# Cases Where the Movie Version Has Taken Over **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [May 17, 2024, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-movie-version-has-taken-over/1001711 "2024-05-17T18:16:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2024, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-movie-version-has-taken-over/1001711/41 "2024-05-18T01:12:36Z")
I’d offer up _The Natural_. The wonderful novel by Malamud is his take on the tragic hero, using baseball as a proxy for chivalric tropes. Roy Hobbs is definitely not redeemed and his life is in ruin by the end. There’s no game-winning, light-smashing home run that saves the day, but I’d wager that’s the storyline that people think of. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2024, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-movie-version-has-taken-over/1001711/42 "2024-05-18T01:20:41Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > Neither Daniel Boone nor Davy Crockett ever habitually wore coonskin caps. Crockett may have worn one a few times, when he was campaigning for Congress, and capitalizing on the popularity of a stage play called _The Lion of the West._ But even then, it was a staged joke Good book on the myth vs reality of Davy C: [Born on a Mountaintop: On the Road with Davy Crockett and the Ghosts of the Wild Frontier](https://www.amazon.com/Born-Mountaintop-Crockett-Ghosts-Frontier/dp/030772090X) ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2024, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-movie-version-has-taken-over/1001711/43 "2024-05-18T01:21:59Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Similarly, the idea of Zombies eating people began in George Romero’s **Night of the Living Dead** (even though they’re not explicitly called “zombies” in that film), and that they specifically want to eat Brains comes from Dan O’Bannon’s film **Return of the Living Dead**. Now it’s inextricably linked to therm. Zombies were originally animated corpses (Usually in Haiti) who were reanimated to work for their master. They did not eat brains of human flesh. _White Zombie_ was the first example, and _I Walked with a Zombie_ followed the traditional legends. George Romero put an end to that sort of Zombie. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2024, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-movie-version-has-taken-over/1001711/44 "2024-05-18T01:25:44Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Remember, these aren’t simply cases where the book and its adaptation differ, but where the film version is completely different from the oroginal literary source and has become canonical and iconic. I expect in most cases where a book and a movie adaptation differ the movie version is the one more remembered, because more people watch movies than read books. I bet the large majority of people familiar with _a_ version of _Breakfast at Tiffany’s_, for instance, remember a male protagonist that wasn’t gay-coded and a Holly Golightly that changed her mind about being a dick to her cat. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2024, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-movie-version-has-taken-over/1001711/45 "2024-05-18T01:37:16Z")
> [@flurb](#): > > The “coffee is for closers” scene and Blake character, though, was an original invention for the film. It’s all I really remember from the movie, but that scene is so good I occasionally watch it on YouTube just for fun. “X is for closers” is a household line. We try to use it in increasingly more ridiculous contexts. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2024, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-movie-version-has-taken-over/1001711/46 "2024-05-18T01:43:33Z")
One that some people mistakenly believe is an example of the movie adaptation influencing the source material is Nick Fury in the MCU. Some people who hadn’t read comic books recently remember the original version of Nick Fury, who was white. But Fury’s race change did not originate in the movies. Marvel had launched its Ultimate line in 2000, which were new versions of some of their classic titles. They rebooted the characters and one of the changes was that the new version of Nick Fury was black. In fact, they based the character’s look on Samuel L. Jackson (and in one scene in the series, the character said he would want Jackson to play him if a movie was made about the Avengers). ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2024, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-movie-version-has-taken-over/1001711/47 "2024-05-18T04:01:42Z")
> [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > And don’t bother looking in the novel for Igor (or Ygor, or Fritz). An assistant to Frankenstein named FRitz showed up pretty early, though, in a stage version in the 1920s. I don’t know if this infouenced the script of the 1931 film (which had a huge number of collaborators), but “Fritz” was one of the stereotypical German names. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2024, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-movie-version-has-taken-over/1001711/48 "2024-05-18T04:03:58Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > When it comes to The Wizard of Oz, nobody ever thinks of the book, any more. My favorite change is that, in Baum’s book, _Emerald City isn’t Green!!!_ It only looks that way because everyone is required, by law, to wear green-colored glasses. Emerald City is really White (like the Chicago “White City” of the 1893 Exposition, and the later amusement park) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2024, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-movie-version-has-taken-over/1001711/49 "2024-05-18T04:06:08Z")
> [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](#): > > In _Bride of Frankenstein_ the script originally called for the Monster to be blind due to the circumstances of his supposed death in the first film. Accordingly, Karloff stuck out his arms to help guide his character in his blindness. Before the film was released the producer and director decided the Monster shouldn’t be blind, and cut all the relevant dialogue. Which leaves the Monster characteristically lumbering about blindly ever since. I think you’ve got your films mixed up. The Blind Frankenstein Monster appeared in **The Ghost of Frankenstein** , where Ygor (Bela Lugosi) forces Frankenstein’s second son to transplant his brain into the monster. But the blood types are different, so he ends up blind, and has to walk with his arms extended. Glenn Strange , playing the Monster in the next installment, kept up the pose. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2024, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-movie-version-has-taken-over/1001711/50 "2024-05-18T04:07:10Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Wolf would even write a subsequent Roger Rabbit novel set in the film continuity, with the first novel being retconned as a dream sequence. Two sequels, in fact. ---
