I don't believe I've ever heard anyone say the phrase, "I liked the film better than the novel", but occasionally an adaptation of a novel I've really enjoyed will be made by a director that seems to..."get it right".
Mine is "A Scanner Darkly', Directed by Richard Linklater, adapted by Philip K Dick's novel of the same name.
So, prepare your virgin ears: Fight Club the movie was better than Fight Club the novel. As was Naked Lunch. And No Country for Old Men is nearly identical to the novel, so the only real difference being how long it takes to get through. So unless you really don't like Woody Harrelson or something, the movie wins in most circumstances.
And I couldn't get very far into The Orchid Thief, but I love Adaptation. Though I could see that being considered a special case.
But more importantly, isn't there already a movie adaptation thread?
And even more importantly, where in Southwest Louisiana? Otherwise 'Southwest Louisiana' means "Lake-Charles-but-I-don't-want-anyone-to-know-I'm-from-Lake Charles'.
You guys are talking up Louisiana, eh? Then I belong here, too -I'm from Houma. Whenever I return home to visit my mommy and daddy, we go to the fishing camp down Dularge -next to Dulac. Those are Bayous -with nice hairy Swamp Things walking on the side of the road!
Nathan, 'hairy-swamp-thing' is derogatory. We prefer the term 'cajun'.
I completely agree about No Country for Old Men. Fight Club I enjoyed equally in both media. The Help was an excellent movie and I would say it was on par with the book, except for it was different in a few sections that made the movie a unique experience that didn't detract from the book in the slightest.
Kubrick's Lolita was pretty alright. Nabakov wrote the screenplay so that's a plus.
Some of the screen adaptations of Harold Pinter's plays are awesome: check out The Birthday Party or The Servent.
Maybe A Clock Work Orange, I'm definitly on the fence. The book wins for the last chapter but the movie is better overall.
Francis Ford Coppola's version of Bram Stoker's Dracula is better than Bram Stoker's.
Other than that I can't think of one. I've read books where they seemed like they'd work better as movies. Max Barry's Jennifer Government read just like a movie to me. He might as well have just written a screenplay.
Before movies books like that had a purpose (like Dracula), but now that there's film I think a book has to do something that can't be captured on film to be worth the time I spend reading it. A lot of times I watch a movie that will say it's based off some book and I'll never bother to look up the book because it seems like it should have just been a movie to begin with.
The Silence of the Lambs for sure - one of the best adaptations of novel to screen I've seen. I think Jaws the movie outdid Jaws the novel - and Trainspotting because the novel and the film are so very different.
@Nathan, My Dad is from Morgan City and grew up in Burwick where my grandmother still lives. I love riding out there.
@Jacks_username, I'm embarrassed to say that I have not read Clockwork but it's on my "to read" list, especially now cause I'm curious as to what you mean about the last chapter.
@Razorsharp, I felt the exact same way when reading Jennifer Government and I'm pretty sure it was the quickest i've ever read a book.
@XyZy, I have to agree with you on No Country For Old Men. Woody is the bomb!
Yes, there already is an adaptation thread. Now there's two
and Southwest Louisiana as in, If you drove down from NY, when you get to LA, you would drive south in a westwardly direction. There's no underlying resentment as to where I'm from.
I know that I was required to read the swill of Dances with Wolves. But the movie opened two years later and I was impressed-it was truly better than the book. I detested (I mentioned this in another thread, sorry) The DaVinci Code text. I found the plot was plodding and it seemed like the author was a great researcher but a bad writer. I thought it would make a better movie.
And it did.
I frequently have to point out to my students that since they are different mediums, books and movies rarely match and that's okay. That's the fun of reading a book and then comparing it to the movie. They learned this with Harry Potter.
Peace,
Rue
Trainspotting has to be up there. I enjoyed Wonderboys the film as much as I did the book. Fear and Loathing was pretty awful but I'm interested to see how the Rum Diary works out.
While I'm not 100% sure it was better then the book I think 'let the right one in' complimented the book perfectly. The movie was beautiful and atmospheric but to understand it properly you need to read the book.
I'll agree with everyone who said 'fight club'.
'Battle royale' I mainly prefer the movie because some of the more graphic bits of the book made me squeamish and they cut some of those out of the movie.
Does 'Howl's moving castle' count? If so, then that one definitely that one.
@Zeka I definitely agree about Let the Right One In. The original film followed the book almost exactly.
I think the new Jane Eyre did a pretty good job of following the book, sans the ending of course. Most Victorian novels work better as movies - maybe that's mostly because it's easier to see what's going on.
Requiem for a Dream was a great movie and book. The book is great because of his style of writing, and the movie is pretty on point with the story.
I was trying to think of what could be on here and the only thing that came close (for me) is The Shining. I'm not sure if the movie is better than the book or not. But it's close.
I loved Eyes Wide Shut because it allows the viewer to fill in all of the blanks himself. Arthur Schnitzler's Dream Story was very good, but I have such affection certain parts of the film.
