50 movies made into books.

Poststructural Pub
1

The Guardian has a list of top 50 movies made into books.

I’ve only listed the ones I’ve either seen, read or both for my opinion.
The link to the site is at the bottom if you want the whole list.
I’ve put my five favorites in italics. Only those I’ve seen both the movie and read the book.

1984 - Book was better

Alice in Wonderland - Which movie version do they mean?

Catch 22 - Book much better. Movie too confusing.

A Clockwork Orange - I give this five stars. My number three pick

The Day of the Triffids - They’ve got to be kidding. Never read the book though.

Different Seasons (inc The Shawshank Redemption) I give this three stars.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (aka Bladerunner) 5 stars. This almost made the top 5

Doctor Zhivago - Never could get through either book or movie.

Fight Club - I didn’t know it was a book. Movie had dumb ending.

Get Shorty - Both pretty good. Liked book better.

The Godfather - Book: 4 stars, Movie 5 stars. My number two pick

Goodfellas - Both about identical. Book was called Wiseguys.

Heart of Darkness (aka Apocalypse Now) Like them both but I don’t think it’s really a valid comparison. Number 5 pick because they aren’t really that much the same.

The Hound of the Baskervilles - Only with Basil Rathbone

Jaws - Both good. Important differences though.

The Jungle Book - Huh? They are both good for different reason.

Lolita - Been a long time but I liked movie better.

Lord of the Flies - 5 stars for both but only the original. This is my number one pick.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest - 3 stars each.

The Outsiders - 4 stars each from this reviewer.

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - Movie ok. Never read book.

Schindler’s Ark (aka Schindler’s List) - Only saw movie.

The Spy Who Came in From the Cold - Never saw movie. Read book in high school so I don’t really remember if I liked it or not.

The Talented Mr Ripley - Pretty cool movie. Never read book.

To Kill a Mockingbird - I give both 4 stars.

Some others I’d put on my list:

Falling Angel aka Angel Heart. - Creepy stuff.

Killer Angels aka Gettysburg. Though it was about an historical event it was still fiction.

The Satyricon - Come on! Where’s this classic on their list? This is my number four pick. I give the movie a 2 and the book a 4.


Here’s the link:

http://film.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,1756383,00.html

2

Blade Runner sucked. And I like science fiction.

3

Well, I liked it very much. And it was supposed to be part of the Guardian’s prize of ten all-time (i.e. since 1900) Science Fiction Films.

But I understand the other viewpoints. Three of my friends wanted to see it, when I had the video. We watched the whole thing in complete silence from the audience (four of us).

One said “Wow, that was BRILLIANT!”
One said “What a load of old cobblers!”
And the last said, “What! Have I been asleep? Is it over?”

4

Au verso, perhaps? :wink:

djm

5

Patricia Highsmith, the author of The Talented Mr. Ripley, is really an outstanding writer. I highly recommend her books. I’m pretty sure I saw the movie called “The Talented Mr. Ripley”, but the one I really remember is the version called “Purple Noon” made in 1960 with Alain Delon playing Mr. Ripley. To me it had much more the atmosphere of the creepy horror of a charming sociopath who could fool any of us.

I guess the movie “Tess of the D’Ubervilles” is the one made for TV? I just looked it up. I just remember the “Tess” movie by Roman Polanski from 1979. I thought it was very disappointing, but it got Oscars and everything so I guess I was not in the majority. It’s so long ago now I can hardly remember the movie or the book, but I remember thinking that the movie was basically about how Nastassja Kinski looked.

I don’t think I’ve ever thought a movie was better than the book it was based on—I haven’'t really seen that many movies though—but I guess I have seen some that I thought did justice to the book or did as well as anyone could expect. To Kill a Mockingbird, The Lord of the Flies (only know of old one), One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, Goldfinger, all seemed like really great attempts to capture in a different medium what the author was writing about. I think I thought The French Lieutenant’s Woman was quite good in itself, but I can’t remember if I thought it really captured the novel or not.

6

Yes, I was confused… I’m pretty sure Lewis Carol predates most films.

7

There are only 5 titles on that list for which I’ve both read the book and seen the movie:

Charlie & the Chocolate Factory
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (aka Bladerunner)
Heart of Darkness (aka Apocalypse Now)
The Jungle Book
Oliver Twist

While I enjoyed all 5 movies, the books are, in my opinion, better than the movies. This holds true in every case where I’ve read a book and seen the movie adaptation, not just those on the list in the article. I prefer the movie that a good book creates in my imagination over anything put on film. For one thing, my mental movie is complete and unabridged, not nipped and tucked to fit into a couple of hours. :slight_smile:

8

What!? No, you’re mistaken, fly, Jeremy Brett all the way! :stuck_out_tongue: :smiley:

9

Jeremy Brett DA MAN! I’ve been a Holmes fan since I was 13 and nobody really captured all of Holmes’ irritation character quirks until Brett came along. Also, most of the other Holmes movies made Watson out to be somewhat of a jerk/bumbler, which Holmes never would have stood for. Catch any of the Brett series if you can. Actually, Baskerville is my favorite Holmes story.

10

Am I misunderstanding? Movies made into books?
“The Jungle Book”?!? Sheesh–Rudyard Kipling would be astonished that his book idea came from a movie.
Do you mean movies made from books?

Susan

11

That kind of hung me up a bit, too. In that category, the only thing that
comes to mind right away is Star Wars.

12

If you look at the linked article, it’s obviously supposed to be “books into movies”. Fly’s just posting in reverse today. :wink:

13

I was wondering that very thing… though there certainly are some where the movie came first, the vast majority of those listed are books made into movies, not movies made into books.

:laughing: ooops … Just noticed others have already noted that too…

14

I have never found a movie better than the book it is based on. However, the movies often provide visual information that supplements my enjoyment of the book (Hogwarts is a good example). Special effects have their own charm, of course, and make many otherwise useless movies a great entertainment (anything Star Wars, as an example).

djm

15

I thought The Spy Who Came In From the Cold, which
had Richard Burton in it, beat the novel–you can do
spy stuff pretty well on film, tight, strong drama,
fog, winter days in East Germany, and so on.

The novel Day of The Triffids is excellent; never
saw the movie.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep is a short story,
I believe, very much expanded into Blade Runner,
which I personally liked a great deal.

All the Pretty Horses is from a novel by the same
name–I think this is one of the best films I’ve ever
seen. In a number of ways it beat the novel, because
in the novel there are long passages of people talking,
often soliloquey, which were edited fiercely in the
movie. An improvement.
Billy Bob Thornton directed, Matt Damon starred.

16

HERESY.

17

I’ve read “Johnny Got His Gun” Metallica’s video of “One” was better than that. Does that count?

18

Um, excuse me, but how could any list of that sort NOT include Gone With the Wind? Both the movie and the book were very good.

Another one that comes to mind is The Wizard of Oz. Though the book and movie are pretty much totally different, they’re both good.

19

OH WOW. You’re totally right. WTH?

20

What about books that were made into movies that were so different that they felt they had to make a new book based on the movie, such as Planet of the Apes?