Books Do Not Make Good Films

It's not really fair to make a list of good adaptations and compare it quantitively against a list of bad adaptations, because you'd get roughly the same ratio if you made a list of good to bad films. Agree about 'Lord of the Rings' - it's more enjoyable and just as technicaly good as a film trilogy. 'The Princess Bride' is terrible - I've had no end of people assure me that all the shit parts are a part of its charm, but I'm not buying it. Awful stuff. 'The Iron Giant', as a version of 'The Iron Man', is inferior - but it's so different, it's not really a film of the book at all. 'Blade Runner' is a much better film than 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?' is a book, although the latter has the superior title. 'The Graduate' is better as a film. 'Watership Down' is an equal to the book. 'Naked Lunch' - better film. 'A Clockwork Orange' - ditto, although it's a close call. 'Dune's a difficult one for me to say, because I found the book too epic for my tastes and never finished it. The film is good. 'High Fidelity' was an enjoyable film - the book's unapproachably shit. I'm going to read 'Solaris' and get back to you on that, but it'll have to be bloody good to beat the film. I think the problem is that a film is a very different thing to a book, and the film version has to do something completely unique - it can never simply 'translate' the book to the screen. So, for one thing, fans of a beloved book are always going to be disappointed because they want the same thing again, but with pictures. ~ I'll Show You Tyrants * Fuselit * The Prowl Log * Woe's Woe

Read this, Tony? http://www.mcpl.lib.mo.us/readers/movies/movie.cfm?browse=A Plenty of good stuff on there. ~ I'll Show You Tyrants * Fuselit * The Prowl Log * Woe's Woe

I have to disagree with Watership Down Jack, I read the book and watched the film as a child and remember being pretty disappointed at the film, my seven year old daughter also agrees, she read the book avidly but lost interest halfway through the film. Definitely agree with Blade Runner though, much better film!

The book goes into more detail, with more incidents and character development (particularly for Blackberry and Dandelion) but the film is more thrilling. I mean, ultimately, none of the main characters die in the book, and in the finale, you have total confidence in Bigwig's strength and Hazel's plan. In the film, you've just seen Woundwort (who looks pretty damn ferocious) tear Blackavar apart. It's terrifying. Plus, John Hurt makes for a brilliant Hazel, and Roy Kinnear does so much for Pipkin's character with just a handful of lines - in the book, he's quite a boring 'loyal' character, whose only distinction is being very small. ~ I'll Show You Tyrants * Fuselit * The Prowl Log * Woe's Woe

The only film I've ever seen that actually added to the book was Rebecca - in the book Max de Winter shoots Rebecca, whereas in the film she dies by falling over and cracking her head, thereby making him a much more sympathetic character as he's not technically a murderer. The Olivier version of Pride and Prejudice beats the book hands down but that's mainly because I can't stand the way Austen writes. How anyone can think Hitchhiker's guide was better as a film is beyond me...

The only film I've ever seen that actually added to the book was Rebecca - in the book Max de Winter shoots Rebecca, whereas in the film she dies by falling over and cracking her head, thereby making him a much more sympathetic character as he's not technically a murderer. The Olivier version of Pride and Prejudice beats the book hands down but that's mainly because I can't stand the way Austen writes. How anyone can think Hitchhiker's guide was better as a film is beyond me...

The only film I've ever seen that actually added to the book was Rebecca - in the book Max de Winter shoots Rebecca, whereas in the film she dies by falling over and cracking her head, thereby making him a much more sympathetic character as he's not technically a murderer. The Olivier version of Pride and Prejudice beats the book hands down but that's mainly because I can't stand the way Austen writes. How anyone can think Hitchhiker's guide was better as a film is beyond me...

Blimey, I didn't realise I was incensed enough to say that twice.

...or even three times! I must have missed the reference to Hitchhiker's, what a load of shite that was.

Marathon man came to mind, although i haven't read the book.

The Princess Bride definitely goes in there. I'm amazed that Dan didn't think there was sexual tension in the Big Sleep - the thing crackles with it. In general, mediocre books (ie Jaws) make great films, great books do not. Shawshank Redemption is a real throwaway short Steven King, but cracking film. I've played this game before, and it is a bit of a stretch, but I think the only Great book which has produced a Great film is Heart of Darkness/Apocalypse Now But Big Sleep probably scores on both for me, and also for the story I told lisa at the abc meet, that the director rang Chandler during the filming and said "who the hell kills the damn chauffeur, none of us can work it out", which led Chandler to realise that he had no idea either.

Fun fact about the big sleep, there are actually a couple of scenes missing from the film, so it genuinely doesn't make sense.

The only book adaptation I didn't like too much was the first Left Behind movie-It had everything the book did (except the fact that one of the characters was an alcoholic) but the studio kept adding things that shouldn't be in the book. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is one of my favorites, though.

The Robert Altman version of The Long Goodbye with Elliot Gould (finally) turned up from the dvd rental people this weekend. It's another great Chandler adaptation and it takes the character of Phillip Marlowe in a different direction, rambling and muttering to himself almost like a crazy person. It needs a good actor to do it and still maintain the character's charm, it would be very hard to do in a book, I think impossible in a first person narrative.

Apocalypse Now was a shite film, and I don't understand the whole kerfuffle about it; the book was far superior. The film was like offering ketchup and saying it's bolognese sauce.

Dolmio do that. Saw Hard Candy at the weekend. One of the best films I've seen in years!! There's a book of the same name, but it has absolutely bugger-all to with the movie. Which is nice. It aint law if it aint laminated!

Forrest Gump is nothing without Tom Hanks...just thought you should know

Forrest Gump is nothing without Tom Hanks...just thought you should know