Almost every James Michener story has (imo) made a better movie than a book: South Pacific, Hawaii, The Hawaiians, Centennial (a miniseries) & Space (miniseries). While Michener’s research abilities were incredible, his character development was very rare, while the movies fleshed out the characters and cut the volcanoes.
I strongly disagree on Hawaii. The movie was but a pale shadow of the book. Of course, it would have been impossible to capture the full scope on the screen – it would take at least a mini-series. And a number of the “choice” parts of the book would never have made it onto the silver screen back in the day…
I think the best example of a movie (actually a TV miniseries, believe it or not) improving on a book is “Once an Eagle.” The scriptwriters did away with several characters who went nowhere in the book, added one character who should have been there (and who added greatly to the plot) and most of all, ended the story where it should have been ended, with the bad guy getting what was coming to him.
I wish someone would release that miniseries on DVD. As far as I know, it ran twice on TV circa 1980 and that was that. It starred Sam Elliott and Cliff Potts.
One movie that I can pretty much stake all I have on that will NOT be better than the book: Confederacy of Dunces. (Will Ferrell as Ignatius- thanks be to the Deity that J.K. Toole is already dead cause this would have killed him.)
Compared to the movie, reading the ending of The African Queen was quite disappointing. No improvised torpedo destroying the German ship. No marriage just beforehand. The English officer see Allnutt and Rose as unnecessary burdens and can’t wait to send them on their way and Allnutt and Rose meekly go, leaving the officer and his men to take down the ship.
Perhaps it’s more realistic, after all they’d gone through but it just gave me the impression that Forrester had lost interest in his novel or was trying to beat a deadline. The rest of the book was fascinating and made me understand better what suffering Allnutt and Rose went through.
Has anyone mentioned “Last of the Mohicans” yet? Not that the movie was all that great, but reading the book was sheer torture. How it ever got to be a classic is beyond me.
The Jane Austen books *Pride and Prejudice * and Sense and Sensibility.
I don’t know how they got to be “classics.” Tedious, inane, and so on. Movies brought them to life.
The Count of Monte Cristo, while I liked the book, I thought the movie did a great job of cutting out some of the dozens of subplots, and the countless times the author would spend detailing every penny the main character spent. The movie stayed true to the main focus of the book, and did a wonderful job of making a more coherant storyling.
Hazel-Rah: The Passion??? Wow…that, my friend, takes big ones.
HIGH FIDELITY was a decent read but it was made into a fantastic movie.
He probly would’ve killed himself.
I must disagree with the posters who dissed the novels A Prayer for Owen Meany and Contact. Both were excellent novels made into horrible movies, IMHO. John Irving was right to take his name out of the writing credits for Simon Birch; I have a hard time beliving that Carl Sagan gave the OK to Contact the movie, which bastardized much of his original plot.
On the other hand, Quick Change (with Bill Murray, Geena Davis, and Randy Quaid) was an excellent movie based on an AWFUL book! Absolutely unreadable. If I ever meet that screenwriter, I’m going to shake his hand and congratulate him on making a silk purse from a sow’s ear.
Most of the Tom Clancy novels that have been filmed were more enjoyable as movies than books, IMHO. The screenwriters cut out most of the bloated subplots and the ubiquitous details to produce a coherent plotline. Of course, this is coming from someone who thinks Colleen McCollough’s Masters of Rome series is the greatest work of fiction in the past fifty years, so who am I to complain about bloat, subplots, and details?
I completely disagree. One of the main methods that Edmund employs to exact his revenge is to disguise his identity and to remain in the background. That horrible, horrible balloon scence was hideous, and just one example of the extravagances that are contrary to Edmund’s character.
Patriot Games definitely. The book sucked. Hunt for Red October was about equal. But Clear and Present Danger was a horrible movie and The Sum of All Fears was disappointing and weak as a movie, while enjoyable if bloated as a novel.
Lets see, I think most movies have a very great difficulty in surpassing their books.
I love the Lord of the Rings movies, but the only argument that the movies are better than the books seems to be that the books had more depth. Tolkien is infinately talented, even if he did use other stories and legends for all his material.
I loved Chocolat the book, fell asleep during the movie.
Pride and Prejudice is one of my favorite books. It’s fun, witty, insightful, and it’s a very quick read, for anyone who is interested. “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a fortune must be in want of a wife.” Best first line for a book, that I’ve ever heard. Haven’t seen the movie, but seriously doubt it can rival the ingenuity of Jane Austin.
I must concede, however, that I enjoyed the movie Contact, far more than the book. I just think that the characters, except Ellie seemed shallow. All the religions, all the world were one big stereotype. I didn’t see the movie that way.
the winner, hands down, has to be the Unbearable Lightness of Being , not that the movie was that good, as the book by Milan Kundera was so god-awful
Hmmm…ok, I can see your point there, and your totally right. However I still maintain that the book had far far too many sub-revenge plots, and way to much detail about how much every little thing cost. The movie did an excellent job in keeping with the spirit of the book, IMHO. While the lead character in the movie was more in the spotlight, there was a good deal of behind the scenes maniplation that he did to make things happen, which was true to his mannerisms in the book.
I wouldn’t go so far as to say it was shitty, but it was… okay.
I would say this was one of the rare occasions where I liked the movie better.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned The Road to Wellville.
The movie made me laugh, and drew me in, but the book.
It is one of three which I put down in the middle and will never pick back up.
Haven’t seen the movie, but the last few paragraphs of the book gave me a different impression of Clive. It seemed to hint that he was going to regret giving up Maurice, that maybe he was still in love with him – that his motives weren’t quite as clearcut as the narrator initially suggests.