Movies that are better than the books

Dante7

It's a well known adage that the book is generally better than the movie, but there are exceptions.

Shawshank Redemption and Green Mile (great books too)
Godfather's
Blade Runner (or anything by Philip K Dick)

oneilla

Die Hard

Raconteuse

The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas, imo.

The book is usually better but film and TV are different mediums that can do things the written word can't.

(Big time disagree with you on Blade Runner though:)).

Fight Club.

Beanntraigheach

'Snakes on a Plane'
The book was undoubtedly Tolstoy's worst.

dickangel

Jurassic Park

padd b1975

Forrest Gump.

ILoveYourVibes

Raconteuse wrote: »

The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas, imo.

The book is usually better but film and TV are different mediums that can do things the written word can't.

The metaphor of the book is something transcendent. I agree. Such a friendship could never have taken place though. And its likely the German boy would have been a member of the Hitler youth (in fact he would have had to have been) and well indoctrinated with antisemitism. Plus security in camps was high. But its more likely the German kid would have hated him anyway.

But both the book and the film show huge chunks of basic understanding about the time period and runs the risk of misinforming people.

But I think people realize it's as realistic as Disney.

Its a fable. Fables need not be true or accurate. But it is important they not be misleading.



Its not really a moral authority as narration.

There is no way a child that age in a camp would be so sheltered from what was happening. Most children (nearly all female children) were gassed straight off. If he were a real child he would have known any siblings were dead.

It makes concentrations camps look like holiday camps.


I understand people are not going to think its realistic or accurate etc. Or that it ever could have happened. Or at least not adults anyway.

Having said that I do like the film though. But I also hate it even loath it.


The book trivializes the conditions in and around the death camps and perpetuates the "myth'' that those adults not directly involved can claim innocence.

Its not a book about the holocaust.

ILoveYourVibes

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

Mad_maxx

The satanic verses




( oh wait, I only dreamt they made a movie of that - as if!)

Pherekydes

LA Confidential.

whiskeyman

The Life of Brian.

ILoveYourVibes

The Telephone Book

Feisar

Trainspotting maybe. I saw the film first so maybe that sways me. Book is class though!

BrenMar

Jaws. In the book Hooper and Ellen Brody had a fling, Spielberg wisely decided to keep that out of the film.

ILoveYourVibes

Schindlers List

Pherekydes

BrenMar wrote: »

Jaws. In the book Hooper and Ellen Brody had a fling, Spielberg wisely decided to keep that out of the film.

Hooper also got eaten by the shark.

Donnielighto

The Two Towers

Kerry25x

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Fight Club.

Came here to say the same. Movie was hugely better than the book.

stratowide

Feisar wrote: »

Trainspotting maybe. I saw the film first so maybe that sways me. Book is class though!

Both are equally brilliant..One of the few books that I actually laughed out loud reading.
It's written in a Scottish accent.After a few pages you get used to it though.

Greyfox

The Mist

The film has a far better ending.. actually it was thanks to a thread on boards that made me watch the film

Gregor Samsa

Kerry25x wrote: »

Came here to say the same. Movie was hugely better than the book.

I think I read before that even Chuck Palahniuk thought the movie was better too.

Oafley Jones

dickangel wrote: »

Jurassic Park

Only read the book last week, there's a lot I like but ****ing hell Lex hasn't a single redeeming quality in the book. I'm struggling to think of a more objectionable character.

Vic_08

The Jack Reacher series, the films are bog standard hollywood lone hero fare but the books are written in such a bizzare style I couldn't even finish a paragraph. They read like a picture book for a 5 year old, millions of short factual sentences strung together.

A randomly selected passage:

The Union Square subway station is a major hub. It has an entrance hall as big as an underground plaza. Multiple entrances, multiple exits, multiple lines, multiple tracks. Stairs, booths, long rows of turnstiles. Plus long banks of machines for refreshing Metrocards, or buying new ones. I used cash and bought a new card. I fed two twenty-dollar bills edge-first into the slot and was rewarded with twenty rides plus three free as a bonus. I collected my card and turned around and moved away. It was close to six o’clock in the morning. The station was filling up with people. The work day was starting. I passed a newsstand. It had a thousand different magazines. And squat bales of fresh tabloids ready for sale. Thick papers, piled high. Two separate titles. Both headlines were huge.

How the fuq are these books bestsellers?

Dial Hard

Dante7 wrote: »

Shawshank Redemption and Green Mile)

Technically Shawshank is a novella, not a book. It's one of four stories in Different Seasons. Agree with you on the Green Mile.

BrenMar wrote: »

Jaws. In the book Hooper and Ellen Brody had a fling, Spielberg wisely decided to keep that out of the film.

Was coming here to say Jaws. It's just really poorly written. And, for a story about a terrifying man-eating shark, really boring.

I Am Legend would be one of mine. The film wasn't great but the book is awful. Matheson is another writer who managed to make what should have been a great plot stultifyingly boring.

PinotNero

The English Patient.

Liked the movie, found the book hard going.

Rothko

The only ones that I could think of off the top of my head would be The Shining, Fight Club and A Clockwork Orange.

uch

Debbie does Dallas

Bigbagofcans

The Passion of The Christ.

facehugger99

Blade Runner - better than Do Androids dream of Electric Sheep?.

dickangel

Oafley Jones wrote: »

Only read the book last week, there's a lot I like but ****ing hell Lex hasn't a single redeeming quality in the book. I'm struggling to think of a more objectionable character.

