Ratebeer Readers discussion
Best book to film....
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To Kill a MockingbirdGreat Gatsby
Lonesome Dove
Lord of the Rings was pretty well done as well.
I don't want to see All the Kings Men because I'm sure it is terrible compared to the book, which is one of my favorites.
Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank RedemptionThe Body -> Stand By Me
I'm not sure I think LOTR is a good adaptation; I think Jackson actually took a lot of the meat out of that story (especially by skipping "The Scouring of the Shire") and made it a much simpler and more mainstream tale. I liked the films a lot, don't get me wrong, but they have nothing on the novel.Best examples I can think of offhand....
HOUSEKEEPING -- book by Marilynne Robinson, film directed by Bill Forsyth
THE LAST PICTURE SHOW -- Larry McMurtry, film directed by Peter Bogdanovich (and its the director's only completely successful film, too).
THE HOUSE OF MIRTH -- Terence Davies, England's greatest director since Michael Powell, adapted Edith Wharton's novel
THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY -- A rare case where the film is vastly better than the source material; not a "great adaptation" in the sense of being truly faithful, but great in the sense of transcending the original. Clint Eastwood directed from the Robert James Waller book.
THE LATHE OF HEAVEN -- the 1980 TV movie directed by Fred Barzyk and David R Loxton based on Ursula K LeGuin's novel. There's a more recent film which I haven't yet seen, but I can't imagine it capturing the tone of the novel as well as this low-budget effort.
yeah scouring of the shire was a big deal...it was definitely an adaptation but at least he didn't butcher it in my opinion
Room with a View
A River Runs Through ItAll Quiet on the Western Front
The Right Stuff (actually not a Tom Wolfe fan, but liked the movie)
Some great calls in this list already--LOTR definitely improved on some areas of the book. Tolkien gets a bit twee here and there, especially with his song lyrics. Some of the compressions and elisions were good choices, but ultimately you could never get it *all* on film at the epic scale it demands.
A River Runs Through It, for sure.
They improved on a couple of Tom Clancy's books, especially Patriot Games.
Get Shorty.
The Big Sleep comes pretty close in a lot of ways but doesn't have the wit.
The Thin Man, the first one. Unbelievably good as it is, the book is ever so slightly better.
No Country For Old Men was pretty loyal to the book, and it translated very well to film. I'm sure great acting helped quite a bit.
Fight Club and Trainspotting, I thought were both better than the books they were based on but I dunno if I'd call either a fantastically great film. Both are fun rides though.As far as recent stuff, I tend to be in a minority but I really liked Linklater's adaptation of A Scanner Darkly. The story is as well preserved as could reasonably done, I liked the choice of actors and the rotoscope animation was just perfect for it. I do not like, however, how it was marketed as sort of a teen drug movie or something, which I think made a lot of people write it off.
Another favorite is Mother Night. It is probably my favorite Vonnegut book and just another one of those that I feel could not have been done any better.
Can't believe I forgot to mention The Godfather. The book is a complete piece of crap--you'd never expect anything as good as the movie would come of it.
Personally I didn't enjoy the godfather at all and really don't know what the big deal was.
No Country for Old Men is one of those. The Coen brothers did a great job at keeping to feel of the book.