The Shining was better than the book. Stephen King ended up making it too weird in the end with the moving shrubs and ghosts. It was better as a psychological thriller. The threat of insanity and violence of a human character makes the threat more real to the audience.
Also, I have not read the book, but I just watched Drive, and have to say it was extremely well done with tone and musical score.
Keep hearing good things about Drive. May go see it later.
I agree with most of these, which feels dirty. A Scanner Darkly is my favorite Philip K Dick novel, and I tink they captured the frantic, crazy feeling that you might actually BE on drugs while you are reading, in the way they made the film. I am a huge Robert Downey Jr fan as well, so that probably helped.
One film that is leaps and bounds better than the book is Nightwatch (the Russain film, not the one about morgue workers). I was blown away by both Nightwatch and Daywatch in their film versions and really underwhelmed by the books.
Oh, and RE: A Clockwork Orange--I am ashamed to admit that I just canNOT get through that book. I know it will be amazing, and my husband is always on me to just do it, but I have such a rough time with the language. I really feel like it is on my bucket list, considering the wonderful things I have heard about the book ending vs. the film ending. It's a mental block for me, I need a "Clockwork to English" dictionary...not understanding the language really messes with my obsessive personality.
Robert Downey Jr is fantastic in Scanner! He really made the movie for me.
I'm gonna have to check out Nightwatch and Daywatch, both book and movies. They sound really good and I'm huge into Russian films lately, especially Tarkovsky's.
Yep, DRIVE. It's better than the book. Go see it whiles it's still on the big screen.
@Renee Watching A Clockwork Orange definitely helped me through the book. The langauage was the barrier, and for me it was all in how you read it. I had to read it like poetry, to find a rythm and just read through. When you stop trying to figure out every single word, and just keep pace, your brain fills in the words with approximate meaning. It was impossible for me at first because I wanted to stop and figure out the exact word that the author substituted, but it isn't really possible because Burgess was a linguist and the novel is much more complex than madlibs. It is really worth it if you can make it through that book.
@Renee: It's a mental block for me, I need a "Clockwork to English" dictionary...not understanding the language really messes with my obsessive personality.
They do have these online. I found one and printed it out. But, I still have not read the book either. lol
I wouldnt' go so far as to say that the Fear in Loathing movie was better than the book, but holy shit balls did i enjoy the story in both medians. Same with fight club, i woudlnt' say one was better than the other but i will say that both had a profound impact on me in their own way.
@EM--see that is exactly what I do, I try to figure all of it out in the moment, rather than just reading it and heading through. Maybe I can convince myself it is German, for some reason I can read/listen to German and forget it's not English, even though I am far from fluent in it...sometimes I will even forget to read the subtitles on the History Channel and realize I am completely lost a half hour later!
@Renee Pickup - the language in Clockwork is a combination of Russian (from propaganda) and childish terms - if you have an ear for British English, the phonetics of the words make more sense. "He smolt him a tolchok across the rot." seems very British to me. "Eggy Weggs and Milky Wilks" seem very Russel Brand.
And all of these terms, Burgess made up himself, right?
I think One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is at least as good as the Kesey novel. I'd say the same for Trainspotting if it weren't for the ending (which I think got forced into a semi "happy" ending that wasn't present in the book). Completely agree about Fight Club
I agree with Wonderboys because it just works so brilliantly, but I strongly disagree with A Scanner Darkly and the Nightwatch movies. Those films are fantastic but as far as story and style do not surpass the originals to me. Any PKD short story-turned-movie though to me is a great action flick expansion on his ideas though, haven't really been disappointed with one of those.
Alex Garland's The Beach I think works slightly better in the movie form. Robert Altman's take on MASH I think is mostly the best rendition, though I love every format. And his take on The Long Goodbye, possibly one of my all time favorites in both forms, at least matches the power of the novel. Harlan Ellison's A Boy and His Dog, maybe I just have a soft spot for that movie but I thought they did it perfectly.
@Dhanny: as far as I know Burgess made a lot of it up, but there are some real Russian words thrown in the mix, as well as the British childish stuff.
@John: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - absolutely!
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. I enjoyed the movie much more than the book. Fight Club is David Fincher's finest achievement as well, but it may also be Palahniuks. Can't honestly say that one was better than the other. I loved them both equally.
the road. have i said that yet?
L.A. Confidential. The movie was a bit better than the book. Just a little bit.
@Renee Pickup - the language in Clockwork is a combination of Russian (from propaganda) and childish terms - if you have an ear for British English, the phonetics of the words make more sense. "He smolt him a tolchok across the rot." seems very British to me. "Eggy Weggs and Milky Wilks" seem very Russel Brand.
Funny you should say this, my husband is a British expat, and I am a bit of an anglophile (big Doctor Who fanatic, and thus, a big BBCA fanatic). I have told him I am certain it was easier for him reading it for that very reason. Perhaps I should take a shot at reading it after our next extended visit to England.
@Renfeild--did you read the Nightwatch books first, or see the films? I think that may have played a part in my opinion. I saw the films first, and I found the books to be a little...slow in comparison, and I found the changes to the story in the film to be more compelling.