How do you think it compared with the movie overall?

Hector Savage

BrenMar wrote: »

Jaws. In the book Hooper and Ellen Brody had a fling, Spielberg wisely decided to keep that out of the film.

Book was totally different, more about the town and the effect the shark had on it, film is much better

Hector Savage

dickangel wrote: »

Jurassic Park

ah heyor!
Maybe cos I read the book 1st as a 14 year old back in 1992!
But I did find the book far far better ..

Conall Cernach

Donnielighto wrote: »

The Two Towers

I can't believe anyone really thinks this. The Two Towers is by far the weakest of Jackson's Lord of the Rings films and doesn't even make sense at times. Elves at Helm's Deep! How did they get there so fast?

loyatemu

ILoveYourVibes wrote: »

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

of Kubrick's films, Full Metal Jacket is better than "The Short Timers"; and whilst I haven't read "The Luck of Barry Lyndon" most accounts say it's a fairly minor work by Thackeray whereas the film is a masterpiece.

2001 is also better than the book but the Arthur C. Clarke book was written based on the script (which was itself based on an earlier Clarke short story).

The only ones that I could think of off the top of my head would be The Shining, Fight Club and A Clockwork Orange.

The Shining is debatable IMO - I'm not a King fan, but it's probably one of his more readable books. The film is great but took a lot of liberties with the book. "Clockwork Orange" is also a great book but Kubrick completely changed the ending to fit in with his more pessimistic world view..

Jim Bob Scratcher

The Shining
American psycho

keano_afc

Pherekydes wrote: »

LA Confidential.

This is the correct answer. The book is tripe.

storker

Jim Bob Scratcher wrote: »

The Shining

Noooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!! :eek::eek::eek:

Greyfox

Conall Cernach wrote: »

I can't believe anyone really thinks this. The Two Towers is by far the weakest of Jackson's Lord of the Rings films and doesn't even make sense at times. Elves at Helm's Deep! How did they get there so fast?

Two towers is the best of the 3 films, Helms deep is the highlight of the 3 films. All 3 films are definitely better then the book

Zaph

uch wrote: »

Debbie does Dallas

The braille version of the book is pretty decent.

Dial Hard

loyatemu wrote: »

The Shining is debatable IMO - I'm not a King fan, but it's probably one of his more readable books. The film is great but took a lot of liberties with the book. "Clockwork Orange" is also a great book but Kubrick completely changed the ending to fit in with his more pessimistic world view..

King famously hates Kubrick's version. I've read the book several times but have yet to actually sit down and watch the film.

Gregor Samsa

Naked Lunch

The movie, while surreal, is pretty good. The book is pretty much unreadable. To the point that I can’t quite understand how anyone read it and decided to make a move out of it in the first place.

Ipso

keano_afc wrote: »

This is the correct answer. The book is tripe.

Bite you tongue, hep cat. It's a great book, but you'd need to read The Big Nowhere first.

SuperSean11

The hunger games

Centurion1001

Vic_08 wrote: »

The Jack Reacher series, the films are bog standard hollywood lone hero fare but the books are written in such a bizzare style I couldn't even finish a paragraph. They read like a picture book for a 5 year old, millions of short factual sentences strung together.

A randomly selected passage:



How the fuq are these books bestsellers?

One thing that makes me laugh is how pissy the author got about Tom Cruise being cast. As if the books are these diagrams of perfection to be followed by the letter.

Gregor Samsa

Jim Bob Scratcher wrote: »

American psycho

I was wondering about American Psycho. The book and the movie are two very different experiences - both excellent in my opinion. The book on one hand contains entire chapters dedicated to reviewing the music of Phil Collins and Whitney Houston, but also scenes of extreme violence that could never have made it into the movie. That extreme contrast is one the things is that I really like about the book, but I can see people thinking it’s pretentious. The movie is much more even.

I do think the ending is better in the movie. More ambiguous, which I think suits the story better.

The Princess Bride

padd b1975 wrote: »

Forrest Gump.

The scriptwriter worked really hard to take an average book and end up with the success that was Forrest Gump.


In a similar vein, Slumdog Millionaire was a good film, but the book on which it is based, Q&A, annoyed me for some reason.

runnerholic

To Kill a Mockingbird. Book was awesome but film edges it for me.

gmisk

Ready player one
Crappy book
Slightly less crappy film

Zaph

gmisk wrote: »

Ready player one
Crappy book
Slightly less crappy film

I actually enjoyed the book a lot more than the film. I thought the film was a bit of a mess tbh.

Bonniedog

Vic_08 wrote: »

The Jack Reacher series, the films are bog standard hollywood lone hero fare but the books are written in such a bizzare style I couldn't even finish a paragraph. They read like a picture book for a 5 year old, millions of short factual sentences strung together.

A randomly selected passage:



How the fuq are these books bestsellers?

Morse and Rebus series are far better than the books.

Some of Dexter's Morse books are almost infantile in construction and bad prose. We may thank John Thaw and the director for making them iconic.

Likewise, Rankin's Rebus books. One or two of them are okay. Rest are pretty awful.