# Adaptations: movies that ended drastically different from their literary counterpart **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 1, 2004, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adaptations-movies-that-ended-drastically-different-from-their-literary-counterpart/272377 "2004-11-01T18:44:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Dante](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dante/32/9673_2.png) [@Dante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dante)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2004, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adaptations-movies-that-ended-drastically-different-from-their-literary-counterpart/272377/101 "2004-11-04T16:26:29Z")
I can’t believe no one has mentioned _Jaws_ yet! And probably pretty much any movie that is based on a **Peter Benchley** novel. Worst. Endings. EVER! Benchley writes himself into a corner, then the antagonist just dies or kills themself or some other ridiculous crap. Then Peter wanders about his house for two weeks muttering Gollum-like “It builds dramatic tensions it does, no one expectses it, excellent plot devices, very very tricksy…”. No Peter. You’re just a terrible writer. Sorry. Off to the Pit of Dhoom with you. ---
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2004, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adaptations-movies-that-ended-drastically-different-from-their-literary-counterpart/272377/102 "2004-11-04T17:32:23Z")
2 comments: First - it’s almost easier to list those adaptations whose endings weren’t changed. Seems to me most have been. Secondly - re my old fave, LOTR: and another unboxed spoiler for that one guy who’s been living under a rock - It’s not so much leaving out the Scouring of the Shire as what that does to the end of Saruman and Wormtongue. That gets changed drastically, along with the chance to show the growth and change in the hobbits (Pippin and Merry’s leadership; Frodo’s pacifism). Oh, another change in the ending, at Mt. Doom - They really should have included Frodo saying as he does in the book:Let us forgive Gollum…for without him the quest would have failed (well something along those lines.). I thought that was pretty important. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Carnage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/max_carnage/32/12775_2.png) [@Max\_Carnage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Carnage)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2004, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adaptations-movies-that-ended-drastically-different-from-their-literary-counterpart/272377/103 "2004-11-04T19:37:33Z")
**Jurassic Park** Book: 1. Ian Malcom dies from raptor inflicted wounds. 2. The old man (why can’t I remember his name) was a bastard who was killed toward the end of the book after he fell in a trench, twisted his ankle, and was scavenged by compies (a fate which befell another in The Lost World) 3. Grant, Ellie, and the kids are held captive in Costa Rica for fear that the news about dinos would get out. 4. (and characterization wise, in the book, Grant loved kids because of their facination with dinos, the boy was the computer genius, the girl was a sports nut) Movie: 1. Ian lives and comes back for the sequel (Granted, he was in the book’s sequel too in an awful “I got better” way) 2. Old Man lives and regrets that he didn’t listen to reason, deciding to close the park. 3. Everyone goes home happy with lots of stories to tell. 4. (Grant thinks kids smell, the girl knows “unix”, the boy was…well, average) ---
**Author:** ![Gotterfunken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/58956e/32.png) [@Gotterfunken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gotterfunken)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2004, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adaptations-movies-that-ended-drastically-different-from-their-literary-counterpart/272377/104 "2004-11-04T19:45:08Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > In the 17th century there were several operas of the myth, and in one of the showiest, Perseus _does_ ride on Pegasus to attack Medua. I’m sure they did it for the same reason Harryhausen did – it looks impressive. A lot more dignified than having Perseus flap his way in on those silly winged slippers. That’s how myths evolve – when they’re translated to a new medium – such as the opera stage or the movie screen, where what had “worked” in earlier versions and different media (oral storytelling, vase painting) didn’t satisfy any longer, the story was changed. This would be an interesting subject to trace throughout history. In art history, there are a few Baroque/Rococo paintings of Perseus riding Pegasus, as in [this painting](http://www.uwm.edu/Course/mythology/0800/1428.jpg) by Rubens and [this Tiepolo](http://www.frick.org/html/pntg50f.htm) painting. It becomes common in nineteenth-century painting to show Perseus on Pegasus, as these paintings by Leighton demonstrate: [http://www.uwm.edu/Course/mythology/0800/1424.jpg](http://www.uwm.edu/Course/mythology/0800/1424.jpg) [http://www.artrenewal.org/asp/database/fine\_print.asp?id=364](http://www.artrenewal.org/asp/database/fine_print.asp?id=364) The earliest depiction of Perseus riding Pegasus that I can find is [this painting](http://www.uwm.edu/Course/mythology/0800/1427.jpg) by Cavalier d’Arpino, dating to c. 1602. I have a theory that artists begin including Pegasus in their paintings because of Ariosto’s _Orlando Furioso_ (first published in 1516), which describes Ruggiero riding a winged steed as he rescues Angelica. Because the scene of Ruggeiro and Angelica is very similar to perseus and Andromeda, I wonder if artists conflated the two to some degree, and thus began to paint Perseus with his own winged steed. In any case, Pegasus begins appearing as Perseus’s steed around the seventeenth century, so well before the _Clash of the Titans_. Personally, I like Perseus’s little winged slippers, but maybe that’s just me. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adaptations-movies-that-ended-drastically-different-from-their-literary-counterpart/272377.md?page=5)