From the written word to the moving image...
I have been strongly influenced by books - from the time I first picked up my brother's Asterix and Secret Seven books, to the time I tried reading Sartre and Kahlil Gibran in college and now I seem to have come a full circle and thrive on "kids'" stuff like Harry Potter and Calvin and Hobbes and Lemony Snicket.
For the last 5 or 6 years especially, however, my reading has been taking a severe beating thanks to the world of cinema. Ahhh..the thrill of getting lost in a different world for a few hours. The brief but sure escape from reality is an absolute addiction for me. However, just like a new fancy videogame that will never replace the rag doll or the broken train set, some movies can never really match up to their book versions. Here's my short and definitely incomplete list of some comparisons...open to additions/editions!
Books that were better than their movies:
1. High Fidelity - highly enjoyable/thought-provoking book by Nick Hornby (who also wrote "About A Boy" which could also be an entry here, and "How to be good")
2. Lots of John Grisham books - especially "Runaway jury", "The firm", "The client", with "Time to Kill" perhaps being an exception.
3. Disclosure - a brilliant book...one of my favorite Michael Crighton books.
4. Love Story - the movie's nice too..just that I love the book.
5. Horse Whisperer - really touching book..I wish I had never watched the movie, it ruined the book experience for me!
Hmm..that's funny..I thought this list would have been longer than the next one, but let's see!
Movies that were as good as/better than their books:
1. The Shawshank Redemption - actually a so-so novella by Stephen King, the movie is one of my all-time favorites.
2. Under the Tuscan Sun - I could not even move beyond the first few pages of the book, but the movie took me by surprise...it was a really good and smart and beautifully shot feel-good movie.
3. Lord of the Rings - Actually, I am not so sure about this one. The movies definitely could NOT have been made better, but the flavor and the magic of reading LOTR is something that can't be captured any other way.
4. Harry Potter - Ditto
5. Jurassic Park - such a great movie!! Unfortunately, the sequel(s) were hopeless..The Lost World is a good read though.
6. Forrest Gump - lovvvvved the movie..can't say the same about the book even if u paid me to. Really depressing. Or maybe I just didn't get it.
7. Object of my affection - Actually, both movie and book kinda sucked!
8.Primal Fear - the movie ending is classic..of course, lots of things were changed from the book.
9. To kill a mockingbird - Probably one of my favorite movies of all time and favorite books of all time too. This is a great example of how reading the book only makes you appreciate the movie better and vice-versa.
What sucks is I feel like there's soo many other movies/books that I have thought about in this respect but of course, none of them come to mind right now! And what's probably worse, is that I haven't read enough books that ultimately made it as movies to be able to compare and contrast. Anyway..that's it for me now..I have to go back and read a book on Structural Equation Modeling that I hope to goodness nobody makes a movie out of :)
For the last 5 or 6 years especially, however, my reading has been taking a severe beating thanks to the world of cinema. Ahhh..the thrill of getting lost in a different world for a few hours. The brief but sure escape from reality is an absolute addiction for me. However, just like a new fancy videogame that will never replace the rag doll or the broken train set, some movies can never really match up to their book versions. Here's my short and definitely incomplete list of some comparisons...open to additions/editions!
Books that were better than their movies:
1. High Fidelity - highly enjoyable/thought-provoking book by Nick Hornby (who also wrote "About A Boy" which could also be an entry here, and "How to be good")
2. Lots of John Grisham books - especially "Runaway jury", "The firm", "The client", with "Time to Kill" perhaps being an exception.
3. Disclosure - a brilliant book...one of my favorite Michael Crighton books.
4. Love Story - the movie's nice too..just that I love the book.
5. Horse Whisperer - really touching book..I wish I had never watched the movie, it ruined the book experience for me!
Hmm..that's funny..I thought this list would have been longer than the next one, but let's see!
Movies that were as good as/better than their books:
1. The Shawshank Redemption - actually a so-so novella by Stephen King, the movie is one of my all-time favorites.
2. Under the Tuscan Sun - I could not even move beyond the first few pages of the book, but the movie took me by surprise...it was a really good and smart and beautifully shot feel-good movie.
