Best film adaptation of a novel..........

[blaseblah]

Not to be argumentative but SBM, Mist, AP, and Shawshank were all novellas, now Children of the Corn was a short story made into one of the best King movies ever! He Who Walks Behind the Rows agrees. You don't want to end up like Malachi, do you???

I enjoyed it immensely as a teenager, but watching it as an adult it isnt nearly as scary.

 

[Bob Gray]

They're both good. But Crichton is 1 of my favorite authors. His book Travels effected me in a profound way. It's nonfiction and an account of his life and adventures, and it's awesome.

But the movie Rising Sun is really good, too. Some early 90s cheese, but not much. And it's one of sean connery's coolest characters ever.

Oh, I read that one. Some fascinating stuff in there. The one that really stuck with me was the gorillas.

 

[chickenluver]

Kubrick is GOAT but this is one case where I think his film was not nearly as good as the source material. I don't think Lolita could ever work properly as a film because the whole point is you're in Humbert's head, and you have to read between the lines and doubt what he says. James Mason is really good, but just seeing the narrative play out objectively kind of misses the point IMO.

That being said what they did will the Clare Quilty character was smart and Sellers was great in the role. I've seen the movie two or three times I think but not since reading the book, so I need to do that to get proper perspective. It's a good movie for sure, but normally I think Kubrick made great films out of great books, and even great films out of bad books, but in this case he made a good film out of a great book.

 

[bowened]

I sincerely hope this is a joke.

Godfather.
Fight club.
Clockwork orange.
IT.
Only few that come to my mind.

IT is one of the absolute worst adaptations of a novel ever made. It belongs nowhere near the other amazing film adaptations on your list.

 

[TheFakeMacoy]

The Thing was based on Who Goes There? a novella. The Carpenter version is much more heavily based on the book than The Thing from Another World was. I would say that The Carpenter film was a very good adaptation of the basic story.

 

[Turtlejuice]

I have heard people give it good reviews, and say it is underrated.

I enjoyed it. Didn't read the book though, and I binge watched it when I had the flu. The one thing I thought let it down a little is there seemed to be a lot of times where nothing was really happening to further the story and may have been kept in for the sake of "keeping it true to the books".

 

[GordoBarraBJJ]

^^^this and Green Mile

 

[usulrah]

Not as good as the book and didn't do bigwig justice but a very solid adaptation

 

[HHJ]

I'm going to throw another vote in for Jurassic Park.

I just read it a couple of years ago and, while good, I thought it really lacked the heart of the movie. It was too focused on the science . . . too technical . . . too aloof.

I LOVE Crichtons' books and the technical info,but your right. The movie is actually better and more ambituous than the books. Just seeing realistic dinosaurs onscreen was amazing.

 

[HHJ]

The Stand miniseries doesn't hold up well, imo. A shame since it's so faithful, but the network TV budget and ratings constraints really shows nowadays.

I Love the book..never seen the series.

 

[HHJ]

Jaws is a good book, but one of the best movies ever made. Like with Misery, the film separated the wheat from the chaff and just filmed the wheat.

hahah i couldnt believe that Hooper was trying to get with Brody's wife in the book.

 

[BisexualMMA]

hahah i couldnt believe that Hooper was trying to get with Brody's wife in the book.

Lining up bitches and knocking em down.

 

[HHJ]

Lining up bitches and knocking em down.

I read it as a kid,and i really liked Hooper in the movie,so i was like WTF h4x!!!!!!! when i read that.

 

[Agent Mulder's Hair]

Oh, I read that one. Some fascinating stuff in there. The one that really stuck with me was the gorillas.

I honestly can't remember that part. But it really is a fascinating book. I remember the stuff about the guru in sedona. The diving. The stuff about sean connery, lol. And that opening line of the book is probably the best ever.

 

[dildos]

Lolita

 

[RollSonnenRoll]

Lining up bitches and knocking em down.

I read it as a kid,and i really liked Hooper in the movie,so i was like WTF h4x!!!!!!! when i read that.

When you know that, the scene where he comes over to the Brody's for dinner is really weird. She's overly friendly to Hooper given that she just met him and even randomly emasculates her own husband right in front of him. "Martin is terrified of the water. When we take the ferry, he sits in his car the whole time". Some of those elements might have been carried over in the screenplay.

I'm going to throw another vote in for Jurassic Park.

I just read it a couple of years ago and, while good, I thought it really lacked the heart of the movie. It was too focused on the science . . . too technical . . . too aloof.

It got violent too. The description of Nedry's death where the acid spit felt like spikes in the back of his eyeballs and how he could feel the spreading warmth of holding his own bowels was brutal!

 

[BisexualMMA]

When you know that, the scene where he comes over to the Brody's for dinner is really weird. She's overly friendly to Hooper given that she just met him and even randomly emasculates her own husband right in front of him. "Martin is terrified of the water. When we take the ferry, he sits in his car the whole time". Some of those elements might have been carried over in the screenplay.

Carrying over minor hints of something that shouldn't be explicitly stated in the movie can make for interesting subtext. But even having read the book, I never took that conversation in the movie to involve much flirtation, and really nothing more than nervous small talk from a concerned wife.

With Misery, for example, it was just plain silly in the book to have...

Spoiler

...Paul Sheldon choosing not to make his presence known to the police IN THE HOUSE just so he could fuck with Annie by writing the book and depriving her of it at the risk of his own demise...

...but that degree of loathing was still quite evident in James Caan's performance in the third act, even with that event (wisely) excised from the screenplay.

 

[Marfa]

Not as good as the book and didn't do bigwig justice but a very solid adaptation

Sweet Baby Jesus, I didn't even know... Thank you, good sir.

 

[newcastleman]

I think Carrie, Jaws and Silence of the lambs are all tremendous adaptions that elevated the source material (all good reads) via marvelous casting, music, cinematography etc.
I enjoyed the Jurassic Park novel, but it didn't have anywhere near the impact of the movie. This was largely due to the excitement generated from the realization that, for the first time, we were going to see dinosaurs that looked real. There was fantastic anticipation in the build up to it's release, and the movie didn't disappoint.
Another example is The Omen. I found it a pretty average book, but it was a spectacular horror movie for the time.

 

[Steve-French]

From my experiences I would have to say A Clockwork Orange.