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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?
most recent Jungle Book.
apocalypse now.
French Lieutenant's Woman
The Innocents (The Turn Of The Screw)
O Brother Where Art Thou? (Homer's Odyssey)
Blade Runner
Apocalypse Now
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.
The Gruffalo.
Yes, really. It's glorious.
Jaws
To Kill a Mockingbird
Catch 22
MASH
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...) 😉
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.
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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.
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.
Touching the Void.
Fight club.
'Wise Blood' with Brad Dourif is amazing.
Sorry, Kermode is always right 😆
I'll leave this here
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King bleeedin Kong!
I liked the 2nd Lolita film, not as good as the 1st, granted.
That Tiger in a lifeboat one.
Time Travellers' wife
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.
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 (2x2 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
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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
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*.
One flew over the cuckoo's nest
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.
The Great Escape
The Godfather trilogy
[i]Unjustified, unsupported throw away comments like "its crap" need to be challenged is all.[/i]
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)
Master & Commander - although it borrows from 3 or 4 of Patrick O'Brian's books rather than one.
Not exactly a "classic" book, but Misery the film is better than the book.
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)
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
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
You forgot Dead Zone.
Was 'It' actually any good? I never finished the book.
Cool Hand Luke
Oh yeah - The Hustler
Rosemary's Baby
Die Hard, based on the novel 'Nothing Lasts Forever' which is an excellent book in its own right.
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.
a clockwork orange.
The cruel sea
White fang
Oliver!
Fantastic Mr. Fox
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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).
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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.