maxfisher

Several of the posts in the thread on Stephen King's favorite 2009 movies got me thinking about this topic. In regards to The Shining, I view the book as superior. Yes, the movie's a classic and masterpiece and so on and so forth, but I far prefer King's version of the Torrances as characters. I also think that as creepy as Kubrick's Overlook is, it doesn't hold a candle to how sinister it is in the book.

That said, I can think of three King books/stories which were made into films that actually improved on his work. Those would be The Green Mile, The Mist and, to a much smaller degree, The Shawshank Redemption. Outside of those three, I'm having a very difficult time thinking of films that improved on their source material. I'd almost be tempted to say No Country for Old Men, but it was originally written as a script instead of a novel and the book and film are so identical that it's more a case of parity than superiority.

I'm sure there are plenty of other films that have risen above their source material, but I'll be damned if I can think of any. I'm curious to see what examples others bring up.

Hokeyboy

The Last of the Mohicans -- Michael Mann, 1992.

The book is nigh-unreadable and a paradigm of coma-inducing tripe. The movie is phenomenal.

MBoyd

The Graduate

whaaat

Jaws

toddly6666

Lord of the Rings
American Psycho
2001
Clockwork Orange

89981

The Godfather.

Hokeyboy

I disagree. The movie should have devoted an entire hour to Lucy Mancini's twat surgery.

superdeluxe

You went there!

hasslein

To Kill A Mockingbird

Dr Mabuse

Off topic, but humour me...

I think the absolute best representation of a book in a film is Gary Sinise's 'Of Mice and Men'. It captures the book basically word for word, gets all the themes, is brilliantly acted... just an amazing adaptation.

I've read that book more times than any other work of fiction I guess, and that is one of my all time favorite films.

Ash Ketchum

Jacques Tourneur's OUT OF THE PAST (1947) based on "Build My Gallows High," by Geoffrey Homes

Orson Welles' TOUCH OF EVIL (1958), based on Whit Masterson's "Badge of Evil"

Akira Kurosawa's HIGH AND LOW (1962), based on Ed McBain's "King's Ransom"


(And, yes, I've read the books.)

Palaver

Forrest Gump

Groucho

This is what I came to say. Which is interesting because it's actually quite faithful. It just cuts out the fat that was in the novel (and there's a lot of it).The movie wasn't based on the book, they were created in parallel.

Jon2

Not a one.

islandclaws

Bram Stoker's Dracula

Also, I think American Psycho, while a great film, was even better as a novel.

DVD Josh

I disagree with this so much. The "fat" is just the jumble of Patrick's mind, the fat is pretty much what makes that book.

Michael Corvin

The Shawshank Redemption is the only one that comes to mind for me(aside from the Hollywood ending) and The Mist* comes damn close. While I prefer King's ambiguous ending to Shawshank to Darabont's, I think** I prefer Darabont's ending to the Mist vs. King's ambiguous one.

* The B&W version
** I haven't seen The Mist enough times to make a final ruling.

Dr Mabuse

Yeah... 'Shawshank' is probably an example of that.

yoshimi

Silence Of The Lambs. The author of the book has no business ever writing again. The books of the series got worse and worse as they went along.

dick_grayson

plus, it doesn't hurt when you have Demme and Fujimoto working together.

Dr Mabuse

As did the films.

hardercore

No Country For Old Men.

toddly6666

Do explain more. I didn't know that. I did like both book and the movie - it's just that I liked the movie more.

I liked the Hobbit when I was a kid, but I couldn't get through the first chapters of the Fellowship.

toddly6666

Did anyone ever try reading that comic book adaptation they did of the movie WATCHMEN? It was okay, but since the movie came out first, the movie is so much better.

lizard

I agree with that selection, although it may not be popular with Tolkien fans. Loved The Hobbit but didn't care for Rings.

I'll suggest:

The Bourne Identity. I liked the changes made and preferred the movie to the book. I thought that making the woman who aids Bourne a German, as opposed to a Canadian, worked well.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. The longest, and my least favorite, Harry Potter book worked well when abridged into the movie. By contrast, the movie version of Goblet of Fire was a travesty; it was abridged out of all recognition.