**Author:** ![icon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c6cbf5/32.png) [@icon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/icon)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2024, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-movie-version-has-taken-over/1001711/51 "2024-05-18T04:20:58Z")
I can’t believe someone has not mentioned James Bond yet. Originally he did not have a Scottish background but after the movie came out with Sean Connery, Ian Flemming wrote that into the character. Certainly just about all the depictions of James Bond on screen are different than the original character, but seen as the model instead. `//i\\` ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2024, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-movie-version-has-taken-over/1001711/52 "2024-05-18T04:21:04Z")
This one hasn’t completely taken over yet, but it’s moving that way. Ray Harryhausen’s last major film was **Clash of the Titans** in 1981, in which he portrays Medusa as a woman with not only snakes for hair, but also snake-like scaly skin and her lower half is that of a giant snake. There’s no suggestion of this in any ancient Greek literary or artistic source. The scaly skin is close enough, but there’s nothing about having a body that’s half snake. (Although there is a depiction of a gorgon with a bird body and one of a gorgon-centaur. The Attican king Cecrops had a serpentine body, but he’s got nothing to do with this – [Cecrops I - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecrops_I) ) Harryhausen, who was always looking for weird and photogenic forms to animate, especially if they clearly couldn’t be a person in a costume, had used a half-snake four-armed harem dancer in **Seventh Voyage of Sinbad** , and clearly thought that could work for a character with snakes for hair. As far as I know, no one had ever depicted Medusa that way before. But it caught on. I’ve seen it in a lot of artwork. > **[Amazon.com: Safari Ltd. Medusa Figurine - Hand-Painted 4.25" Mythical Gorgon...](https://www.amazon.com/Safari-Ltd-Mythical-Realms-Medusa/dp/B004I2DNO6)** > > Amazon.com: Safari Ltd. Medusa Figurine - Hand-Painted 4.25" Mythical Gorgon Figure - Fun Educational Toy for Boys, Girls & Kids Age 3+ : Toys & Games > **[medusa body - Google 검색 | Medusa snake, Mermaid art, Snake tail](https://www.pinterest.com/pin/369154500702449653/)** > > Aug 18, 2018 - This Pin was discovered by laercio reis. Discover (and save!) your own Pins on Pinterest And, of course, they used this form for the 2010 remake. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2024, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-movie-version-has-taken-over/1001711/53 "2024-05-18T10:44:10Z")
The movie “A Walk in the Woods” is a common topic for people to bring up once I tell them I hike the Appalachian Trial. To be fair sometimes they mention the book, but more often it’s the movie. The book does well at relaying a thru hiking experience, the movie however has no connection to what it’s like to hike the AT, and except for 2 AT landmarks the movie is not filmed there either. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2024, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-movie-version-has-taken-over/1001711/54 "2024-05-18T12:46:41Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > And of course in the original Jurassic Park book Ian Malcolm dies at the end from his injuries sustained from fighting the T-Rex. Then he survived the movie, and so in The Lost World novel they retcon his death and make him the main character for some reason. Yeah the novel The Lost World is more a sequel to the movie than the original book. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2024, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-movie-version-has-taken-over/1001711/55 "2024-05-18T13:19:29Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > When it comes to The Wizard of Oz, nobody ever thinks of the book, any more. I certainly do. This may be the single best example, because there are numerous ways in which the movie differs from the book and has entered the popular imagination, and this really pissed me off when I was a kid and still sort of does to this day. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2024, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-movie-version-has-taken-over/1001711/56 "2024-05-18T15:35:53Z")
Maybe the thread should be about works where the movie _hasn’t_ taken over. There probably aren’t very many, although I expect LotR is probably one of them. When I saw the first LotR movie, I kept comparing the plot with that of the books. I guess I maybe read the books too many times. At any rate, it was not a good experience for me. When I heard that the second movie diverged even more from the book, I decided to skip it. The third movie too. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2024, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-movie-version-has-taken-over/1001711/57 "2024-05-18T16:20:44Z")
I know some people are really bothered by discrepancies between book and movie, but it never really bothered me. Usually I look forward to a new interpretation. That includes books I love. I guess it’s because a book is a special medium and it’s not always going to translate to a medium like film in the way of perfect integrity. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2024, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-movie-version-has-taken-over/1001711/58 "2024-05-18T16:33:21Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > I know some people are really bothered by discrepancies between book and movie, but it never really bothered me. Usually I look forward to a new interpretation. That includes books I love. Again, I’m not looking for cases of discrepancies between the original book/story and any of the movie versions – we’d be here forever. As has been noted, it’s much shorter to make a list of cases where the movie _doesn’t_ depart from the book. I’m looking for cases where the change, generally from one movie version (although not necessarily) has established itself as the public notion of that story, and could even be the iconic representation of that character. I don’t think anyone has ever faithfully adapted _Dracula_ to stage or screen. For that matter, I’m not sure I’d want to sit through such a version – it’d be too long, and with too many characters. But the change of having Dracula dissolve under sunlight is an iconic difference, and it’s entirely due to the movies. And it’s so inextricable a part of modern vampire lore that I suspect a lot of people are surprised to learn how late an addition to our “fakelore” it is. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2024, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-movie-version-has-taken-over/1001711/59 "2024-05-18T16:42:09Z")
How about a Tarzan who can only speak in primitive, broken English (“Me Tarzan, you Jane”)? ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2024, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-movie-version-has-taken-over/1001711/60 "2024-05-18T16:52:02Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I don’t think anyone has ever faithfully adapted _Dracula_ to stage or screen. _Frankenstein_’s track record is even worse. There was a TV movie called _F.: The TRUE Story_ in the 70’s. Of course it was nothing of the sort. Have any of the adaptations had the two principals tracking each other in the Arctic like at the end of the book? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-movie-version-has-taken-over/1001711.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-movie-version-has-taken-over/1001711.md?page=4)