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August 2008
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I am slaving away on our back-to-school-themed fall movie preview - ask for it by name this Sunday - and staring at one of the clever classroom categories we're using to group upcoming releases: Literature. I haven't seen any of the book-to-movie attractions we're spotlighting (Beowulf, No Country for Old Men, Reservation Road, The Kite Runner and Lust, Caution), but I got to thinking (never a good idea): what makes a successful literary adaptation? Some would say slavish devotion to the source material, an argument with which I strongly disagree. A movie has to live and breathe as a movie, not a book on film. Yet the spirit of the book still has to come across onscreen. As that Hamlet guy once said, there's the rub. What we want to know from you is: what book you love became a movie you hate? Or, an even tougher one: what book you didn't care for took on bold new life in the movies? I can't think of an immediate example for the second question - I never did read The Godfather - but I know I'd be a happier man if Brian De Palma had kept his hands off The Bonfire of the Vanities. |
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Comments
Posted by pete @ 12:04 PM Thu, Aug 30, 2007
This is going to seem like heresy to many, but I was extremely disappointed in Peter Jackson's adaption of "The Lord of the Rings" (although I cannot say I "hated" the films--in fact, I marveled at their visuals). The books focused on the Hobbit culture, while in the movies they were reduced to the small sidekicks of the big people. The movies also seem to focus attention on battle scenes that were dealt with far more economically in the novels.
The problem with adapting any book such as this is that when you are reading, so much is left to the reader's imagination; i.e., the reader can form his or own visual interpretation of the author's words. But when that book comes to the screen, you are confronted with the filmmaker's interpretations and often they can clash with your own.
I did read "The Godfather," when it originally was published and thought it was a poorly written example of pulp fiction (probably another minority opinion). The movie, however, ranks among my Top 5 films of all-time.
My favorite adaptation of book to movie remains "To Kill a Mockingbird."
Posted by Michael Merschel @ 1:56 PM Thu, Aug 30, 2007
My favorite book as a kid was "The Phantom Tollbooth," by Norton Juster.
My favorite cartoon director was Chuck Jones.
So when I found out that Chuck Jones had produced a movie version of "The Phantom Tollbooth," I was elated. I was wondering why I had never heard of it.
Then I found a copy. And watched it.
Very unmemorable.
Posted by Bridgette @ 2:06 PM Thu, Aug 30, 2007
I've got an opposite view of the whole Lord of the Rings deal. They were a beating (!!) to read, but I really like the movies. And as much as I hate to admit it, The DaVinci Code wasn't the greatest presentation of the book.
Loved The Godfather. The Black Dahlia is a decent book, but I hear bad things about the movie. L.A. Confidential lost huge subplots going from book to movie.
Posted by Ann @ 3:36 PM Thu, Aug 30, 2007
Oh, Simon Birch--Like A Prayer for Owen Meany without all the good parts.
Posted by Joyce @ 3:40 PM Thu, Aug 30, 2007
Roman Polanski's version of Rosemary's Baby was incredibly faithful to Ira Levin's horror novel. Polanski used settings, characterizations and dialogue straight out of Levin's very cinematic book. Only thing the director didn't do, really, was to show us the actual devil-baby, as vividly described in the book's ending. Which kind disappointed me. But I guess he thought it more effective to leave it to our imaginations what Rosemary saw in that black-draped cradle.
Posted by Kip Mooney @ 2:18 PM Sat, Sep 01, 2007
The movie version of 'Minority Report' is actually far superior to the short story/novella. Phillip K. Dick's story isn't terrible, but Spielberg's film is far more intense.