To Kill a Mockingbird – totally agree.
However, I take exception to the dig against the brilliant The Big Sleep. The movie, I admit, was basically incomprehensible to me, but apparently it would make more sense if you were up with the symbolism they used to imply sex and drugs in the Hays Code days. Also, Bogart for Marlowe is just great casting.
I came in to give my opinion but the OP beat me to it.
Is that the sequel to The World According to Garp?
My responses concern Stephen King adaptations only, because I am culturally limited like that. In the following order:
Misery
Shawshank Redemption
Stand By Me
THE DEAD ZONE and CARRIE were pretty terrific.
The book with illustrations is the most charming thing. My 6 year old daughter laughed uncontrollably at the Heffalump story when I used to read her the original stories.
The dumbed-down Disney versions, all those cheap stupid cartoons, are disgusting. As are the baby quilts, toys, etc. Only the pastel charming original Pooh is worthy, to me.
I wouldn’t say “…of all time,” but I have to mention “Watership Down.” The movie was actually a tad better than the book.
Would anyone care to comment on “Charlotte’s Web”? Or “Schindler’s List”?
Seconding Stand By Me as second only to To Kill a Mockingbird. One of the few movies to include all the important stuff from the book in the movie. The kids cast were perfect. I adored the Princess Bride, both the book and movie, too. Call PB 3rd place.
Nor should there be - it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird. Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.
I read To Kill A Mockingbird. It is very American. I am not American. There is nothing in it I could relate to or connect with. I found it very dull.
You only enjoy things you can personally relate to and connect with? You must find a vast number of books and films dull!
I find the more familiar things are, the more likely to be dull. It is the stories, settings, and people who are UNfamiliar to me that will grab my interest and attention.
Not much love for Fifty Shades of Grey, I see.
d&r
Yes, I do. If I can’t relate to any of the main themes it is a struggle for me to enjoy it.
Harry Potter 1 in terms of casting, special effects, set design.
General direction? It’s been going on so long that the ‘wise old black man’ is a tired trope now. And gaining ground on the stereotypical “Spiritual Indian”
H.G. Wells’ The Invisible Man (1933?) and the 1960’s The Time Machine were quite close to the books. TTM would have been perfect if The Time Traveler has gone into the future to see the great dissolution before being hurtled back into his own day.
Re Dickens’ A Christmas Carol- I’d rate the Sim & the Stewart versions as marginally closer to the book than to Scott’s, only because of the Wandering Phantoms scene.
JAWS
Steven Spielberg made Peter Benchley’s bestseller into cinema’s first modern blockbuster.
Errr…even though the novel resembles little the movie?
Must the adaption be faithfully accurate?
Well, how many great novels (or, at least, novels widely considered great) can we come up with that were adapted into great films (or, at least, films that are widely considered great)?
Among the contenders:
John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath
Robert Penn Warren’s All the King’s Men
EM Forster’s Howard’s End
Dashiell Hammett’s ***The Maltese Falcon ***
James Jones’ From Here to Eternity
Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange