The book was better than the movie...


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the_sweetest is offline the_sweetest Post #1  April 3,2010, 12:31am
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My friends are tired of my frequently made, snooty assertion that the movie never compares with the book.

The most recent annoyance in my (long) list is "The Lightning Thief".
The book by Rick Riordan was GREAT! I read it in one night, then went back to the bookshop the next day for parts 2 and 3. Then I haunted the website until books 4 and 5 were out.

Chris Columbus systematically denuded that story of all substance, mystery and humor. For some reason, he seems to think that teenagers are incapable of processing concerns greater than Daddy issues. GAH!

ANYWAY.. which movies failed most abyssmally at living up to the books and are there any movies that are in fact better than the book?

(For the latter, "The Silence of the Lambs" is the only example that I can come up with.)
 
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krohnan is offline krohnan Post #2  April 6,2010, 6:56am
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I'll say this is true of The Princess Bride. Now granted both movie and the preceding book were written by William Goldman, I think the movie's pacing and cast set it apart from the book so much that subsequent re-reads feel different because of the subtle differences in some of the most memorable and beloved parts.

Similarly The Godfather had Mario Puzo attached to the screenwriting as well and given that movies' success and standing I think it can and often does surpass reading the book. Coincidentally William Goldman was offered the job of screenwriting The Godfather but turned it down.

And the Lord of The Rings trilogy stands up rather well against a large fan base, although I for one hated turning Gimli into comic relief as it downplays a lot of his role in the faithful sections.

Fight Club as well I think also stacks up well to its source.

Also as a longtime Robert Ludlum fan, the new Bourne movies are better than the original trilogy. While they really oinly cover the first book and take their liberties, in comparison the original trilogy of novels got really, really bogged down and the action and plot of the movies better represent the character (that and Ludlum produced the 1st before passing away so it seems he was ok with these changes).
 
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mrflyer is offline mrflyer Post #3  April 6,2010, 4:42pm
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I think this is true of most movies based on books. A big reason is that a book can be as long as necessary, but movies are usually cut to 2 hours or so, which might be 120 pages.
 
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lindseyk is offline lindseyk Post #4  April 6,2010, 9:43pm
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The movie version of The Count of Monte Cristo, the one starring Jim Caveziel (who I normally like), is a travesty.
 
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Wootz is offline Wootz Post #5  April 6,2010, 10:19pm
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lindseyk wrote :
The movie version of The Count of Monte Cristo, the one starring Jim Caveziel (who I normally like), is a travesty.
Hear, hear!

They could at *least* (grumble) tried to make a decent connection with the spirit of the book, rather than stealing a few lines from the Cliff's Notes version... *sigh* Leaving aside the nonexistant romance and son with Mercedes in the end, the fourth conspirator who is conspicuously absent, and so on, it neatly avoids the focus on just retribution rather than simple revenge. Argh!

Another movie that failed to live up to the book was The 13th Warrior, which paled in comparison to the Michael Crichton novel "Eaters of the Dead." Though there were scenes that were based on the book, they are completely unexplained and unconnected. Disappointing.

As a great big geek, I do have to admit I liked the LOTR triology, though. And there was a nice film adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein once (but I can't recall which one for the life of me just now). At least I think there was. I don't go to the movies very often as the books hold me hostage most nights against such a corruption of my mind. *grin*
 
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chimerical is offline chimerical Post #6  October 12,2010, 8:52pm
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I like the movie The Watchmen better than I liked the book (graphic novel). I felt like the book was a slow, painful read in some ways, and needlessly bizarre in some places, whereas the movie was fast-paced and thoroughly intriguing the whole way through.

I always read the book before I watch the movie, if at all possible. Had anybody here ever done it the other way around? How does that affect things? I wonder if you'd prefer the movie if you saw it first, rather than seeing it as an incomplete version of the book, hmm. But on the other hand, I wouldn't want to ruin the book!
 
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Sassafras54 is online now Sassafras54 — Advice Official Moderator Post #7  October 15,2010, 12:47am
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Lawrence of Arabia was waaaaaay better than Seven Pillars of Wisdom. LOL.
 
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trixie1868 is offline trixie1868 Post #8  October 16,2010, 5:21pm

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It's a favourite soap box rant of mine to generally be a bit cross when people compare books to their movies and vice versa. So indulge me a little. I annually do it to ten year old audience in my literacy class when we've studied The Sheep Pig / Babe and they seem to get it completely and I love the idea of them having mini rantlets about it later in life.

You can't compare a book and a film. They're two completely different art forms. It's like comparing the dancers in say Swan Lake, to the musical score that inspired it and you'd sound mad saying that Nureyev isn't as good as Tchaikovsky or the other way round ~ and so you should.

A film based on a book is just one person's conception and visualisation of a story they know. Just as when we read a book we set it and cast it and run it like a movie in our minds. We are our own imagination's film director if you like. We also filter that story through our own belief systems and experiences. In other the words the enjoyment of a book is subective and not a universal experience at all.

When someone with the skills and resources to actually make this in celluloid we can get to share the personal story that the person 'saw'. We can then comment on how different the two conceptions are, we can have an opinion that the settings / casting / scripting and how much these things differ from our own conception and how that impacted on the story being told.

But a blanket "it's not as good as the book" is tantamount to saying the director imagined it wrong. That's not possible, you can't imagine things wrong, you can imagine them differently, but not wrong.
 
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gothustartus is offline gothustartus Post #9  October 16,2010, 9:58pm
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Books can use oodles of subtext that isn't always easy to get across in a movie, i know my favourite books probably wouldn't make good movies if faithfully reproduced because so much is inside the characters heads, and i'd fight like hell against a bladerunner voiceover.
 
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pammersw is offline pammersw Post #10  October 16,2010, 10:23pm
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trixie1868 wrote :
It's a favourite soap box rant of mine to generally be a bit cross when people compare books to their movies and vice versa. So indulge me a little. I annually do it to ten year old audience in my literacy class when we've studied The Sheep Pig / Babe and they seem to get it completely and I love the idea of them having mini rantlets about it later in life.

You can't compare a book and a film. They're two completely different art forms. It's like comparing the dancers in say Swan Lake, to the musical score that inspired it and you'd sound mad saying that Nureyev isn't as good as Tchaikovsky or the other way round ~ and so you should.

A film based on a book is just one person's conception and visualisation of a story they know. Just as when we read a book we set it and cast it and run it like a movie in our minds. We are our own imagination's film director if you like. We also filter that story through our own belief systems and experiences. In other the words the enjoyment of a book is subective and not a universal experience at all.

When someone with the skills and resources to actually make this in celluloid we can get to share the personal story that the person 'saw'. We can then comment on how different the two conceptions are, we can have an opinion that the settings / casting / scripting and how much these things differ from our own conception and how that impacted on the story being told.

But a blanket "it's not as good as the book" is tantamount to saying the director imagined it wrong. That's not possible, you can't imagine things wrong, you can imagine them differently, but not wrong.
Very good reasoning here, Trixie! I agree 100% with your take on it.

If the director's vision of the book is similar enough to a large percentage of the book's fans, you get a "successful movie adaptation" -- and if it doesn't match very well, the movie tends to get dissed and not do very well.
 
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