# Books that have been made into good movies



## stereomuse (Jul 24, 2008)

Ive seen a thread on books you want made into movies, and one books you dont want made into movies. who here has read a book and thought the movie was up to par with, as good as, or even better than the original?

Me?
_Fear and loathing in Las Vegas_: probably the truest adaptation ive ever seen, i dont know which i like better, the book or the movie, but their both excellent.

_The Shawshank Redemption:_ While it wasnt a full novel, i like the movie more than i do the story by Steven King. i might as well mention_ Stand by Me_, and _The Green Mile_ too because theyre Steven King stories that have been turned into excellent movies as well.

Any others?


----------



## Linton Robinson (Jul 24, 2008)

Lots, actually.

A Clockwork Orange.

Little Big Man

Thick As Theives

Harry Potter

Roger Rabbit

Ben Hur

Stardust

Forest Gump (I didn't LIKE the film as well as the book, it was a totally different story, but hey...


----------



## OtherWorlds (Jul 25, 2008)

Lord of the Rings.

Nuff said.


----------



## moderan (Jul 25, 2008)

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Silence of the Lambs
Contact
Blade Runner (like Cuckoo's Nest, somewhat different, but still effective)
just a few off the top of my head. I disagree about FALILV, the filmmakers and/or the editors clearly didn't understand the book and concentrated on the drug incidents, changing the subtext.


----------



## lilacstarflower (Jul 25, 2008)

BBC version of Bleak House


----------



## Linton Robinson (Jul 25, 2008)

God...how did I miss Blade Runner?    The CLASSIC example of a film that can be WAY better than the source literature.


----------



## moderan (Jul 25, 2008)

I was wondering that myself.

More:

The Mist (ending was far better than the original)
The Lathe of Heaven
The Maltese Falcon
Jaws (much tighter)


----------



## Linton Robinson (Jul 25, 2008)

The Lathe of Heaven is a film????   Whoa.  Gotta look that one up.


----------



## Linton Robinson (Jul 25, 2008)

Fun With Dick and Jane.    Much funnier than the kindergarten picture book.


----------



## moderan (Jul 26, 2008)

lin said:


> The Lathe of Heaven is a film???? Whoa. Gotta look that one up.


 
here-The Lathe of Heaven, done in 1980 for american public tv/PBS (under the aegis of WGBS-Boston and WTTW-Chicago), written by Diane English and Ursula LeGuin.


----------



## moderan (Jul 26, 2008)

Here's a couple more in a different genre-Shane
When the Legends Die


----------



## JHB (Jul 26, 2008)

The Golden Compass.


----------



## WriterDude (Jul 26, 2008)

I've got a few:

First a few from Stephen King:

_Children of the Corn_ - Sure it's a short story, and sure the sequels suck bigtime. But the first movie is really great in every way and well worth watching.

_It_ - Yes, I love the movie. Yes, I like the book. Love beats like. 

_The Shining _- Great book, even better movie. Jack Nicholson is just... _crazy_. You know what I mean. 

_Pet Sematary_ - Great book, even better movie.

And a two non-King:

_Frank Herbert's Dune & Children of Dune _- No, the mini-series, of course. I love them. It's pretty much perfect, although the names are a bit misguiding. They include _Dune_, _Dune Messiah _and _Children of Dune_. Unfortunately I haven't read Dune Messiah and Children of Dune yet, so I don't know where Dune Messiah fits into the mini-series. Still, unbelieveable series. Pure perfection.


----------



## Damien. (Jul 26, 2008)

Certainly not Harry Potter. I'd say Narnia, the Golden Compass, LOTR, and some of Shakespeare's works.


----------



## SparkyLT (Jul 26, 2008)

eh, I didn't like the Golden Compass adaptaion to film. it left off the end. it was a good movie until then, though. 

First Harry Potter was ok. can't think of any others.


----------



## Damien. (Jul 26, 2008)

No no, Sparky - it was open so they could make a sequel and make moooore MONEY. It's the way the world works.


----------



## SparkyLT (Jul 26, 2008)

pf, yeah, but it still SUCKED. they totally chopping off the end changed it completely...


----------



## SoNickSays... (Jul 27, 2008)

30 Days of Night was a pretty good adaption of the Graphic Novel and the Book.

Erm...

I liked Forest Gump too.

I'll probably think of more later.


----------



## Tiamat (Jul 27, 2008)

Not Harry Potter in my opinion.  And absolutely not Narnia.

LOTR is a definite yes for me, but I understand why it's a definite no for others.

Sleepy Hollow was a better movie than a short story.

Jurassic Park.  

And while I haven't actually seen Pride & Prejudice the movie, I figure it can't possibly be any more dull than the book.


----------



## quarterscot (Jul 27, 2008)

Lots of great movies have come from books which are, to one degree or another, trash. The Grifters, Jackie Brown, The Godfather, Blade Runner and Casino to name just a few.

Harder to think of examples where both the film and the book have been equally fine. What works in one format seems to flounder in another. Trainspotting is the only example springing to mind; and that's because the scriptwriters hacked the novel to pieces and rebuilt it completely.


----------



## WriterDude (Jul 27, 2008)

Jurassic Park? Seriously? Did we read the same books?  I agree the first movie and the first book are great, but other than the dinos and names, they are completely different. 

It's like The Crow. The comic book is pretty good and the movie one of the best I've ever seen, but the movie doesn't really have much to do with the comic at all other than being inspired by it.


