# Most bastardized work from book to screen? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 13, 2006, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-bastardized-work-from-book-to-screen/339876 "2006-01-13T20:50:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2006, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-bastardized-work-from-book-to-screen/339876/1 "2006-01-13T20:50:35Z")
I think the title speaks for itself, but let me elaborate. What piece of literature has undergone the most radical changes from its published format to its film version? Four come to mind for me: 1. [The Lawnmower Man](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104692/). Originally a Stephen King story about a guy whose lawn-care worker strips nude, eats grass, and then eventually eats the guy. The movie was about a simple man who’s turned into a genius by a scientist. So different that King sued to have his name removed from the credits. 2. [The Running Man](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093894/). Another Stephen King story, this one’s closer to the source material. The story is about a desperate man who signs up for a game show in which his family receives money for every hour that he avoids capture. The movie gets into some apparent revolutionary-type warfare (admittedly, it’s been a while since I’ve seen it). 3. [Exit to Eden](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109758/). In the Anne Rice (as Anne Rampling) novel, the plot involving the cops and diamond thieves (the main point of the movie) _does not exist_. The book is about the island, and the relationships between Lisa (Dana Delaney) and Elliot (Paul Mercurio). 4. [I, Robot](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0343818/). I haven’t seen this one, but my understanding (from reading about it on this board) is that it really only shares the title as the Asimov story, not any plot points. Any others? ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2006, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-bastardized-work-from-book-to-screen/339876/2 "2006-01-13T20:57:23Z")
**Memoirs of An Invisible Man** –The H.F. Saint novel was wonderful; the Chevy Chase movie wasn’t the book. I hope someone somewhere decides to shoot the actual book ---
**Author:** ![divemaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/divemaster/32/78_2.png) [@divemaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/divemaster)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2006, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-bastardized-work-from-book-to-screen/339876/3 "2006-01-13T20:58:14Z")
Seven minutes already and no one has mentioned **Starship Troopers**? Man, y’all are letting me down! ---
**Author:** ![h.sapiens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e0b2c6/32.png) [@h.sapiens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/h.sapiens)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2006, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-bastardized-work-from-book-to-screen/339876/4 "2006-01-13T21:02:40Z")
I’ve neither seen the movie nor read the original novel, but _The Scarlet Letter_ (Demi Moore version) was the first thing that came to mind when I saw the thread title. ---
**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:** [January 13, 2006, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-bastardized-work-from-book-to-screen/339876/5 "2006-01-13T21:05:22Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > **Memoirs of An Invisible Man** –The H.F. Saint novel was wonderful; the Chevy Chase movie wasn’t the book. > > I hope someone somewhere decides to shoot the actual book God, let’s hope not. The book was god-awful; I haven’t seen the movie, but even \*Chevy Chase \* looks to be an improvement. He’s not as stupid as the narrator of the book. Back to the OP: The champ is **Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex (but Were Afraid to Ask**. About all Allen took from the book was the title and a few of the questions as titles for the skits. ---
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2006, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-bastardized-work-from-book-to-screen/339876/6 "2006-01-13T21:11:44Z")
My vote would go to “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”. While the spirit of the main character came through, nothing else was true to the book . (I’m sure the movies mentioned above were true bastardizations; I just haven’t seen most of them). ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2006, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-bastardized-work-from-book-to-screen/339876/7 "2006-01-13T21:26:25Z")
> [@divemaster](#): > > Seven minutes already and no one has mentioned **Starship Troopers**? Man, y’all are letting me down! I would have mentioned it if you hadn’t beat me to it! ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2006, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-bastardized-work-from-book-to-screen/339876/8 "2006-01-13T21:33:30Z")
_A Prayer for Owen Meany_ --\> _Simon Birch_. “Ooh! I have an idea! Let’s get the scribbler who wrote _Grumpy Old Men_ to rewrite one of the best efforts by one of America’s greatest contemporary novelists! What could go wrong?” ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2006, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-bastardized-work-from-book-to-screen/339876/9 "2006-01-13T21:52:50Z")
[The Scarlet Letter](http://imdb.com/title/tt0114345/) is a great high in the history of low. The book begins with Hester standing with her baby and being pilloried before the community; in the movie she’s not even pregnant until halfway through (you get to see the conception), there’s a huge witchcraft trial/Crucible ripoff sideplot (including a slave named Tituba with a gratuitous nude dancing scene), the ending is completely changed (there’s now a “happy one”) and the dialogue is a masterpiece. Among other things Hester jokes about “maybe I’m using powers to bewitch you” with a Calvinist minister (yeah, cause women in 17th century Massachusetts _loved_ to joke about practicing witchcraft on ministers) and is later considered a heretic for saying that people can pray to God directly and didn’t have to use a priest (evidently Hester started the Protestant Reformation… though it’s kind of odd that she started it in America… among Protestants). Absofreakinglutely godawful. I know the movie has its fans and was written by John Irving, but I didn’t like **Cider House Rules**. It skipped 90% of the great book. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2006, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-bastardized-work-from-book-to-screen/339876/10 "2006-01-13T23:28:15Z")
