Good Film Adaptations

[Hate Is Art]

In that they either translate the feel and thematic concerns of the book well or the style of the writing into a workable motion picture.

My favourite adaptation is the TV series 'Brideshead Revisited' which I think captured Waugh's languid and elabourate writing style very well, the casting was spot on too, Andrews and Irons make a perfect Sebastian and Charles.

Fear and Loathing is one of the the few films which works better as a film then it does a book.

Kenneth Branagh's 'Hamlet' is an excellent rendition of the play onto film in it's totality, better then Lawrence Olivier's earlier version which suffers from psychonanalysis being 'en vogue'

Also notable for it's utter shiteness is the adaptation of Frankenstein starring Branagh and de Niro.

[coda]

good thread, DN. I usually try to read the book first because its more thorough and character-detailed and I'm not influenced by film maker's conceptions. I don't always feel like trudgeing through the book though, then the film is a good short cut.


Just some off the top of my head:


Roots , Alex Haley 12 hour miniseries I saw as a kid when it first aired on tv and then again as a teenager. Read the book as an adult. Would like to re-see film now to see how it holds up.

Shimmer, John O'Keefe excellent Public TV adaptation of this excellent true story/play.

2001 Space Odyssey, Arthur C. Clarke might be better than the book.


more later

[Fawkes]

IT and Carrie are both great book to film adaptations.

[Pow R. Toc H.]

A Clockwork Orange. One of my all time favorite movies. It was a good book as well, but I thought it worked better as a movie because if you dont understand nasdat (I think thats the language) than the book can get kind of confusing.

[Fawkes]

Tom Sawyer is another good adaptation. The Crucible is also another one, though that was originally a play, not a book.

[Political_Chucky]

Originally posted by [email protected] 04, 2007 05:40 pm
Tom Sawyer is another good adaptation. The Crucible is also another one, though that was originally a play, not a book.
I hated reading the Crucible, and when I had to see the movie, it transferred those same emotions of hate to the screen. :wacko:

[Fawkes]

Whattttt? The Crucible was awesome and it was written by a socialist ;).

[Hate Is Art]

Originally posted by Pow R. Toc [email protected] 05, 2007 01:35 am
A Clockwork Orange. One of my all time favorite movies. It was a good book as well, but I thought it worked better as a movie because if you dont understand nasdat (I think thats the language) than the book can get kind of confusing.
I kind of see them as separate entities, the film differs to how I imagined the book so much (having read the book before I saw the film) that I kind of separated them in my head.

@ Fawkes. IT? Christ that films is bad, and Stephen Kind is dead shit.


Whattttt? The Crucible was awesome and it was written by a socialist

Good art is good art, regardless of the political affiliation of the author, the crucible is boring art.

[Fawkes]

IT is so amazing. And I was just adding the socialist part in there, it really doesn't make a difference.

[shadowed by the secret police]

All Quiet On The Western Front (the first film made not the second version) is one of the greatest movies I've ever seen. Amazing! Though I never read the book. :(

[coda]

Empire of the Sun, JG Ballard; One of my few favorite films and oddly can relate completely to the boy,-- Spielberg, before the adulation went to his head.

Ragtime, E.L. Doctorow; a few of the interwoven stories are eliminated or condensed for the film. Still interesting early 1900's era story.

In the Name of the Father, Gerry Conlon; pretty faithful to the autobiography and not bad depicting 15 years in 2 hours. And Daniel Day Lewis, always good to watch & smart to "leave" before he became an overrated product like the rest of them. Though, probably the better part for him was Christy Brown in My Left Foot. Also a good book-to-film.

Death and the Maiden, Ariel Dorfman; I thought it an extremely grueling film and felt beat up after watching. Still good!!

And speaking of which.. I deplore with a passion when they reissue a book with a cover photo from the film!!! Even worse, when they do it with a biography and put the actor photo instead of the actual person's photo.

[Invader Zim]

There are hundreds, but perhaps my favorite adaption is of Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh.

[Fawkes]

The Great Train Robbery by Michael Crichton is another good adaptation.

[Mujer Libre]

The film version of Interview with the Vampire was strangely good despite Tom Cruise being disgusting and Antonio Banderas being mysteriously cast as the supposedly sylphlike Armand.

Bladerunner- although I don't remember much of the book.

[UndergroundConnexion]

Motorcycle Diaries !!!!
Autobiography of Malcolm X