# Best film adaptations of a book **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 22, 2004, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-film-adaptations-of-a-book/225644 "2004-01-22T16:59:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![august9](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7993a0/32.png) [@august9](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/august9)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2004, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-film-adaptations-of-a-book/225644/21 "2004-01-23T13:49:06Z")
I think that Ivory/Merchant’s _A room with a view_, _Maurice_, and _Howards end_ were all very faithful to the books. In fact, I found _Maurice_ to be slightly better than the book. Also _An interview with a vampire_ was good, though not quite as faithful to the book. Do you think that a good film adaptation should be very close to the book in general (story, characters, etc.), or is it enough if the film’s caught the sentiment/message of the book? ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2004, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-film-adaptations-of-a-book/225644/22 "2004-01-23T15:04:05Z")
A Clockwork Orange was fairly faithful- except for the very end, which varied from both editions of the book. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein with Branaugh & DeNiro was pretty darn close- tho a Swiss-Italian production called Viktor Frankenstein was almost direct from the book. For a limited-time TV production Stephen King’s The Stand was very accurate- it’s major deviation being flattening of the characters of Harold Lauder & Nadine Cross, making them more villianous than tragic. ---
**Author:** ![JayElle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/4bbf92/32.png) [@JayElle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JayElle)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2004, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-film-adaptations-of-a-book/225644/23 "2004-01-23T17:01:11Z")
I know it’s just out, but I really enjoyed seeing _Cold Mountain_ on the screen. It’s one of my favorite books and I thought the movie was not only faithful to the story but also captured the feeling of the book. Jude Law portrayed Inman exactly as he was in my mind. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2004, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-film-adaptations-of-a-book/225644/24 "2004-01-23T17:23:05Z")
> [@Leechboy](#): > > The Green Mile felt faithful to the book despite them thankfully removing the middle nursing home scenes, which were a seemingly endless repetition of events we’d just seen. (It being originally written in serial form didn’t help, of course.) I agree, though I would have liked to seen the bullying nursing home worker get cut down to size. ---
**Author:** ![Rube\_E.Tewesday](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f0a364/32.png) [@Rube\_E.Tewesday](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rube_E.Tewesday)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2004, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-film-adaptations-of-a-book/225644/25 "2004-01-23T17:28:07Z")
Another vote for the 1941 _Maltese Falcon_. I don’t know if there’s a line of dialogue in the movie that isn’t straight out of the book, yet it works perfectly as a movie. ---
**Author:** ![vl\_mungo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc8723/32.png) [@vl\_mungo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vl_mungo)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2004, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-film-adaptations-of-a-book/225644/26 "2004-01-24T02:13:44Z")
**The Man Who Would Be King** **The Three Musketeers & The Four Musketeers** (1970’s version) ---
**Author:** ![Murcielago](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/da6949/32.png) [@Murcielago](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Murcielago)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2004, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-film-adaptations-of-a-book/225644/27 "2004-01-24T19:27:22Z")
I was big on James Ellroy when _L.A. Confidential_ was released. Despite my trepidations about the project, I thought they did a great job with the material. This may be cheating a bit, but I found HBO’s production of _Band of Brothers_ an outstanding adaptation of the Steven Abrose book. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2004, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-film-adaptations-of-a-book/225644/28 "2004-01-25T01:52:52Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > Roger Ebert claims that if you have seen **Rosemary’s Baby** , you don’t have to read the book, and if you have read the book you don’t have to see the movie. I disagree with Ebert then, because the book Ends with a description of what the baby looks like. I watched the whole movie just to see the baby because the book’s description was so interesting. “pearly little claws…” :mad: I honestly can’t think of any movies I thought were really good adaptations of books (the whole The Shining vs the superior adaptation of “the Shining” miniseries aside) but I do know of a couple of movies that took so so stories and made better movies out of them. Those would be **Practical Magic** and **Night Of The Twisters**. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-film-adaptations-of-a-book/225644.md?page=1)