ever hope to be as books.
I liked Atonement well enough as a novel, the imagery was beautiful (or dreary depending on the scene) and quite descriptive however, though Ian McEwan has a lot of things he wants to say, he never fully mastered the art of storytelling. I suppose he's a
writer's
writerbut there was much more
narrating
of emotions than actual things being "emoted".
Way too much of the novel was devoted to the description of a blade of grass or a dinner dress than dialogue to the point where you didn't give a fig anymore and wanted to skip pages until McEwan remembered the task at hand and returned to the story. I love books that give thorough visual descriptions, but I despise those that end up sounding more like haughty prose than an actual story. The whole thing reads like one long poem with random bits of dialogue from characters whose presence you don't fully understandalmost like an interruption.
I'm not really Cormac McCarthy fan but I always thought No Country for Old Men would be better told by someone who didn't have such a simple, yet bleak outlook on life (see: The Road shudders). The Coen brothers really blew me away. Not only did they respect the original story in most scenes, they had the decency to make the film one of the truest adaptations I have ever seen! And what's morethey did it better.
Where McCarthy sort of went off on a blustering speech, the Coens reined him in. McCarthy's books tend to read like chapters 11-21 (or roughly the middle chapters) of a book rather than a completed work. He never gives you motives, only present actions and circumstances. Yet the Coen's (working with the original material) did their best to give the characters the depth that McCarthy seemed to think unimportant.
"You want me? Well f*king come on and break the door down. I'm ready" -
electric_feathers — 15 years ago(February 19, 2011 08:36 PM)
A lot of good ones have already been mentioned but off the top of my head:
The Secret Garden (1993)
A Little Princess (1995)
Blade Runner
Misery
The Age of Innocence (1993) - This one is quite debatable, but it's my fav Scorsese film
American Psycho (2000)
The Princess Bride -
majaava — 14 years ago(July 09, 2011 04:19 AM)
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned The English Patient. It's a great book but I was completely emotionally blind-sided by the movie. Devastating. Minghella did a masterful job at the adaptation. What will always stick with me is the desert winds speech, one of the most charged and intimate moments of dialogue in the movie. Amazing to compare it to the beautiful but emotionally isolated journal entry in the novel.
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soblessed — 14 years ago(November 20, 2011 06:31 AM)
I know that two Michael J. Landon films are much better than the books~
Love Comes Softly based on the wonderful Janet Oke book,was a better film,and I'm so happy that I picked up the film from my library,before I even knew it was based on a book(by reading the credits),because of the widower Clark's daughter being around 10 in the film and only an infant in the book. Made for some delightful pranks and a heartwarming bonding between her and Clark's new 'marriage of convenience bride'(Marty).
Also his Amish-Themed- Saving Sarah Cain based on the horrid book 'The Redemption Of Sarah Cain' by Beverly Lewis. The difference in the sister's loving relationship in his wonderful film from the loveless relationship in her book is like night and day,but Lewis has a grudge against the Amish because of her grandmother's "shunning" and it shows in the books she has written. Skip the hateful book and watch the heart-tugging film instead.