Oliver!

Fantastic Mr. Fox

David Lean’s Great Expectations

I’m slightly ashamed to admit the only book I’ve ever read made into a film was Layer Cake, I love them both.

They’re slightly different, the author also wrote the screenplay and gave his reasons for the changes, mostly screentime limits meant certain characters needed to be cut, scenes lost etc but the maintained the core of it.

Best of all he made an asset out of a liability – spoilers follow:

In the book, due to a terrible case of mistaken identity a tourist is murdered, an American one at that which would have been bad commercialy for the US backed film, they could have changed it a little, but instead he made it a massive plot twist, it’s good for the film viewer, but great if you’d read the book and expected it to go one way when it suddenly goes another. I really liked that.

Neither are a classic, but I like them.

Loose definition of ‘classic’ being employed in some cases so I’ll add to that and chuck in No Country for Old Men.

If anyone can write a bad guy, it’s Mccarthy. Javier Bardem absolutely nails the role. The coin toss is probably one of my all time favourite scenes.

Die hard

2001 – A Space Odyssey
Watching it in the cinema on my own when I was fourteen was, as one might imagine, a pretty startling experience!
#mindblown

The Road made such a powerful impression on me that for the first time in my life I was actually reluctant to watch a film adaptation, in case it didn’t live up to the book. However I thought they made a pretty good fist of it.

I enjoyed the Trainspotting movie, but for me, the way they adapted it didn’t do justice to the scabrous energy of the book.

The Road made such a powerful impression on me that for the first time in my life I was actually reluctant to watch a film adaptation, in case it didn’t live up to the book. However I thought they made a pretty good fist of it.

I had the same feelings, no book has effected me like that. The film was good but the horror of the cellar was diminished having read the book first.
I’ve not taken to his other books though.

The Road – agree with C-d – film cellar was ‘lighter(phew)’ than the book.
The Mist – the ending of the film ‘horrid/better’ than the short story.

Fear & loathing in Las Vegas

The 39 Steps – Hitchcock version. Others are available, but a bit lame

Much more developed than the book (short story).

Loved the book and the film was a good interpretation of it. I watched it for the first time in decades with my 9 year old. I still loved it – she didn’t.

Winters Bone – Is it a “classic” book? bloody good anyway, and a really good film too.
And +1 for Fantastic Mr Fox

I suspect I’ll be in a minority, but…The Hobbit.

I adore the book, perhaps because (as mentioned above) it’s a children’s story so it has that perfect simplicity especially when compared to the Lord of the Rings and it’s sprawling, overly epic scale – especially the songs.

When I heard that the book had been made into a trilogy of films I was expecting them to be tedious, over-extended and self-indulent. But they weren’t. I found them perfectly in tune with the spirit of the book, and didn’t even notice the length. Not the expected let-down in any way.

To kill a mocking bird.

Into the wild.

apocalypse now.

If you mean Heart of Darkness it’s hardly based on it is it? More ‘inspired by’.

To Kill a Mockingbird and Fear and Loathing are good calls. I’d also suggest Solaris, the Tarkovsky one although the Clooney remake is better than you might think.