# 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:** 3
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2006, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-bastardized-work-from-book-to-screen/339876/41 "2006-01-14T19:30:58Z")
Danile Quinn’s novel, _Ishmael_ was turned into an unrecognizable mess called _Instinct_ with Anthony Hopkins and Cuba Gooding Jr. (in the novel. Hopkin’s character was actually a talking gorilla. Amazingly, the human character in the movie comes off as _more_ ridiculous). ---
**Author:** ![bubastis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d07c76/32.png) [@bubastis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bubastis)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2006, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-bastardized-work-from-book-to-screen/339876/42 "2006-01-14T20:11:49Z")
Not maybe bastardized, as there was plenty of love put into the work, but Hellboy definatley falls under the catagory of most changed on the way to the screen; characters are added, people who die, dont, every aspect has been tinkered with in order to make the movie run smoothly with fewest questions, all of which sacrifices the main reason I watched the movie in the first place: Hellboy kicking ass. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2006, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-bastardized-work-from-book-to-screen/339876/43 "2006-01-14T23:16:56Z")
Well, “bastardized” isn’t always bad. “Blade Runner” is a great film, even though it bears very, very little resemblance to Philip Dick’s equally great “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” ---
**Author:** ![wonder9](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c57346/32.png) [@wonder9](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonder9)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2006, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-bastardized-work-from-book-to-screen/339876/44 "2006-01-14T23:38:35Z")
> [@Larry Mudd](#): > > Oh, come on, if we’re going to include Disney we might as well just list them all. “Disneyfied” is a common-use synonym for “bastardized.” > > (_Alice in Wonderland_ infuriates me the most.) Oh, I had blocked that disaster out of my mind until you brought it up. I HATED that movie. When I was a kid I hated it, and when I read the books—which became two of my all-time favorites—I hated it every more. Sometimes, well, most of the time, it seems that Disney debases everything it touches. It’s the WalMart of entertainment. ---
**Author:** ![priapus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@priapus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/priapus)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2006, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-bastardized-work-from-book-to-screen/339876/45 "2006-01-14T23:53:06Z")
Let’s see…so many…Moby Dick with John Barrymore(Ahab kills the whale and gets the girl) Take your pick of any Perry Mason and the winner,folks, Vonnegut’s Slapstick starring Jerry Lewis ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2006, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-bastardized-work-from-book-to-screen/339876/46 "2006-01-15T00:40:19Z")
> [@priapus](#): > > Let’s see…so many…Moby Dick with John Barrymore(Ahab kills the whale and gets the girl) It wasn’t all that great a book, but you can’t be serious. That’s freakin hilarious. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2006, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-bastardized-work-from-book-to-screen/339876/47 "2006-01-15T03:11:32Z")
**Mists of Avalon** on TNT. A more ham-handed, watered-down, miscasted mess I don’t think they could have done (well, they could have cast Britney Spears as Gwyenhfar, but I digress). My SILs and I loved the book, we made two nights out of it while I taped it for future enjoyment of viewing. We dined on caviar, wine, cheese and crackers, and were somewhat bemused after the first night, but assumed it would get better. After the final credits rolled, I said, “Well, shit,” and got up to rewind the tape. _No way_ I was keeping that mess. A co-worker and I hugged each other in horror and sympathy the next day. It was such a beautiful book, epic and detailed in its character development. TNT was pure crap. In fact, I’m pretty sure I dreamed the whole thing and I still await someone to make a _proper_, six or eight hour mini-series. Why do networks insist long books be truncated into four hours? What happened to the days of **Roots** , **Shogun** , and even **The Thorn Birds** , where there was time to go into everything important and explore it fully? ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2006, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-bastardized-work-from-book-to-screen/339876/48 "2006-01-15T03:23:02Z")
> [@lee](#): > > I so panicked when I heard they were going to make a movie of **Glory Road** , (How could Disney do it justice with all that nudity and how could they do the great copulation?) I immediately looked up the details and was quite pleasantly surprised. Given that they’d have to wear clothes, and the vist to the Doral would be bowdlerized beyond all recognition, I think Disney could do quite a good job of translating it to the screen. It’s a swashbuckler all the way. I heard about a movie called Glory Road, and went, “Oh, wow!” Then looked up the details and went, “Oh.” ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2006, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-bastardized-work-from-book-to-screen/339876/49 "2006-01-15T03:47:21Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > **The Firm** is not what most would consider great literature, but it was a really good escapist adventure thriller. The characters were well developed, the plot was feasible, and the ending (their escape through the endless mom & pop motels on the Florida Gulf Coast) was tense and brilliant. I couldn’t believe the ending of the movie, in which he tells her about the affair _he doesn’t in the book_ and they indict the Mafia on a _MAIL FRAUD!_ charges rather than stealing millions from them and hauling ass to the Caribbean like in the book Even worse, IMO: In the book, Mitch McDeere, after the FBI informs him who he’s actually working for, never for a moment considers that he cannot cooperate with their investigation without violating his fiduciary duty to his clients (the Mob guys). In the movie, he agonizes over it. Why? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2006, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-bastardized-work-from-book-to-screen/339876/50 "2006-01-15T03:56:30Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > 1. [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). When I heard they were making a film of _The Running Man,_ I just knew Hollywood wouldn’t have the guts to stick with the basic plot. The book ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Running\_man#Novel](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Running_man#Novel)], 'ware spoilers) has a subversive class-war theme: The future is dystopian because the rich have consolidated their power thoroughly; anybody who isn’t prosperous is marginalized; the media environment is saturated with fatuous propaganda; you can’t even go to a public library any more without being a paid subscriber. (One minor character is a black gang leader who periodically sneaks into the library in a stolen business suit with fake ID, and digs up all kinds of horrible revelations about the actual threat level of nuclear power plants and air pollution.) The Establishment gives the people bread & circuses in the form of dangerous, often deadly game shows, for which contestants volunteer because they’re desperate for the money. (The hero needs money for his daughter’s medical treatment.) And that ending . . . But in the movie, the game show is just an alternative way to punish accused criminals, and the real villain is not the Establishment, but Television. It’s still a radical message, but twisted around like 30 or 60 degrees. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2006, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-bastardized-work-from-book-to-screen/339876/51 "2006-01-15T04:08:08Z")
Of the movies I’ve seen and read the books both, I’d say it’s a toss up between Stanley Kubrick’s version of **The Shining** and **Bless the Child**. Both movies are 75% based on something the directors & screenplay writers decided to go with rather than their supposed source materials. The biggest difference is that Kubrick made an arguably scary horror movie, and Chuck Russell just made a big pile of crap. ---
**Author:** ![Dervish\_Jones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@Dervish\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dervish_Jones)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2006, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-bastardized-work-from-book-to-screen/339876/52 "2006-01-15T10:31:09Z")
**Ella Enchanted**. Maybe it’s not the worst adaptation ever, but they twisted the plot for no reason. The original had plenty of drama. Ella’s struggle to be independent despite her curse to always do what she’s told, her grief that her greedy father will never care about her and her decision to flee a relationship with the prince because she could be ordered to kill or betray him. She’s also very funny. The best thing about the book was the world it was set in. Each kingdom and species has a distinct culture and language. The filmmakers, in their infinite wisdom, reverted to cliches. Why spend time portraying a realistic culture? Instead, the story would be _so_ much better if they had an elf who wants to be a lawyer. And a talking book. And, of course, a huge swordfight at the end! Bah, phooey on Hollywood. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2006, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-bastardized-work-from-book-to-screen/339876/53 "2006-01-15T10:57:48Z")
_The Beach_ by Alex Garland is an excellent book. The idealised society that backpackers create on a secret beach is necessarily desirable, to make it something worth hiding and protecting at all costs. The protagonist slowly goes insane throughout the course of the novel. Ultimately, the society self-destructs. These points are vital to the plot. In the movie, the society as portrayed comes over as extremely creepy, and the people living in it unpleasant and idiotic. It’s nothing that one would preserve, especially not at the risk of one’s life. Leonardo DiCaprio’s character, also, just goes bonkers at one point in the movie, for no apparent reason, with some appalling CGI thrown in. Then the society is destroyed by outside elements, thus negating the allegory. Terrible movie, which is a shame because I liked _Trainspotting_ and _Shallow Grave_. The only good points are that the secenry is astonishing (I was on [the very beach](http://www.crowaptok.com/phi_phi_reunion/images/imgp2558.jpg) where it was made, just a week ago!), and Virginie LeDoyen is hot as hell. ---
