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Favourite Movie or TV Adaptions of Books

Scepticalscribe

Scepticalscribe

macrumors Haswell
Original poster
Jul 29, 2008
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In a coffee shop.
Normally, I shudder when I hear that a movie is about to be made based on a book, especially if it is a book I have loved; most of them are pretty poor, some are downright travesties, and a startling number bear no relationship whatsoever to the book and title that gave rise to them. Some are simply disappointing, or fail to rise to the challenge of translating text to screen, or are unable to give cinematic life to the book.

However, there are movies which are inspirational interpretations of books, movies which add a whole new dimension to the book, often itself a work of art. So, fellow MR denizens, what movies have you seen that are an excellent or faithful representation of the book that inspired them? Or have added to the enjoyment of the book? I'm including TV adaptions in this thread as well.

A few that come to mind are The Name of the Rose;
Godfather I and II (which actually improved on the ancestor book, if anything);
LA Confidential;
BBC's Pride and Prejudice of the 1990s;
BBC's Cranford (2008)
Shawshank Redemption

Over to you, but others, doubtless, will come to mind.

Cheers and good luck
 
On a Shakespeare kick recently, so here it goes...

I thought the Romeo and Juliet that was like in modern day with Leo was actually kinda good.

I also liked 10 Things I Hate About You, which is based on another of Shakespeare's works, The Taming of the Shrew.
 
I know I'll get killed for this, but Watchmen ended up being better than the graphic novel, IMO. They removed the extraneous, beat-you-over-the-head-with-the-"message" stuff to make for a much better story. And really- was the Black Freighter stuff necessary? Yawn.

I liked American Psycho, even though it was drastically different from the book.
 
leekohler said:
I liked American Psycho, even though it was drastically different from the book.
Click to expand...

It was ok. No way they could have stuck to the book though.

Fight Club is actually better than the book and I'm a big Palahaniuk fan...
 
barr08 said:
On a Shakespeare kick recently, so here it goes...

I thought the Romeo and Juliet that was like in modern day with Leo was actually kinda good.

I also liked 10 Things I Hate About You, which is based on another of Shakespeare's works, The Taming of the Shrew.
Click to expand...

Good choice and I'd agree. Actually, Shakespeare has given rise to an incredible variety of adaptations, some of them excellent (Laurence Olivier's Henry V, Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet), some of them strange and wonderfully original (Polanski's MacBeth) and all of them a weird reflection of their own time and the concerns of those times.

Charles Dickens has also given rise to a rich harvest in cinema; but then, his books were extraordinarily cinematic in their composition and construction. (Think of the various versions of David Copperfield, or Oliver Twist).

Cheers and good luck
 
themoonisdown09 said:
I thought that Into the Wild was a very good adaption of the book.
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I thought Sean Penn did a great job. The Eddie Vedder sound track didn't hurt either.



May get flamed but who cares...

The LOTR trilogy were unbelievable books. No movie could ever capture it all, but Peter Jackson did about a good a job as could be done with his adaption. He created the characters and landscapes from another world and told the story as visually as possible without altering the original too much.
 
Tilpots said:
I thought Sean Penn did a great job. The Eddie Vedder sound track didn't hurt either.



May get flamed but who cares...

The LOTR trilogy were unbelievable books. No movie could ever capture it all, but Peter Jackson did about a good a job as could be done with his adaption. He created the characters and landscapes from another world and told the story as visually as possible without altering the original too much.
Click to expand...

Agree absolutely. Have to admit that the LOTR was a really superb adaptation of a very difficult trilogy (brilliant but still, something of a challenge and quite difficult to transfer to the big screen). An excellent adaptation with stunning use of the NZ landscape and great acting which yet remained entirely true to the original text.

Cheers and good luck
 
I liked The World According to Garp (both the book and movie), but the movie is a bit of a departure from the book. Still a good movie though.
 
^^^ Ditto on the movie The World According to Garp. Although I don't care much for John Irving's novels.
 
bartelby said:
Fight Club is actually better than the book and I'm a big Palahaniuk fan...
Click to expand...

My first thought. I read the book after seeing the film and was disappointed in it.

bartelby said:
Yes. The one and only time a fictional book has made me feel a little queasy...
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I had to keep stopping and starting American Psycho. Not seen the film yet

I like Trainspotting a lot. Very different from the book in parts, but still great.

I'm excited for Fantastic Mr Fox. I LOVED that book when I was 7. On a Roald Dahl note, the adaptation of Matilda was great :)
 
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