3. Lord of the Rings - Actually, I am not so sure about this one. The movies definitely could NOT have been made better, but the flavor and the magic of reading LOTR is something that can't be captured any other way.
4. Harry Potter - Ditto
5. Jurassic Park - such a great movie!! Unfortunately, the sequel(s) were hopeless..The Lost World is a good read though.
6. Forrest Gump - lovvvvved the movie..can't say the same about the book even if u paid me to. Really depressing. Or maybe I just didn't get it.
7. Object of my affection - Actually, both movie and book kinda sucked!
8.Primal Fear - the movie ending is classic..of course, lots of things were changed from the book.
9. To kill a mockingbird - Probably one of my favorite movies of all time and favorite books of all time too. This is a great example of how reading the book only makes you appreciate the movie better and vice-versa.
What sucks is I feel like there's soo many other movies/books that I have thought about in this respect but of course, none of them come to mind right now! And what's probably worse, is that I haven't read enough books that ultimately made it as movies to be able to compare and contrast. Anyway..that's it for me now..I have to go back and read a book on Structural Equation Modeling that I hope to goodness nobody makes a movie out of :)
posted by RTD2 at 6:25 PM
6 Comments:
I am telling you this list making business is tough. I'd say that I have rarely found movies to be better than the books themselves. It is the depth and scope of the books that movies find difficult to capture.
Beyond your list, there is actually a set of books that I want to read having seen the movies. Dr. Zhivago, Gone with the wind, Lolita, Streetcar named desire, Mrs. Dalloway, Schindler's list, Shawshank redemption, The English Patient, L.A. Confidential etc.
One movie to add to your list of equals would be 'Silence of the lambs'.
Movies that I want to see based on having read the book would be catch-22, The good earth, Howard's end, Sphere, The war of the worlds
A change in format I see, so I'm not the only one messing around with the blog.
Hey, I liked Time To Kill the most out of all his books. I have recently read two awful books by him - I don't think Grisham has his 'touch' anymore. The Last Juror is just plain awful and pointless. Yes I was expecting murder trial stuff, but halfway thru the book I read reviews for it at Amazon so I understood that I should expect something different. But I still hated it. The other book I just finished reading is King of Torts - it started off good, but ended bad.
I only half agree about LOTR - I will reserve my opinon on whether the movies could have been better after having seen the 'Extended Editions'.
I LOVED the movie version of Prisoner of Azkaban. It's my favourite book of the series (well tied with Goblet of Fire) and also the best movie imho.
Parth, have seen Catch-22 - somehow the movie isn't half as hilarious. And Sphere...hmmm....the less said about it, the better - but I think I disliked the plot more than the movie(I haven't read the book, tho) - but I'm also no fan of Sharon Stone...
Some other poor remakes of books:
The Fountainhead (AWFUL)
Dune (AWFUL) - but the TV mini-series was decent
Would like to see Mystic River - the book was well-written (but depressing)
and H2G2 - I wonder how that will turn out
Slightly off-topic: The one thing I think I will avoid is Lord of The Rings - The Broadway Musical! I don't how they got Rahman to sign up for that one !#@#!#@#!
Oh dear, I was hoping u were joking about the Rahman LOTR until I googled it! AAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! What's the world coming to?!
Anyway, what is H2G2? Sounds like my favorite robot's distant cousin :)
Whoops sorry.
Short form for HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a book by the late Douglas Adams. It is a trilogy of about 5 books.....
And yes, truth really is stranger than fiction - LOTR the Musical!!! He Bhagwaan, Mujhe Bachaooooo, *Puts hand to forehead* Nahinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn aisa nahin ho saktaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
U know wot? As soon as I left the room after finishing that last post, I realized what H2G2 is. I am tremendously excited about it too. Some time back, I met someone who passed my litmus test - I was the leader of the group and asked them, "Any more questions?" and someone piped up with "Yeah..what's the meaning of life?!" and I said "42" and THIS GUY GOT IT! I can tell u I almost hugged him!
I got that too :-) Now, I am really tempted to go back and read H2G2 once more. Its been a while.
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