| Author | Message | ||
     Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.55 |
What it says on the tin. We can all name loads of good books that were turned into rubbish films, but what about the other way round - a bad book that was a really good, entertaining film. My nominations go to Jaws - the Peter benchley novel is tedious and almost unreadable IMO. It's no wonder that for nearly 20 years it was a book you could guarantee to find 20 copies of in every second hand book store in the country. No one wanted to keep it once they'd read it. Bring out the Dead - I couldn't get through the book but I loved the film. and finally (and controvertially I'm guessing) Lord of the Rings. I've never managed to get past chapter 3 of the first book but the films are in my top 10. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
My favourite film of all time, 'Once Upon A Time In America' (1984), by the irreplaceable genius (yes, Zed) that was Sergio Leone was based on a very mediocre pulp crime novel of the 1950s by someone nobody even remembers now. 'The Lord Of The Rings' is the greatest fantasy masterpiece ever written you ejit!!!!  | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.166.117.210 |
I'd agree with Jaws. Blade Runner (much better than the book) George Sluizer's The Vanishing is an example of a very good novella (The Golden Egg) being adapted into a brilliant, brilliant film. I'm sure there are more, but can't think of them at the minute. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.166.117.210 |
Stevie, just how many favourite films of all time do you have? You come up with a different one every week. For the record, Leone's Once Upon a Time in America is my favourite gangster film of all time. Wonderful film. | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.253.174.81 |
The Howling is a very ordinary horror novel indeed that you would never have guessed would be turned into an exemplary horror film of its type. I think Blade Runner & Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep are very different beasts and I liked the book a lot as well as the film. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
Not true... I've been saying that is my all time favourite movie since I first saw it on video back in the late 80s. Since watched it three more times - on telly twice and once on the big screen (an awesome experience) - and it gets better with every viewing. An utterly marvellous film that makes me feel all warm inside every time I think of it.  I disagree about 'Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?' - it is better than the film but the film also is a masterpiece. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.166.117.210 |
The Howling...well spotted, JLP. | ||
| Frank (Frank) Username: Frank Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 85.222.86.72 |
How about great move-tie-in books? Can only think of one, and that was Dennis Etchinson's brilliant 'Halloween III: Season of the Witch'. I also love the film, so what do I know. Steve - just about to email you, mate. | ||
| Kate (Kathleen) Username: Kathleen Registered: 09-2009 Posted From: 213.122.209.76 |
Oh damn, I was going to say The Howling! Now everyone will just think I'm copying Lord P. Like he's some Svengali-esque cult leader who's got me hypnotised into agreeing with everything he says. Oh hang on... | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.166.117.210 |
 | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
Perhaps Losey's Eva, based on James Hadley Chase? | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
No, I'll withdraw that. I'm no fan of No Orchids (I'll take Faulkner), but I see Graham Greene admired Chase's work, and for all I know Eve may have been one of his better ones. | ||
| Mark_samuels (Mark_samuels) Username: Mark_samuels Registered: 04-2010 Posted From: 86.145.226.3 |
I preferred the David Cronenberg Naked Lunch film to the original Burroughs book. Mark S. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 147.252.230.148 |
FIGHT CLUB. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.166.117.210 |
A very underrrated film that one, Mark. I loved it. | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 82.18.199.254 |
Agree with LotR. Enjoyed the films but never made it past the first few chapters of the first book. I loved the film of Jurassic Park (despite all the plot-holes and Richard Attenborough using his role as an audition for playing Santa Claus in the Miracle on 34th Street remake) but found the book rather dull. | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 82.18.199.254 |
Preferred the film of Out of Sight to the novel. And the film of The Princess Bride scores over the novel for me. The novel has the brains but the film has more heart. | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
I haven't read The Princess Bride, but I do wish Goldman hadn't ruined his own novel Magic by adapting it for the screen. | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 82.18.199.254 |
I watched Magic the other day and wasn't overly impressed. Aside from anything else Anthony Hopkins has possibly the least convincing American accent I've ever heard. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.37.199.45 |
LOTR gets better as it goes on. The first book is juvenile and vacuous, the second worthy but very slow, the third rather weird and disturbing. But I've not been moved to re-read it in the 35 years since I first read it. | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 82.18.199.254 |
This is probably heresy but I think the first two film versions of Invasion of the Bodysnatchers (the Siegel and the Kaufman) were way better than the book. And offhand I think I'd pick the film of The Mist over the novella. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.166.117.210 |
I agree regarding Body Snatchers, Stu. Even though I loved the original book. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.166.117.210 |
Proto - Fight Club is a good suggestion. The book's good but the film is extraordinary. | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 82.18.199.254 |
I'd have to reread it to be sure but I think I'd take the film of Don't Look Now over the novella. | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.64.9.233 |
'I'd have to reread it to be sure but I think I'd take the film of Don't Look Now over the novella.' I'd agree but have to read it again, too. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.4.229.3 |