----------



## Linton Robinson (Jul 27, 2008)

Man on Fire.
One of the few films I've seen with a good grasp of what crime in Mexico is really like and all about--and it was based on a book about Mafia in Europe.  Movie far exeeds the book in excellence.


----------



## missmojorising (Jul 27, 2008)

The World According To Garp
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Lonesome Dove


----------



## stereomuse (Jul 27, 2008)

moderan said:


> One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
> Silence of the Lambs
> Contact
> Blade Runner (like Cuckoo's Nest, somewhat different, but still effective)
> just a few off the top of my head. I disagree about FALILV, the filmmakers and/or the editors clearly didn't understand the book and concentrated on the drug incidents, changing the subtext.



i do understand what you mean about fear and loathing. but scene for scene wise they pretty much kept the book exactly the same with a few exceptions. i also mentioned it because i enjoyed both the movie and the book pretty equally.


----------



## moderan (Jul 27, 2008)

Well, sir, I respectfully disagree. I found it hard to enjoy the film because of that basic misunderstanding, which turned something that actually is about fairly serious matters into slapstick. I suppose on that level it works but it makes the message very different. For me it's on the same level as the people who cheer the words of "Comfortably Numb", not understanding that they're being pilloried. I also didn't enjoy Johnny Depp's performance, which smacked of Thompson's later, far more drug-addled days rather than the reasonably coherent persona of his early to mid-70s days in the sun. Especially since Depp has been playing the same mumbling clod since then, and I enjoyed some of his previous work. Benicio del Toro however turned in a good performance. Better casting than in the earlier "Where the Buffalo Roam", which missed the mark by an even wider margin, despite a superior performance by Bill Murray. This could be because Depp wasn't acquainted with Thompson during his salad days, and Murray was.
Happy birthday, btw.


----------



## Industrial (Jul 27, 2008)

A Clockwork Orange and The Shining both directed by Kubrick a true master of cinematography of course both books were very good in the first place.


----------



## lisajane (Jul 27, 2008)

Requiem for a Dream
The Virgin Suicides
The Devil Wears Prada - very poor book, but excellent movie


----------



## Linton Robinson (Jul 27, 2008)

Agree on Fear and Loathing.  Also, both films neglected a lot of cool stuff in the book.
Having been around Thompson a bit back in the seveties I also found both portrayals to be a little effete.   This was no space-case mumbler.  This guy rode with the Angels and shot of the woodwork... an intense cat.


----------



## moderan (Jul 27, 2008)

Intense and certainly courageous. He got stomped by the Angels because he refused to pull any literary punches. If you read his articles from before then (some of which are in The Great Shark Hunt), it wasn't the first time he put himself in harm's way for the sake of a story. Nor the last. I met the guy once, but didn't hang around because there were a bunch of fanboys clustering...was actually wanting to interview him for the community college paper I was writing for at the time but he wasn't staying either. So all I can say is that we had a beer.
Anyway, he seemed to have far more of what he would call a _presence, _an impending-violence sort of aura, than the people who portrayed him on film. Very tense gestures, angular sort of motion.


----------



## Linton Robinson (Jul 27, 2008)

To a "T".  
He and I both wrote for the Rocky Mountain News (of all things) at the same time and were around.  This would have been about 71-72.
One thing I always got from him was a gnawing dissatisfaction.   I think he really wanted to be "inside" and run things, and was scandalized that it was being done by lesser (other) people and it ate him out.
But he definitely had a cloud of calamity over his head.


----------



## saintoflight (Jul 28, 2008)

Fight Club loved the book, the movie is awesome too


----------



## spider8 (Aug 24, 2008)

The Day of the Jackal
Marathon Man
Blade Runner
Jaws
Atonement

Great books, great films.


----------



## JHB (Aug 24, 2008)

Oops, nevermind. I was mistaken


----------



## Linton Robinson (Aug 24, 2008)

I'd say Fight Club is another example of the film being better than the book.


----------



## moderan (Aug 24, 2008)

Much better. I could never make myself finish the book.


----------



## AlittlePlum (Aug 31, 2008)

I would have to say there aren't many films I thought was as good as the book, the golden compass upset me, the man who wrote the screen play wrote it poorly, the actors were good but the storyline was all over the place and there was unnecessary dialogue throughout. Harry potters are fun but not nearly on the same par, Eragon was another that made me angry, just poor all round.

I _did_ like one flew over the cuckoo's nest, so it was done in a completely different POV to the book so I almost classed it as a completely different film!! I liked The other Boleyn Girl but only after I acknowledged that the story line in the film was completely different to the book and so stood as it's own story seperate from the novel.

I LOVED prince caspian, I thought that was almost a perfect depiction of turning a book into a film. It had hardly any faults in my humble opinion.

Finally, one I'm looking forward to, in my true girly fashion, Twilight.... from the sounds of the way it's been done I think I'm gonna be impressed.


----------



## wacker (Sep 4, 2008)

In the Name of the Father.

Lord of the Rings.

Harry Potter.

Titanic (original version - not the 1997 version)

The Last Samurai


----------



## TheCrow (Sep 7, 2008)

The Green Mile

Lord Of The Rings

Interview With The Vampire


----------



## Kinbote (Sep 7, 2008)

Someone might have mentioned this already, but Stand By Me is a fantastic film. I've not read 'The Body' so I can't compare it to its source material, but the movie was one of my favourites as a kid.


----------

