Kifah… LOL
Lord of the Rings.
As a kid, I read the trilogy over and over again. In anticipation for the films, I tried to read them again, but I found them basically unreadable, full of high literary pretension and an odd fetish for middle class British conservatism.
The films, while flawed, were such an accurate rendition of my own imagination of what the books were like that the filmic imagery has replaced my memories of the stories, so that Gandalf has always been played by Ian Mckellen.
Da Vinci Code
Not because the film was good (it was barely watchable), but because the book was so badly written. Maybe part of the problem was that I listened to it on CD, so the painfulness of the prose was magnified.
Probably Adaptation over The Orchid Thief.
Jaws: a perfect film.
The Shining is another perfect film.
Fight club, definitely.
The Lord of the Rings is unreadable to me.
A Christmas Carol (starring Alstair Sim), A Muppet Christmas Carol, and probably any adaptation of any Dickens story ever. Probably.
Interestingly, Jules and Jim I love equally as a book and as a movie, and both are wonderful versions of the same story. Peter Brooks’ version of Lord of the Flies definitely isn’t better than the original book but it’s a verrrrrrry interesting take on the material, and I think it’s a really good example of the potential in adaptation.
Also… I’m just going to guess The Searchers.
Renoir’s “La Bete Humaine” is far better a film than the Zola novel, at least from a humanist perspective.
I think I need to revisit “La Bete Humaine” cause there wasn’t a single moment of the film that I didn’t feel was entirely dated. After all the sophistication in psychology we’ve had converge into narrative films the actions of the protagonists in this old confined film didn’t seem all that palpable. The themes and the ironies were all there yet I found myself scratching my head everything the lead broke loose from sanity and started committing atrocities. I mean, I’m usually not the type to ground films on realism. A film is a film. Yet the style and the gravity Renoir gives the film doesn’t work for me in contemporary sense. At risk of repeating myself again I’ll leave it at that.
the shinning – i prefered the book, and the film isnt my favourite kubrick
wild at heart the film was MUCH better then the book as was into the wild
Die Hard
I think every Stanley Kubrick film is better than the book it’s based on. The thing is I have not read every book, so yeah I don’t have exactly complete proof for that statement. Anyway, the movie version of A Clockwork Orange is better than the book. And yes, I prefer Lolita the movie.
Also Jules and Jim, I definitely love the film more.
Jaws is probably a safe bet.
Woman in the Dunes: Film > Book
The Face of Another: Book > Film
Belle de Jour: Book > Film (not by far though)
Manuscript of Saragossa: Film > Book (also not by far)
Salo: Book > Film (though really can’t compare the two, since they are too differentiated)
Last Life in the Universe: Book > Film
Kubrick’s Lolita is definitely NOT better than Nabokov’s great novel, but it’s a noble attempt. He got the actors right, but the subtle yet hyper-literary structure of the novel defies any treatment on film.
The Outsidders
The Shinning
Fight Club
I found the book for Clockwork Orange Far better than the movie, allthough I loved the film, Burgess may be the greatest writer that ever lived. Eventhough all his books are not good. I’m just talking about writing abillity, I have not found anyone that could equal him. Clockwork Orange the movie is pretty much the same as the book without the perfect ending.
The Outsidders
The Shinning
Fight Club
I found the book for Clockwork Orange Far better than the movie, allthough I loved the film, Burgess may be the greatest writer that ever lived. Eventhough all his books are not good. I’m just talking about writing abillity, I have not found anyone that could equal him. Clockwork Orange the movie is pretty much the same as the book without the perfect ending.
Ford’s THE GRAPES OF WRATH. For whatever reason, the sight of the inhumanity — and through those superior performances — has always been more wrenching.
Definitely Unbearable Lightness of Being. I think even Kundera, who wrote the book, liked it better. The film eliminates some of the superfluous plot (the first marriage of Daniel Day Lewis’ character, for instance). The film version makes the story resonate – see my separate review of the movie on this forum site.
Not to be redundant but fight club.
Les Enfants Terribles
Thumbsucker
The Shining
Fight Club
and Fast Food Nation— although that might be a stretch seeing as the only real similarity is the title and the theme of American consumerism/corruption.
The Harry Potter series.
“Saying the book is better than the movie is like saying cross-country skiing is better than lasagna.”
- Davide Caputo
redundantly, although not my intention, i’ll repeat with FIGHT CLUB. fincher was able to take an amazing book and tighten the screws, fill the holes, and just make it an altogether more enjoyable and interesting experience. not to knock palahniuk, he is my favorite author. i would love to see a director take a stab at RANT.
also, i’ve got to agree with NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN. up to a very close point (the last few chapters specifically), the book and film are damn near identical, but i feel the film leaves a much stronger and lasting impression. i’ve actually written an essay comparing and contrasting the two at samuraipandapoetry.blogspot.com
Gone With The Wind
2.Idiot(kurosawa)
It’s pretty rare, isn’t it? I’ll list Ordinary People and agree with Woman in the Dunes.
Disagree strongly on Unbearable Lightness. I liked the adaptation, but the book is a whole other matter: the prose is so startling and direct and alive, and I’m not even sure what you mean by superfluous, because it’s a smart philosophical novel that is also a masterpiece of economy. I love reading it and I love hearing it read aloud.
Shawshank Redemption, Godfather, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, Silence of the Lambs, The Shining, There Will Be Blood (although it’s only loosely based on Oil!), Unbearable Lightness of Being, Adaptation., probably more I can’t think of…
Re: Adam Cook
I’m going to have to disagree with you on Shawshank Redemption. Although the film itself is great, the short Stephen King novella is far superior. The style it’s written in, as kind of a journal of the character Red, really doesn’t translate over to the film. I think it’s Stephen King’s best work, and is the reason I started to just loathe all the paranormal crap he cranks out over and over.
Snow Angels I thought was far better than the book
I agree with Snow Angels. I’d trust David Gordon Green with adapting anything.
T
Nawid: what do you mean streamlined the book? Because you know, it’s not the most sentence-space-intensive book I’ve ever read.
In fact, if you typeset it to joe-standard publishing, as opposed to its usual printing where
one sentence
is broken and placed on a line
and then another sentence is placed on a line
it doesn’t
add up to more than 50 pages.
And I call that pretty streamlined to begin with.