Any Movie That's as Good as the Book? Not Just Sci-Fi

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Another old epic potboiler - Ben Hur, the 1959 version of course. Again, I recall reading the book and finding it to be tedious in that 19th century sort of way, where books were expensive and you wanted a lot of words for your money. There's no way, however to narrate a chariot race in text, so what must have been one of the biggest non-digital productions ever undertaken (horses trained by Yakima Canutt), including the absolutely insane chariot race, was put into this epic film. I could read about a chariot race all day, but seeing it on film is still amazing, as was the rest of ancient Rome and Jerusalem.

This is another case that brings up that old Chinese proverb, One seeing is worth a thousand tellings.
I haven't read the book. But I saw Ben-Hur twice: once when it came out in '59, and then again a few months ago.

Everyone, including me, was knocked out by the '59 movie. Epic films were starting to get popular. But when I watched it several months ago it so bored me that I couldn't watch ANY movie for several weeks... The chariot race of course was superb.

But I'd have to say that the 1925 silent is a better picture, and the runtime wasn't as painfully long.



Of books that I've read and thought the movie was an equally good experience:

I think that both The Talented Mr. Ripley and Purple Noon are excellent adaptations of Highsmith's novel. A great example of how you can "lose" the inner monologue of a character, but gain other elements via the film medium.

They had really different feelings for me, but I enjoyed the film of Drive as much as the book.

I think that Little Children the film actually slightly surpasses the novel on which it's based.

The Skin I Live In makes some significant deviations from the source novelette, Mygale, and I think it's actually a stronger piece of work.

Out of Sight the film was at least as enjoyable as the novel, if not a little more.

I adored the 2015 adaptation of Far from the Madding Crowd as much as I loved the book.

Bogart and Bacall in The Big Sleep are pretty close to the original novel.

The book and film of Watership Down are both amazing, but it's the film I find myself returning to more.

Orlando the film has a much different feel to the book, but I think they are equally great. A good example about how adapting a quirky book sometimes requires deliberately stepping off in your own direction in order to preserve the spirit of the original.

I was nervous about a film adaptation of A Monster Calls, but I thought it did a great job capturing the magic of the book.



Ive also never been a huge fan of Conrad's writing, so Apocalypse Now is better than Heart of Darkness

Also The Shining and Carrie and Christine and Stand By Me are obviously all better than the books



Fight Club!
Would add The Shining, Jaws, and I will catch shit for this, but LotR.

Sorry Tolkein people!
I right with you there. on LOTR. I found the long book to be interesting in its detail, but it seemed emotionally flat compared to the movies. Telling me what a Balrog is does not work nearly as well as being confronted, on screen, with a big scary, fire breathing monster. You could almost feel that hot breath in that scene.

Through the entirety of the LOTR book(s), I could sit back and my chair and take another sip of my beer. I couldn't possibly do that in the theater when I'm being charged by a mob of Orcs.



I've tried two or three times, but I have never been able to get through Ben-Hur from opening to closing credits.
If you think that's rough, just try the book.

The Latin student in me enjoyed having a temporary residence in that world, but the movie definitely moves along at a 1959 pace. I guess the film makers could only build so many coliseum-sized sets.

Of course, the other piece of strangeness was Judah himself, an ancient world middle eastern Jew, played by blond Euro Charlton Heston.

I think, however, it was somewhat offset by having that most jaded-looking of actors, Frank Thring, being Pontius Pilate. He did lots of roles in movies, live theater and TV, but will always be Pilate and his evil twin Herod in King of Kings.



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Fight Club! I read the book after seeing the film, so I am sure that colored my perception, but I recall sort of forcing myself to finish the book, because I was fairly bored with it.
Exactly. The film does a better job at capturing (and elaborating on) generational angst. Palahniuk let too much of his closet homosexuality seep in.



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Di je Karlo?
There's an obscure yugoslavian film called Ciguli Miguli, banned in 1952 for being anti-communist, and well...it's a case like Starship Troopers, only instead of a cartoonish action flick arrogantly shitting on a great, serious millitary book, it's a satire joyfully shitting on a book that's an example of the exact cringe plaguing the south slavic world that the movie's here to satirize. You have to be from here to get it, but it has flashes of some of the best satire I've ever seen.



The Great Gatsby.



Far from the Madding Crowd is an excellent Thomas Hardy book. And the original movie is a classic of British cinema.
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[quote=Takoma11;2322556]Of books that I've read and thought the movie was an equally good experience:



The Skin I Live In makes some significant deviations from the source novelette, Mygale, and I think it's actually a stronger piece of work.



Didn't know this was a book...LOVED the movie...maybe my favorite Antonio Banderas performance



[quote=Gideon58;2324245]
Of books that I've read and thought the movie was an equally good experience:



The Skin I Live In makes some significant deviations from the source novelette, Mygale, and I think it's actually a stronger piece of work.



Didn't know this was a book...LOVED the movie...maybe my favorite Antonio Banderas performance
It was adapted from a very short novel that I read back in the early 2000s. The book is very different from the film, including what it does with the characters.

For example: in the book, the doctor character
WARNING: spoilers below
has a moment at the end where he realizes that tormenting his victim isn't helping his daughter, and he voluntarily lets her go. The main character in the book is also much more overtly sexually abusive of the daughter.