Pretty much every James Bond movie, from _Goldfinger_ on, has used the title and jettisoned everything else. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2006, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-bastardized-work-from-book-to-screen/339876/11 "2006-01-13T23:35:18Z")
**Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil** was a horrible transition as well. The book was quirky and odd and a bit Gothic but its beauty and charms and success came from the rich character studies, atmosphere and interwoven narratives of the fringe of Savannah high society. The movie was a swampy mess of melodrama and horrendously fake southern accents, hack writing and sensationalism. The Lady Chablis’s part was grossly overwritten (I _couldn’t believe_ they had her testifying at the murder trial in the movie!), the wrong parts were cut, totally unnecessary subplots added (mainly to give Eastwood’s daughter a big role) and worst of all it turned from a character driven snapshot of time and place to a paint by the numbers murder mystery where 1) you already knew from Jump St. who did it [no suspense] and 2) the most interesting thing about the Jim-Williams-on-trial affair (the fact that it lasted for a decade and he was tried for the same murder four times) was completely skipped. I don’t think Clint had a clue what made that book so successful. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2006, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-bastardized-work-from-book-to-screen/339876/12 "2006-01-13T23:55:35Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > Pretty much every James Bond movie, from _Goldfinger_ on, has used the title and jettisoned everything else. I’d say the last faithful adaptation was _On Her Majesty’s Secret Service_, with Lazenby. Connery would return for _Diamonds are Forever_, which was a bad adaptation _and_ a crappy movie, and every movie since has had just scraps of Fleming. ---
**Author:** ![wonder9](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c57346/32.png) [@wonder9](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonder9)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2006, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-bastardized-work-from-book-to-screen/339876/13 "2006-01-13T23:58:04Z")
I slogged my way through the Hunchback of Notre Dame when I was a kid, and I’ll be damned if I was going to sit through the Disney retelling, complete with singing gargoyles and a happy ending where Esmerelda lives happily ever after. I could be off base about this…I didn’t actually see the movie and refused to rent it for my kids because of the bastardization. If I’m wrong, somebody please tell me. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2006, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-bastardized-work-from-book-to-screen/339876/14 "2006-01-14T00:04:43Z")
By the way, no filmmaker has yet done justice to _Animal Farm_. ---
**Author:** ![drm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e57/32.png) [@drm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drm)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2006, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-bastardized-work-from-book-to-screen/339876/15 "2006-01-14T00:35:01Z")
It’s hard to make a serious movies when talking animals are involved…It’s a tough thing and I’m surprised someone even tried. [Animal Farm] ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2006, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-bastardized-work-from-book-to-screen/339876/16 "2006-01-14T00:44:25Z")
> [@drm](#): > > It’s hard to make a serious movies when talking animals are involved…It’s a tough thing and I’m surprised someone even tried. Tough, but not impossible. _Watership Down_ worked well in spite of the limitations of the time and people’s expectations of animated films. ---
**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 14, 2006, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-bastardized-work-from-book-to-screen/339876/17 "2006-01-14T00:59:33Z")
As good as the Karloff FRANKENSTEIN was, it wasn’t exactly accurate with the book. Recently, FORREST GUMP- a total change in tone from the book (thank God, I loved the movie & hated the little of the book I could stand to read) Interestingly, Jerzy Kosinski’s BEING THERE was almost slavishly adapted by him to the screen UNTIL the very end when he changes Chance’s whole identity from being human vegetation to being a Christ figure. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2006, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-bastardized-work-from-book-to-screen/339876/18 "2006-01-14T01:00:13Z")
> [@drm](#): > > It’s hard to make a serious movies when talking animals are involved…It’s a tough thing and I’m surprised someone even tried. [Animal Farm] Oh, they _tried_, but the versions I’ve seen couldn’t resist slapping on happy endings or spoon-feeding the audience (“Hey! Look at this part! This is important! Did you see it? Well, let’s see it again! Let’s explain what it means! Got it? This is _important!_”) ---
**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 14, 2006, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-bastardized-work-from-book-to-screen/339876/19 "2006-01-14T01:05:25Z")
> [@wonder9](#): > > I slogged my way through the Hunchback of Notre Dame when I was a kid, and I’ll be damned if I was going to sit through the Disney retelling, complete with singing gargoyles and a happy ending where Esmerelda lives happily ever after. I could be off base about this…I didn’t actually see the movie and refused to rent it for my kids because of the bastardization. If I’m wrong, somebody please tell me. I think every version except the Anthony Quinn one of the 1950s (which I haven’t seen) has Esmerelda surviving (including the Anthony Hopkins one in which I misremembered her dying). Except that in the Disney one, everyone does die, her body vanishes off the pile of criminals corpses along with Quasimodo, and almost a century later, workmen in the Cathedral find their skeletons embracing in a remote corner. And when the workmen try to separate them… the skeletons leap up and sing a happy tune about how no one will ever keep them apart again! TA-DAAAAH! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Kilvert\_s\_Pagan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@Kilvert\_s\_Pagan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilvert_s_Pagan)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2006, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-bastardized-work-from-book-to-screen/339876/20 "2006-01-14T01:19:14Z")
Disney’s _The Jungle Book_. Old Walt forbade the people putting the cartoon together to read the book at all. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-bastardized-work-from-book-to-screen/339876.md?page=2)