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  • Films based on classic books that weren't a let down
  • johndoh
    Free Member

    Following on from the ‘classic book’ thread (and seeing someone’s great suggestion of Papillon) I got to thinking, what films have been based on classics that weren’t a huge let down?

    I’ve got:
    Papillon (obviously)
    Shawshank Redemption (probably *BETTER* than the book)

    What else?

    Klunk
    Free Member

    most recent Jungle Book.

    jam-bo
    Full Member

    apocalypse now.

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    Malvern Rider
    Free Member

    French Lieutenant’s Woman

    The Innocents (The Turn Of The Screw)

    O Brother Where Art Thou? (Homer’s Odyssey)

    whitestone
    Free Member

    Blade Runner

    Apocalypse Now

    nickc
    Full Member

    Shawshank Redemption

    Really?

    The trouble I have with this as a concept is they are generally very different media, the obsession with “bringing to life” a book is becoming almost pervasive amongst the big studios. Mostly “adapted from the book” is pretty much a kiss of death as far as I’m concerned.

    CaptainFlashheart
    Free Member

    The Gruffalo.

    Yes, really. It’s glorious.

    vinnyeh
    Full Member

    Jaws
    To Kill a Mockingbird
    Catch 22
    MASH

    MrWoppit
    Free Member

    LOTR.

    Except for the obvious plot failure. Although this WAS in the book as well…

    (Could just have got the eagles to fly over Mount Doom and someone drop the ring in from above without all that tedious hobbit yompimg. The End…) 😉

    perchypanther
    Free Member

    Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone.

    Never has a movie so completely nailed it in trying to perfectly bring a book to life.

    Later attempts in the series…not so much.

    maccruiskeen
    Full Member

    wwaswas
    Full Member

    Swallows and Amazons (the 70’s one)
    the Railway Children (again ’70’s)

    I think that often children’s books make the transition better than adult ones – the stories tend to be ‘simpler’ and more linear and this makes creating a film less of a departure from the original and allows them to retain the same narrative etc.

    DezB
    Free Member

    Original (Disney) Jungle Book! The new one was crap.

    Lolita version with James Mason.

    And both utter classics: Probably my favourite film and book –
    One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest.

    slowoldman
    Full Member

    Touching the Void.

    thecaptain
    Free Member

    Fight club.

    DezB
    Free Member

    ‘Wise Blood’ with Brad Dourif is amazing.

    Klunk
    Free Member

    The new one was crap.

    I’ll leave this here.

    DezB
    Free Member

    Sorry, Kermode is always right 😆

    I’ll leave this here

    King bleeedin Kong!

    cynic-al
    Free Member

    I liked the 2nd Lolita film, not as good as the 1st, granted.

    That Tiger in a lifeboat one.
    Time Travellers’ wife

    Klunk
    Free Member

    Wonderful to look at, this is a more adult, more complex affair than its animated, and more entertaining, forebear. Still, it’s Disney’s best live-action adaptation yet.

    Maintaining the buoyant heartbeat beneath all the digital flash, Favreau never loses sight of the fact that he’s making an adventure story for children.

    Visually stunning and expertly acted, this retelling of a classic pays tribute to the original adventure while erasing the insensitivity of parts of Disney’s ’60s version.

    The Jungle Book is proof that even the crassest commercial imperatives can be transcended when imbued with love and creativity.

    The Jungle Book is magnificent – honoring its literary and animated roots with thrilling action, groundbreaking effects, and heart-warming drama.

    An audacious—and kind of awesome at times—update of the Rudyard Kipling-written, Disney-appropriated classic tale.

    Somehow this Jungle Book works, because Favreau has both a sense of humor and a sense of spectacle. Even in 3-D, the colors—a riot of jades, cobalts and singing-canary yellows—are vibrant.

    yeah it’s crap.

    BigButSlimmerBloke
    Free Member

    Blade Runner – way better than the book
    Red Cliff/Romance of the Three Kingdoms – Red Cliff only covers a couple of weeks leading up to the battle, Romance covers 30 years of civil war but the film is still excellent even with 4 hours (2×2 hours on DVD) of subtitles. Still Romance is possibly the best book I’ve ever read, Red Cliff is in top 10 of films
    Flying Scotsman was a pretty good go at the book. Obree’s openness about his demons carried a bit better in the book but film’s still worth a view, especially early life in Ayrshire
    EDIT

    That Tiger in a lifeboat one.

    Oh yeah Life of Pi – skip the first 1/3 of the book, just start on the ship just before it sinks. Book is pretty good from then on, film is tremendous, could not see how it could be made but it was and it’s great, especially big screen 3D
    The Caine Mutiny

    binners
    Full Member

    Trainspotting. Great book, but thought it’d be impossible to make a decent film out of. Well… I was certainly wrong on that score. Its a bloody brilliant interpretation of the book

    DezB
    Free Member

    Blimey Klunk you bloody loved that film didn’t you?! 😆

    If someone came along and said Wise Blood or Cuckoo’s Nest was crap. I’d go, OK, they din’t like it *shrug*.

    blitz
    Full Member

    One flew over the cuckoo’s nest

    Klunk
    Free Member

    Blimey Klunk you bloody loved that film didn’t you?!

    When you’ve worked in the industry you have to give credit where credit is due, it’s a technical masterpiece, and a good film to boot. Unjustified, unsupported throw away comments like “its crap” need to be challenged is all.

    flashinthepan
    Free Member

    The Great Escape
    The Godfather trilogy

    DezB
    Free Member

    Unjustified, unsupported throw away comments like “its crap” need to be challenged is all.

    Fair enough – can’t even remember why I didn’t like it. Apart from predictability. And it just didn’t have the wit of the original. Plus I split up with my woman after because she disagreed with everything I said about it! (Not just that, obviously, but it was a trigger)

    Rastapopolous
    Free Member

    Master & Commander – although it borrows from 3 or 4 of Patrick O’Brian’s books rather than one.

    mogrim
    Full Member

    Not exactly a “classic” book, but Misery the film is better than the book.

    legend
    Free Member

    As we’re playing fast ‘n’ loose with the word “classic”…. The Bourne Identity/Supremacy/Ultimatum. Wanted to love the books after watching the first movie, found them hard going

    (Bourne Legacy and the latest bilge ignored as they’re terrible)

    richmtb
    Full Member

    Not exactly a “classic” book, but Misery the film is better than the book.

    As is The Shining (largely because it ignores all the crap about Jack turning into an actual monster)

    Also not a classic book but a better film: The Hunt for Red October

    johndoh
    Free Member

    There could be a Stephen King thread all by itself here with some kind of Swingometer to show the Good<>Bad balance of power…

    HOT
    It
    Christine
    The Green Mile
    ‘Salem’s Lot

    NOT
    Thinner
    The Lawnmower Man
    Dolores Clairborne

    DezB
    Free Member

    You forgot Dead Zone.
    Was ‘It’ actually any good? I never finished the book.

    TheSouthernYeti
    Free Member

    Cool Hand Luke

    [video]https://youtu.be/LvwqK2gn3S0[/video]

    DezB
    Free Member

    Oh yeah – The Hustler
    Rosemary’s Baby

    jonnyboi
    Full Member

    Die Hard, based on the novel ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’ which is an excellent book in its own right.

    jambourgie
    Free Member

    American Psycho: What the film lacks in the horror of the book, it makes up for with humour.

    Nineteen Eighty-Four: Hurt/Burton. Just amazing.

    sadexpunk
    Full Member

    a clockwork orange.

    mt
    Free Member

    The cruel sea
    White fang

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