Despite the huge numbers of novels adapted for film, movies are rarely quite able to capture the magic of a book, even when the movie is really good. And it’s easy to understand why: With the shorter format, it’s tough to please both the purists and the casual viewers alike and provide the same depth of experience as a great novel. All the same, some of the greatest movies of all time have been based on books.
So what is your favorite book to film effort?
For me, The Godfather is an easy answer, but the movie elevated more than captured the essence of the book. The Shawshank Redepmtion is another one, but it’s arguably easier to translate a novella than a full novel.
So I’d probably have to go with a novel and movie I loved in equal measure: The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler and the 1946 adaptation starring Bogart and Bacall.
What about you?
No question: To Kill a Mockingbird.
But then, I guess I'd vote for anything starring Gregory Peck. I even liked Duel in the Sun, which was one of the worst adaptations ever–with the worst acting, EXCEPT for Gregory Peck.
I'm a bit late on this one, but figured I'd toss this out there –
The book: The Seed and the Sower by Laurens Van der Post
The movie: Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence starring David Bowie and Tom Conti & Ryuichi Sakamoto.
The movie focuses on the subtle undercurrent of the relationship between the English POW played by Bowie and the Japanese officer in charge and makes them the focus more so than the book. It's visually and thematically beautiful. Beyond what my imagination produced while reading the book.
I love THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES. Although it certainly deviated from the book at times, it was a gorgeous movie.
LOTR
SENSE AND SENSIBILITY — Emma Thompson version
THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL — Andrews/Seymour/McKellen version
Best book to movie adaptation: To Kill a Mockinbird.
Worst book to movie adaptation: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Really, Fitzgerald said in 30 pages what it took an entire movie 3+ hours to say.
I'm with abc and Sarah on A Room With a View. abc, I don't think I'm overstating when I say you Must read the book.
I'd seen the movie too many times to count when I finally read the book and they're almost identical. Forster's economic eloquence and the Merchant/Ivory/Prawer team's translation for the big screen seem to be a good model for how an adaptation is done.
Also, I should say Like Water for Chocolate, though the writer wrote, directed and starred. Is that it's own category of adaptation?
Fun topic. Thanks.
I love, love, love Anne of Green Gables. The books are good, but I love the movies.
I've thought about naming a daughter Anne. The grandmothers have Ann/Anne as a middle name. But I could never name a girl Ann after watching Anne of Greene Gables.
I think my favorite adaptation has to be Howl's Moving Castle. Hayao Miyazaki took a story I found relatively boring and unromantic and turned it into something magical and beautiful. The changes he made to Howl's personality were a vast improvment.
I never read Howl's Moving Castle but god do I love that movie and just about everything Miakazki creates.
Gone with the wind,a movie every bit as good as the book. Also Lord of The Rings and the first three Harry Potters.
Lonesome Dove
I really loved Roman Polanski's "The Ghost Writer", which is based on Robert Harris' novel "The Ghost" (I know, I know, Roman Polanski, big old justice fleeing creep). But the movie stays true to the best parts of the book, jettisons the things that really didn't serve much of a purpose, and even manages to make the (frankly slightly silly) ending pretty much work.
I loved the adaptation of Andre Dubus "House of Sand and Fog" b/c it had these brilliant characters in the book that were in turn played by brilliant actors on the screen. But then again, you put Sir Ben Kingsley on screen eveyone wins.
Late to the party but who cares?
Of Mice and Men
To Kill a Mockingbird
Great Expectations (the modern retelling was better than I expected but I also loved the original B&W)
All umpteen versions of Jane Eyre
Fight Club was an awesome movie but a painful read