Reel News
10 Best and Worst Books Made Into Movies
By TaraDi
Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:44:44 GMT
With the release of Spike Jonze's take on Maurice Sendak's picture book classic "Where the Wild Things Are" this week, we dug into our own personal libraries and came up with a list of what we think are the Top 10 best and worst adaptations of books to film.
What literary masterpieces were ruined by the cinema experience and perhaps, were some books made even better?
It possible?
Click and see:
Tell us what you think! Did we forget some classics and duds? Let us know! Click here to comment.
Message Edited by TaraDi on 10-16-2009 02:26 PM
What literary masterpieces were ruined by the cinema experience and perhaps, were some books made even better?
It possible?
Click and see:
Tell us what you think! Did we forget some classics and duds? Let us know! Click here to comment.
Message Edited by TaraDi on 10-16-2009 02:26 PM
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To Kill a Mockingbird remains the #1 best adaptation of a book, in both casting and spirit. How could you forget this one? And Jaws should be in your 10 Best as well.Sat, 17 Oct 2009 17:16:58 GMT | mvkittymom
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Where's Harry Potter?!!!Sat, 17 Oct 2009 21:05:42 GMT | BabyBluesGurl87
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As an ex Tolkien fanatic, The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy could qualify for both worst and best categories. You'd need to read the books to understand that opinion.Sat, 17 Oct 2009 21:14:19 GMT | golfhack1944
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How could you possibly leave out "Sophie's Choice," "Stand by Me," "In Cold Blood" and the more recent "Capote?" All are superb adaptations. I also agree with mvkittymom about "To Kill a Mockingbird" - one the THE BEST adaptations of all time (and my favorite movie of all time). A category limited to 10 just isn't enough!Sat, 17 Oct 2009 21:34:23 GMT | KeithsKris
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I thought of one more spot on literary adaptation - the A&E drama series of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" from 1995. This series was superbly adapted to the screen. Each and every character was well developed. Jennifer Ehle remains in my mind to this day, the PERFECT Lizzy, despite Keira Knightley's more recent and quite wonderful turn in this role. Perfect, perfect, perfect adaptation!!!!!Sat, 17 Oct 2009 21:40:16 GMT | KeithsKris
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Best: The Color Purple. Wonderful picture, almost as good as the book. Spielberg did it again with this one.Sat, 17 Oct 2009 21:47:32 GMT | bigllamamama
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Yep, The Princess Bride is perhaps one of the best translations of a book to a movie, ever. It stayed VERY true to the source material, and really captured the feel of the book.The Lord of the Rings trilogy? Well, yes and NO. Yes, it captured the world visualized by Tolkien pretty well (except for some strange deviations, such as Orcs and Worgs-- the last were supposed to be wolves, but Jackson turned them into Hyenas for some unknown reason).
However, where the movies failed was when Jackson decided to make events up out of thin air, events that didn't fit the plot of the books and were totally unnecessary to the story line. When there was so much that had to be left out of the original plot in order to fit the books into the few hours that a movie can run for, it was unforgivable for Jackson to leave even more (sometimes important) content out, in order to make room for what amounted to his poorly visualized and executed daydreams. And the problem got worse with each movie in the trilogy, to the point that by the time I watched "The Return of the King" for the first time, I just couldn't handle it. I couldn't even finish that viewing.
Jackson may be a talented movie-maker, but as a writer, he sucked. He shouldn't have tried to "improve" on the original material with the products of his imagination. Tolkien he ain't.
Message Edited by R0nin on 10-17-2009 06:24 PM
Sat, 17 Oct 2009 21:59:20 GMT | R0nin
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I think one of the top ten movies should have been 2001 a space odyessy, for the time that it came out visually it was unparralleled, and as for the story it points out the human condition of false superiority that a simple programming error or "oversight" of being able to lie could cause the perfect machine "created by a human" to become capable of killing. because of the story you go from wondering about the alien object to the human crew completely forgetting about the aliens as the human story plays out, and then in the end Kubrick drags the watcher back into the alien story to remind us about what the film and book was about to begin with.Message Edited by UtahDragon on 10-17-2009 06:34 PM
Sat, 17 Oct 2009 22:30:09 GMT | UtahDragon
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A Christmas Story is NOT about the 1950s. It takes place in the late 1930s or early 1940s. Such a simple thing to research. Has the writer of this blurb ever seen the movie?Sat, 17 Oct 2009 23:16:08 GMT | gypsy18
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"The Color Purple" and "The Green Mile".Sun, 18 Oct 2009 00:00:26 GMT | jarush
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First, let's just start in 1939 where the following books were made into monumental classic movies: The Wizard of Oz and Gone With The Wind. Before that there was a great book All Quiet On the Western Front made into a greater movie. If not the best war movie of all time, one of the top three. The list goes on: The GodFather, a great read made into an even greater movie. Easily, one of the best two or three ever.What were your judges thinking to neglect these books?
One of the worst book-to-movie: I, Robot by Isaac Asimov. Hollywood took a truly iconic book;remember the laws of robotics and turned it into a truly crappy movie.
Sun, 18 Oct 2009 00:52:19 GMT | StanH
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Starship Troopers has to be the absolute worst adaptation. The only thing the book and movie have in common is the title, and Bob H is probably STILL spinning in his grave.Sun, 18 Oct 2009 01:10:37 GMT | Carilynne
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I cannot believe "Silence of the Lambs" was not on this list.Sun, 18 Oct 2009 01:46:00 GMT | bermama
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Oh My or my oh my.....You forgot one of the best book to movies.........TWILIGHT!!!!!!!Sun, 18 Oct 2009 02:23:18 GMT | LadyJuliette73
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Excellent choices!Sun, 18 Oct 2009 02:28:12 GMT | thecunn
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Probably not obvious to anyone under 50.Sun, 18 Oct 2009 02:29:52 GMT | thecunn
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I can't believe that Blade Runner was #8 on the best list. Has the writer even read the book? with the exception of the characters and a few plot points they are totally different! The book had so much more and the movie was so much less!Sun, 18 Oct 2009 02:33:35 GMT | jarath
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In response to post #1: Absolutely right -- To Kill a Mocking Bird is on my list of films that should never be remade. It is perfect in every way.Message Edited by Teech on 10-17-2009 11:00 PM
Sun, 18 Oct 2009 02:58:50 GMT | Teech
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Absolutely worst adaptation ever? The Last of the Mohicans w/ Daniel Day Lewis. I'd watch him read the phone book, but this movie had nothing in common with the book except the names of the characters. PBS did a much better multi-episode version years ago.Sun, 18 Oct 2009 03:08:06 GMT | Teech