I've not read it, but isn't Mario Puzo's THE GODFATHER the prime example everyone uses for this question?... | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
I've never read the original short story of 'The Birds' but it's coming up in my next anthology: 'Cornish Tales Of Terror' (1970). The film is my favourite Hitchcock. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
I know several people who swear Puzo's novel is superior to the film. Not having read it I can't judge but find that fact very hard to believe. After 'Once Upon A Time In America' the 'Godfather Trilogy' is my second fav work of cinema ever (first two primarily, but the third isn't the complete dud its reputation implies). Which reminds me, any fans of Coppola at his best need to go see his new one 'Tetro' - it is by far the best thing he has done since 'Apocalypse Now' and different from anything else I have seen from him - a beautifully shot, achingly personal, intimate family drama of Bergmanesque stature. The man has rediscovered his muse and then some... | ||
| Tom_alaerts (Tom_alaerts) Username: Tom_alaerts Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.78.35.185 |
I agree with several titles above. Esp The Lord of the Rings. Man, even at 13 it bored me to death how they kept on walking, sing a song or two, have a good meal, sleep, walk again etc. The movies are much much better. and indeed I stopped reading The Godfather after 50 pages or so. Trash, and not in a good way. My additions, the first one is probably a blasphemous statement from my part: - The Unbearable Lightness of Being: book was somewhat pretentious I thought; but I liked the movie - Sideways: charming movie about 2 friends on a winetasting trip before one of them gets married. The book is however written in a truly by the numbers style. - Iron Man was arguably quite a bit better than the very basic comic books it is based on. - The Shining (Kubrick version) Now an assumption: I've not seen The Da Vinci code, but the book was one of the worst I read in quite a while. I bought the first edition hardcover in New York, it was fresh off the press, as it seemed fun for my flight back. I sold it immediately afterwards (should have waited as it eventually appreciated). The movie version simply must be better ! | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.4.229.3 |
Well, I must seek out TETRO, then.... (Speaking of GODFATHER, and ONCE UPON A TIME - tangent, but: anyone seen GOMORRAH? Italian film, looks to be in the same grand mafia-esque style - picked it up at the library, knowing nothing about it - worth the viewing?...) | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.55 |
It's got Tom - play every part exactly the fucking same - Hanks in it - so no it's not. | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.55 |
Crossed posts with craig there. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.4.229.3 |
I hated hated hated hated hated hated hated hated hated hated THE DA VINCI CODE. And lest one think I'm just prejudice against this kind of genre, and/or didn't read the book first, I actually didn't mind at all ANGELS & DEMONS, a fun, well-made night of fluffy action-shenanigans. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.4.229.3 |
Oh - cross me not again, Weber!  | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
Couldn't disagree more - 'The Shining' is far and away the greatest and scariest horror novel Stephen King has ever written. Yes, the film is an equally great masterpiece in its own right but by no stretch of the imagination is it better than the novel! | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.4.229.3 |
I agree with Stevie - THE SHINING is surely King's finest book (of his books I've read), and stands apart from Kubrick's film. | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 82.18.199.254 |
>>Iron Man was arguably quite a bit better than the very basic comic books it is based on. Depends which comics you're talking about. There's got have been at least a couple of hundred issues by now so the quality varies quite a bit. Plus, although I haven't read it yet, the film took a lot of inspiration from Warren Ellis's Iron Man:Extremis which apparently was a more sophisticated take on the character. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
What about 'The Wizard Of Oz'... everyone's favourite children's musical fantasy but based on books that, though popular in their day, haven't exactly stood the test of time. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
Unlike Tolkien...  | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.4.229.3 |
MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS, from what I remember (going back years!), is a good mystery novel... but the film is a piece of pure magic.... | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.166.117.210 |
GOMORRAH is apparently very good, Craig. I have the DVD but am yet to watch it. The author has been in hiding since the book came out; the mafia have a contract out on him. he wrote the screenplay whilst in hiding, and has been interviewed for a couple of arts programmes. Fascinating stuff. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
Christie's masterpiece has to be 'Ten Little Niggers' (1939) - apologies to anyone offended by my use of the original title - which was turned into the arguably even better film, 'And Then There Were None' (1945) directed by René Clair. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.4.229.3 |
Wow, Gary! Amazing. Should be great, then. Stevie - and yet, to the best of my knowledge, not one of the many many film versions have been truly faithful to Christie's book - I won't say why, it would ruin it, but - well - let's just say, Christie was way ahead of her time in this one.... | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
I know, Craig, I know... that's why I chose it as her masterpiece. Keep the secret! | ||
| Matthew Fryer (Matthew_fryer) Username: Matthew_fryer Registered: 08-2009 Posted From: 90.202.180.152 |
Deliverance. I found James Dickey's novel rather turgid, especially the first half. It's overly descriptive, and the characterisation is dragged out via infodumping and scenes where nothing of interest happens. And there's pages and pages of them just paddling about in canoes. The film sorted these problems, and the result is perfect. | ||
| Barbara Roden (Nebuly) Username: Nebuly Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 142.179.21.243 |
