They left out so many good scenes.
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LemonTastic — 12 years ago(July 22, 2013 05:17 AM)
I read the book long after I saw the film and I have to say, I prefer the book. the film was brilliant, Kathy Bates played Annie Brilliantly. As you said, they missed the pain killer addiction, I liked that because it made Paul more dependant on Annie, I think she knew it would happen so she could hold him longer.
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BlackEden — 12 years ago(September 12, 2013 02:05 PM)
Totally agree with you walpen87.
I read the book a couple weeks ago, then saw the movie shortly after. Oh man, it was so terrible.
The only Stephen King movie that is really awesome with following the original storyline is "The Mist" - minus the twist ending, which I personally thought was refreshing. -
rabbitmoon — 12 years ago(September 19, 2013 01:57 AM)
I think this can easily happen though if you compare them too close together. You need more time before the film to see it more objectively, without the bias of having been so intimately involved with the book so soon beforehand.
Similar comparisons can be made between Kubrick's adaptation of The Shining and the book. He left a lot out, changed a lot, but for the medium of cinema the film works really well and much better than the more faithful tv adaptation. -
Sheldom — 12 years ago(October 10, 2013 08:03 AM)
Not really, I loved both the book and the movie. Realistically, Directors have aa tough time turning a great book into a great movie. Things are going to be left out, put in and this movie's case reworked.
I loved the book, but I found a lot of the violence overly gruesome (when he got histhumbs cut off especially seemed like violence for the sake of violence to me) for no other reason outside of ''Annie is crazy''
Kathy Bates and the screenplay allow Annie to be a more belivable and intelligent woman. She seems naive but really is cut throat and sneaky.
There are scenes i would've liked to have seen as well, but for what the film is, I have to say it's pretty fantastic in it's own right. The Director got the perfect balance of the book and his own style. -
Sheldom — 12 years ago(October 10, 2013 08:12 AM)
Not really, I loved both the book and the movie. Realistically, Directors have aa tough time turning a great book into a great movie. Things are going to be left out, put in and this movie's case reworked.
I loved the book, but I found a lot of the violence overly gruesome (when he got histhumbs cut off especially seemed like violence for the sake of violence to me) for no other reason outside of ''Annie is crazy''
Kathy Bates and the screenplay allow Annie to be a more belivable and intelligent woman. She seems naive but really is cut throat and sneaky.
There are scenes i would've liked to have seen as well, but for what the film is, I have to say it's pretty fantastic in it's own right. The Director got the perfect balance of the book and his own style. -
Ivanisevic — 12 years ago(October 19, 2013 02:58 AM)
Books are rubbish, the film is much better by default.
I love how when people complain that films are a let down to the novel. Books obviously contain more detail, how is a film supposed to mirror that?
This film is great. -
cowboykalira — 12 years ago(November 16, 2013 03:56 AM)
I can see your criticisms, having just reread the book and rewatched the movie myself.
On the other hand, it's hard to adapt a novel like Misery to the cinema in an accurate way. The horror in Misery is mostly psychological. It's the thoughts and feelings of Paul Sheldon that make the book so gruesome.
So what can you do, if you're making a movie based on such books? Well, first thing you need to do, is rewrite the story in such a way that the psychological horror becomes visible. By creating physical horror, suspense, and good dialogue. Rob Reiner actually did that rather well.
Personally, I think the movie has a couple of flaws. It moves too fast for one thing. Paul Sheldon just wrote a book that meant so much to him that he comments to his editor "When I've finished this one, I might just have something to put on my gravestone". And then he burns it after just two, not even particularly violent, outbursts by Annie Wilkes, and two minutes of "friendly" discussion while being sprayed with kerosene? That could have been made more believable. In the book it gets spun out over the course of a couple of weeks, and by the time he does burn his book, she has already shown much darker sides of herself.
I think the movie could have done with just a little bit more build-up. Not a lot, maybe one or two more scenes, showing more of Annie Wilkes' worryingly erratic behaviour, and Pauls excruciating pain, could have done the job, considering the capabilities of the actors.
All thing's considered, the movie does convey a lot of the book's suspense, especially in the second half, when we get to see a bit more of the Annie we get to know so well in the book. And Kathy Bates is possibly my favourite female baddie in a movie ever. Also, the side-show of the Sherrif and his wife works great in the movie, to give it a little bit more grounding in the real world.
I salute Rob Reiner for making the movie his own, instead of just trying to be an accurate depiction of the book. I doubt it could have been made better by sticking closer to Stephen King's vision. It's imperfect, but maybe that encourages a few more people to actually read the book, and see what they're missing. -
dogstar-12 — 12 years ago(December 23, 2013 01:45 AM)
I haven't read the book, but what Paul went through in the film was quite enough to make this a genuinely tense horror movie. Cutting off his feet and thumbs? Sounds like it would basically make this film into torture porn, and I think Quentin Tarantino caters for that market quite adequately already.
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Bernnard_Black — 12 years ago(January 06, 2014 10:58 AM)
This book, like most King books, is hard to do justice too in a film because so much of what makes the books good is internal dialogue. There's no easy way to put that on screen, so it gets left out.
I think they did a pretty good job with this one, but agree that the Novril addiction should have been left in. That was a big part of his character in the novel, and was the first thing we see him do that indicates there is more to him than a shallow, self-absorbed writer with a big ego. His ability to beat the addiction and start planning his escape while cooperating with Annie was a big part of the book, and it got sort of left out in the film. Still a pretty good film and all, but you gotta admit that had they done the hobbling scene from the book it would have been a LOT darker, and really shown just how damn crazy Annie was. For those that didn't read it:
She chopped of his foot with an axe, and then cauterized the wound with a blowtorch because she didn't have time for a tourniquet. No anesthesia, either.
Here's to the health of Cardinal Puff. -
CptHowdy87 — 9 years ago(September 23, 2016 02:15 AM)
Gore just makes things comical. Look at Kill Bill.
You can't take the violence in that movie seriously.
Nor are you really meant to. The whole thing is intentionally completely over the top and hyper-stylized. -
mjd_subs2 — 12 years ago(March 10, 2014 05:25 AM)
Agreed. I was floored at how Hollywood destroyed "Flowers in the Attic" and make a point of not watching movies based on books I've already read. Or, I will put many years between watching a movie and reading the book it's based on so I avoid that unconsicous comparison.
In my experience, a movie, no matter how well done, can't compete with the detail and characterization of a well-written book. The beauty of the written word leaves it to the reader's imagination to "see" the story play out perfectly in our minds whereas the big screen makes those definitions for us and simply can't bring the story to life the way everyone pictures it in their mind. That's why we see these constant debates on this site (and others) about various movies.
At the end of the day, I'm an avid reader and I love being engrossed in a story. I never imagine it being made into a movie (and don't usually care if it is). I enjoy movies too and appreciate when they are well done, but that seems to happen less and less in recent years. -
seahawksfan — 11 years ago(April 15, 2014 12:19 AM)
It would have been nice if the movie included more scenes that display Annie's mental state; her catatonic periods, the scene with the rat, etc.
But while the book is better, I think the film is still terrific and a good companion to the book. The gory bits were removed and that's a shame, but the suspense is still there and is more important anyways.