Although I agree that ASD wasn't better than the book, I do think it did a very good job of capturing the feeling of the book, and that is why I feel comfortable saying it was 'as good' or, at least, almost as good.
re: Nightwatch. I saw bits of the first film before reading the books, then later watched the movies in full. The structure of the book kind of blew my expectations away, three smaller episodes leading in a great conclusion. The world building and character development throughout the books is pretty amazing, they kind of gave up this in the movies and replaced them with interesting special effects. I also thought that not having read the books I would probably not understand the actions in the movie aswell, but this is just a common problem with watching movie adaptations I think. Still, awesome flicks, but the books trump them entirely for me.
I don't believe I've ever heard anyone say the phrase, "I liked the film better than the novel"
"I Liked The Film Better Than The Novel" of American Psycho.
This is entirely due to the script by Mary Harron and Guinevere Turner as well as Mary Harron's direction.
I think I might like the new "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" with Gary Oldman more than I liked the Le Carre novel, and far more than I enjoyed the BBC adaptation. I think both of the latter are awesome, but I guess I like Gary Oldman and (director) Tomas Alfredson more.
Definitely agree with A Scanner Darkly and Fight Club being as good as their source material. I would add Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Red Dragon (Manhunter was good, but the Ed Norton/Ralph Fiennes version is superior). Can't think of any other examples as the moment. Haven't read American Psycho or Drive yet, but I enjoyed both films. Totally disagree with The Road being comparable to McCarthy's novel, but that's probably just me -- I thought the film was a huge disappointment.
Double Indemnity. As much as I love Cain more than Chandler, I have to admit, Chandler elevated the film to a higher level, through his expansion on Cain's curt dialogue. Cain even admitted this, saying something along the lines of "what looked so exciting in those jagged right margins of mine, just didn't translate for film."
How has this thread gotten this far without anyone mentioning Apocalypse Now? The real version, not the redux was significantly better than Heart of Darkness, partly because the basic theme of Heart of Darkness was "Black people get more and more evil the further they get from white people".
But by using the back drop of the Viet Nam war, it became war, itself, gets more and more overcome by madness the further it gets from the people who make the decisions to actually go to war.
@renfield ... man, I couldn't disagree with you more about The Beach. The movie lightened things too much, changed the romantic subplot to make it more hollywood-friendly and the video game sequences were laughable.
To Kill a Mockingbird was almost as good as the book, in large part due to Gregory Peck.
OH YEAH... Both Out of Sight and Jackie Brown were damn good adaptations. As good as they possibly could have been, but with both of those, you're dealing with shit-tons of super-talented people. Even Jennifer Lopez (before she was J-Lo) was great in Out of Sight.
Cowboy! Where you been?
Totally agree about Heart of Darkness. Conrad in one of my favorite authors, but I admit, Apocalypse was better. The Secret Sharer is actually one of my favorite short stories though (superior to Heart, in my opinion), and it is overshadowed by Heart. Often they are printed in the same volume, and I wish people would give it as much consideration as its more publicized cousin.
Bringing Out The Dead. Not a Nic Cage fan but he does the burned out role very well.
On that note has anyone read Leaving Las Vegas?
I thought No County For Old Men was brilliant. I didn't like The Road at first, but after watching it a few more times it's really grown on me. I've read the book a half dozen times.
I thought the Choke adaptation was good. So far I've enjoyed all the PKD adaptations.
Yeah, I liked Choke. It was no Fight Club -- which is too bad, because I think Choke is maybe Palahniuk's masterpiece -- but I enjoyed it enormously.
I'd say One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is in that Fight Club category of both versions being great but just different enough from the other to be their own separate great thing.
If you guys haven't seen "He Died With a Felafel in His Hands", or "Wristcutters: A Love Story"(based off of Knellers Happy Campers) are some of the greatest literature to screen translations I've seen.
While I liked Apocalypse Now, I don't understand the argument that it's better than Heart of Darkness. I disagree with the idea that Heart of Darkness was about "Black people getting more and more evil the further they get from white people." That seems like a rather negative spin on it.
I saw it more as meaning that people without civilization devolve into barbarians at best, animals at worst. The fact that this happend to Kurtz, an educated white man, showed that it had nothing to do with race. We tend to think of ourselves, as individuals, as much greater than other animals because of our logical capicity and whatnot. But I believe Conrad was arguing that, as individuals, we are nothing more than animals. What we consider to be our humanity is a product of civilization, not some innate excellence of human beings. I don't think that idea translated that well to the film. While the film maintained the idea that humans are capable of terrible things, Conrad's story went deeper than that observation to try and discover why.
Maybe I'm off base. It's been a while since I've read the book and even longer since I've watched the film, but I found the book to be much more interesting.
"Cold Mountain". I loved the book, but it drug on and on forever, the movie was great.
All the ones mentioned for certain. Also I would add High Fidelity and About a Boy based on the novels by Nick Hornby. I liked both movies and both books.
