Greatest book AND screen adaptation of all time is....

[What_Exit]

A prior thread on this subject had To Kill A Mockingbird as the most common answer.

Link to the prior thread: What do you think are the best book and movie pairings? - Cafe Society - Straight Dope Message Board

I think the Lord of the Rings is a great candidate.

I think I mentioned in the prior thread, Godfather may well be the greatest movie but the book was only very good at best.

[LH75]

@WordMan

Assumed this was the steered-towards answer. It almost has the weight of conventional wisdom, like starting a discussion of best bball players with Michael Jordan.

I love both; the book has held Favorite Novel position for me at various points in my life.

Question: given how the world is evolving, non-white-straight-male voices are gaining share in mainstream culture. As an old white straight guy, I applaud this general direction. Does this movement impact how we will view To Kill a Mockingbird? It could be described as illustrative of the white savior approach. The best example ever, but still positioned from that perspective, relegating black characters and voices to small, but critical roles like Tom and Calpurnia.

Probably should be in another thread. Again, I love the book and movie.

This is a very interesting question. I think as we move on to a much more homogenized society it is possible, and even likely, that the context of this great novel will be lost. I prefer to think of Atticus Finch’s role as more “moral character in the face of adversity” rather than seeing him as a “white savior.”

Atticus Finch has always define the word “Character” for me

[BrotherCadfael]

I saw the thread title and immediately thought of To Kill A Mockingbird. It is perhaps the only case of a great book made into a great movie. Great books generally make so-so films; great films are generally made from so-so books.

[Ethilrist]

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep/Blade Runner get my vote.

[puddleglum]

A Christmas Carol by Dickens and the movie starring George C Scott. One of the great books ever written and a great movie too.
To Kill a Mockingbird is such an interior book in that it is all about Scout’s feelings and thoughts. Whereas A Christmas Carol is told from an outside perspective, this leads to more of what was great about To Kill a Mockingbird being left off the screen.

[Sitnam]

@zombywoof

The Big Sleep

The Big Lebowski was really good.

[LVBoPeep]

@Bridget_Burke

I’d like to nominate the book & series, Lonesome Dove…

For the win…the miniseries couldn’t have been cast any better for one thing. I did like To Kill a Mockingbird book and movie but I only needed to see/read TKAM once. Lonesome Dove I read every 2-3 years and basically watch whenever it shows up on the tv guide…

[gwendee]

@Stoid

To Kill A Mockingbird.

And thus ends the discussion we never had because this is the definitive answer. There is no other, greater book that also has a just-as-or-even-greater screen adaptation.

And if you have not read the book and seen the movie, you are culturally deprived and need to correct that straightaway.

I agreed before I even opened the thread.

Furthermore, the version read by Sissy Spacek is the finest audio book I’ve listened too.

[dataguy]

The Godfather

When I saw the movie everything was just like I pictured it in my head when reading the book.

[Eonwe]

The Princess Bride.

[TCMF-2L]

I’m going to go for another novella and Bubba Ho-Tep.

Anyone can churn out crazy stuff as a horror comedy. In writing that’s what is is - an imaginative and serviceable horror comedy.

But in the film you have a black man as John F Kennedy and (actor) Ossie Davies imparts a genuine dignity in the role. Further the idea of **Bruce “Evil Dead” Campbell **doing a cheap Elvis Presley impersonation sounds like an easy laugh. But Campbell is playing the role straight, his best work in my opinion, and making Elvis a resigned, bitter old man.

Sure you get the cheap horror film laughs as well. However there is some solid acting in there. All in my opinion of course.

TCMF-2L

[DummyGladHands]

@Stoid

To Kill A Mockingbird.

And thus ends the discussion we never had because this is the definitive answer. There is no other, greater book that also has a just-as-or-even-greater screen adaptation.

And if you have not read the book and seen the movie, you are culturally deprived and need to correct that straightaway.

Bravo. As with any “challenge” thread, the mind races thru choices before opening the thread. In this case, my mind came to a screeching halt. Well done.

And to whomever said “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, methinks I read a different book with the same title.

[HubZilla]

“The Grapes of Wrath” with Henry Fonda captures the spirit of the book very well.

Per IMDB:

Prior to filming, producer Darryl F. Zanuck sent undercover investigators out to the migrant camps to see if John Steinbeck had been exaggerating about the squalor and unfair treatment meted out there. He was horrified to discover that, if anything, Steinbeck had actually downplayed what went on in the camps.

Ma steals the show in the movie. The only quibble is that the movie ends on a more optimistic note than the book.

[dasmoocher]

The problem with To Kill A Mockingbird is that it’s a completely misleading title–there’s no killing of a mockingbird.

[TBG]

@Stoid

To Kill A Mockingbird.

And thus ends the discussion we never had because this is the definitive answer. There is no other, greater book that also has a just-as-or-even-greater screen adaptation.

And if you have not read the book and seen the movie, you are culturally deprived and need to correct that straightaway.

pfft… that movie’s in black and white, it can’t be no good.

[Stoid]

@HubZilla

“The Grapes of Wrath” with Henry Fonda captures the spirit of the book very well.

Per IMDB:

Ma steals the show in the movie. The only quibble is that the movie ends on a more optimistic note than the book.

That’s one way of putting it. I would have said “the movie wusses out” - but I guess showing a grown man nursing from a woman from sheer hunger is something too challenging to portray even now. Best left to the imagination.

[Charlie_Wayne]

nm.

[Charlie_Wayne]

@TBG

pfft… that movie’s in black and white, it can’t be no good.

So is your post.

[TriPolar]

I agree with the OP but other movie/book combos that are well done could be more appealing to some.

[Charlie_Wayne]

@Stoid

That’s one way of putting it. I would have said “the movie wusses out” - but I guess showing a grown man nursing from a woman from sheer hunger is something too challenging to portray even now. Best left to the imagination.

I didn’t read the book, but the movie was boring, boring, boring. One of the most boring films I’ve ever seen. IMO, nothing interesting ever happens. The major events in the film would make for a good book. But not for a good film. Sorry.