Great books that were even better movies:
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jeffhowardmeade — 19 years ago(January 12, 2007 10:08 PM)
Okay, I've got a new one. "Children of Men" by P.D. James, was a very good book. It was hard for me to admit this, because I wrote almost exactly the same story into a novella back in the eighties, then $#!+ canned it because I'm not exactly Hemingway (or P.D. James). James elevated a teenager's wan storyline into a work of art.
That said, the movie version blew my effing socks off.
I often see movies that had so much potential, but squandered it, and I wonder how I would improve them. Event Horizon and Whipped are two which spring to mind. I read books like When We Were Orphans or Never Let Me Go and imagine how I would have written them, if I were actually good at that sort of thing and had a few hundred free hours (for the record, eliminate the whole subplot with his Japanese friend from the former and get rid of most of the cottages section of the latter).
Cuarn, it seemed, took the book and asked himself "what can I do to make this story flow better" (though he probably did it en espaol).
The changes he made were absolutely for the better. -
jeffhowardmeade — 18 years ago(April 14, 2007 11:09 PM)
Just finished reading Our Lady of the Forest by David Guterson. That reminded me of his book Snow Falling on Cedars, so I rented the movie on Netflix. It surpassed what I thought was a great novel by leaps and bounds. Hiding the fact that Ishmael is an amputee until late in the movie was a brilliant move, whereas the book gives it up right away. Fight Club (another one mentioned on this thread as a better movie) does the same thing.
It's always a nice surprise to receive a nice surprise. -
VoodooChicken — 18 years ago(April 19, 2007 08:25 AM)
Forrest Gump. The book version was not a sympathetic character at all.
I'm on the fence about Watership Down. I think the book and movie need to be sold together in all instances as they complement each other perfectly.
Around the World in Eighty Days. Both film versions were excellent (only thing I really didn't like about the 2004 version was Mark Addy's cameo)
I will get in trouble for preferring the simpleness of Simon Birch over the 20lb Prayer for Owen Meany.
Look behind you! A THREE-headed monkey!!!!!! -
jeffhowardmeade — 18 years ago(June 16, 2007 11:41 PM)
Just got finished reading "The Prestige".
The movie was SOOOOOO much better than the book.
Okay, I read that last line out loud and I sounded like a thirteen year old girl with a smoker's voice.
Really, though, The Prestige was a very good book, and the movie was ten times better. -
moon-light — 17 years ago(January 30, 2009 04:05 PM)
I am sorry but I have to disagree about Howards End and A Room with a View, although great films the books how brilliant E M Forster is my favourite writer.
I am big film fan and enjoy books, some say I am book worm. I like films that come from books but I always enjoy the book better. -
faville-1 — 17 years ago(December 29, 2008 07:34 PM)
Here's a neat exception to the usual routine. Graham Greene actually wrote the screenplay for The Third Man [1949], during shooting, as an original. It only came out as a book of fiction after the movie was released! "Soon to be a best-selling novel!"
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Fripitto — 17 years ago(January 11, 2009 02:47 PM)
- The Godfather (although that wasn't all too difficult, considering the book was not a masterpiece, which the film of course is)
- The Bourne Ultimatum
- Apocalypse Now
- Trainspotting
- The Shining
- LA Confidential
- Sin City (if you consider a graphic novel a book)
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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