As regards Christie and TEN LITTLE NIGGERS/INDIANS/AND THEN THERE WERE NONE (pick the title you prefer!): the Clair film (which is brilliant, and the best filmed adaptation of Christie ever, in my view) is actually faithful to Christie's stage version of the novel, which changed the book's ending to what you see in the film. So it is true to Christie in its way. (The original novel is, I think, Christie's greatest work, and a model for would-be writers of any kind of novel: if you don't believe me, read or re-read the first ten or twelve pages and note how beautifully, economically, but completely she introduces all of the major characters, making them individuals with immediate back stories, but never once resorting to an info dump). Agree with the references to JAWS and THE GODFATHER being, as films, much, much better than the source novels. I'd also suggest that, for all that it won a Pulitzer Prize, the novel GONE WITH THE WIND simply isn't as great as the film version, which cuts a lot of the melodrama and focuses, rightly, on the mercurial Scarlett. | ||
| Darren O. Godfrey (Darren_o_godfrey) Username: Darren_o_godfrey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 207.200.116.133 |
Forrest Gump. Not so much that Winston Groom's novel was bad, just flat and rather dull. | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.178.83.106 |
Not so much that Winston Groom's novel was bad, just flat and rather dull. And the film wasn't? :-) | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.240.106 |
I'd disagree regarding Deliverance, Matt - I loved the book even more than I love the film (and, believe me, that's a lorra, lorra love). | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 109.79.206.255 |
Oh, THE EXORCIST. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.17.252.126 |
That's made me laugh... as great as the film of 'The Exorcist' is (and it's my fav horror film of them all) the book is much better and much scarier. In fact it may even be the best horror novel I have read. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.152.204.162 |
Well, not a bad book, but a better film. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.5.2.69 |
Barbara, Christie could certainly be dark, in her own way.... She was certainly not a priss or ignorant of the realities of the world or life or people - a simple scanning of the very character of Miss Marple proves that. Another very dark Christie novel is one I remember being quite good, but never filmed: CROOKED HOUSE. Probably because it had none of her famous detectives in it, but was a stand alone, very bleak mystery novel.... | ||
| Barbara Roden (Nebuly) Username: Nebuly Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 142.179.21.243 |
Craig: Yes, Christie could be very dark. THE HOLLOW is another one that tends that way, as is SAD CYPRESS. DEATH COMES AS THE END, the one set in Ancient Egypt, is also pretty bleak. And then there's ORDEAL BY INNOCENCE . . . the list goes on. For all that she has a reputation for being fairly simplistic, she certainly didn't view the world through rose-coloured glasses. | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.55 |
Forrest Gump is one of the worst films ever made. Tom shittypants Hanks could hardly be bothered to phone in his performance and played it all on one monotonic note. If it's better than the book I really must stay away from that one. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.4.224.213 |
Barbara, you could say THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD is the bleakest Christie novel of them all! (And CURTAIN too, come to think of it.) | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
You're making me all nostalgic for the Agatha Christie novels I grew up reading in the 70s and, yes, many (indeed most) of them are very bleak indeed - she could even be considered something of a misanthropist. And don't forget her fascination with witchcraft and black magic that often cropped up in the stories. | ||
| Matthew Fryer (Matthew_fryer) Username: Matthew_fryer Registered: 08-2009 Posted From: 90.202.180.152 |
Gary - Perhaps being blown away by the film first didn't help, but I found Deliverance disappointing. The 1st half, certainly. Out of interest, what is it that you love? | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.178.83.106 |
Although I wouldn't say the book was worse than the film, I do much prefer ANGEL HEART to William Hjortsberg's Falling Angel. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.240.106 |
Matt - I loved the descriptions of scenery wrought through the perceptions of a poet, the understanding of the male characters' and their weaknesses, the lack of conventional action scenes, and the almost mythic story. I saw the film first, too, but the book still impressed me. I love slow, thoughful novels about deeply flawed male characters, and this is certainly a fine example of that style. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.240.106 |
Mick - me, too. the film improves on the book immensely. | ||
| Matthew Fryer (Matthew_fryer) Username: Matthew_fryer Registered: 08-2009 Posted From: 90.202.180.152 |
Gary - that makes sense. I agree regarding the characters, but perhaps an impatience and lack of concentration soured me to the positives.(I struggle with lengthy description in prose, regardless of its quality) I might dig it out again one day. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.4.234.72 |
Zed - watch GOMORRAH tonight! Everyone go out and watch it! It's just brilliant. Even at over two hours, I didn't want it to end.... Not because of the horrible goings-on, of course, but because the whole is so wonderfully made. | ||
| Steve Bacon (Stevebacon) Username: Stevebacon Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 90.210.209.136 |
The novel that Die Hard is based on is poor. Quite unlike the film. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.240.106 |
Craig - I'll watch it tonight, mate. I'm pleased to hear it's so good (I've read stellar reviews, too). Last night I watched The Boondock Saints. An utter load of shite, yet I really enjoyed it's sheer absurdity. Proper film tonight; Gomorrah it is! | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.4.229.250 |
Not a spoiler, but a clarification, Zed: the tailor, and the mob boss with the brand new assistant, are different characters - they looked so utterly alike to me, it took me half the film to even realize this! |