**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 15, 2006, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-bastardized-work-from-book-to-screen/339876/54 "2006-01-15T12:00:25Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > When I heard they were making a film of _The Running Man,_ I just knew Hollywood wouldn’t have the guts to stick with the basic plot. […] And that ending . . . Chances of a faithful adapation ever being made, ending with……the protagonist forcing his way into the cockpit of a plane (after being gutshot and tripping on his own intestines) killing the pilots, and steering the plane into the skyscraper that represents the economic power and privilige of a twisted system, so that the last thing the evil C.E.O. sees before the plane slams directly into his corner office is Our Hero flipping him the triumphant bloody bird……are probably somewhere around zero now. ---
**Author:** ![baronsabato](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed655f/32.png) [@baronsabato](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/baronsabato)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2006, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-bastardized-work-from-book-to-screen/339876/55 "2006-01-15T12:22:29Z")
Both the stage and movie version of **Flower Drum Song** made some pretty drastic changes to the original novel by C.Y. Lee. I can understand why his novel may not have been a perfect source for a musical comedy at that time, but Rodgers and Hammerstein didn’t even retain the basic spirit of the story. The recent revival restored some of the original bittersweetness (which I don’t think is a word…) but was very poorly received for a lot of other reasons. And while Disney’s **Alice in Wonderland** was a pretty loose adaptation of the original books, I have to say that I think they at least captured some of Lewis Carroll’s original spirit. Have you ever seen one of the many live action versions that were much more faithful? They all sucked, and for good reason. ---
**Author:** ![Otanx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Otanx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otanx)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2006, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-bastardized-work-from-book-to-screen/339876/56 "2006-01-15T14:18:17Z")
**Sum of All Fears** I don’t even think they tried to follow the book. Also **Clear and Present Danger** Better than SoAF, but still way off from the book. I always fear movies where I love the book. -Otanx ---
**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:** [January 16, 2006, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-bastardized-work-from-book-to-screen/339876/57 "2006-01-16T15:02:46Z")
As far as James Bond goes, even after **On Her Majesty’s Secret Service** , they managed to do one pretty faithful adaptation with **For Your Eyes Only** , which blended elements of the short stories _For Your Eyes Only_ and _Risico_ (from the same collection), with a dash of _Live and Let Die_ tossed in. At the start, it looked as if they were going to do the same with _Octopussy_, but they wimped out. They tried to do something of the sort with **The Living Daylights** , but there wasn’t enough story there to support an entire movie. **Creator** , at least, was changed by the author of the novel, who wrote the screenplay, so I give him credit for the new version. The same goes for **Amadeus** , in which the film is _very_ different from the original play. (And I prefer the play). But Peter Schaeffer wrote both. ---
**Author:** ![Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boulter_s_Canary)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2006, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-bastardized-work-from-book-to-screen/339876/58 "2006-01-16T15:12:47Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > As far as James Bond goes, even after **On Her Majesty’s Secret Service** , they managed to do one pretty faithful adaptation with **For Your Eyes Only** , which blended elements of the short stories _For Your Eyes Only_ and _Risico_ (from the same collection), with a dash of _Live and Let Die_ tossed in. > > At the start, it looked as if they were going to do the same with _Octopussy_, but they wimped out. They tried to do something of the sort with **The Living Daylights** , but there wasn’t enough story there to support an entire movie. > > **Creator** , at least, was changed by the author of the novel, who wrote the screenplay, so I give him credit for the new version. The same goes for **Amadeus** , in which the film is _very_ different from the original play. (And I prefer the play). But Peter Schaeffer wrote both. \*\*‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?’ \*\* is a black comedy about identity and the nature of reality and **‘Blade Runner’** …isn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2006, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-bastardized-work-from-book-to-screen/339876/59 "2006-01-16T15:27:23Z")
I’ll agree about Disney’s horrible job of **The Jungle Book** , though it would have been a very cerebral cartoon for the time had it stuck close to Kipling (and the songs go very far towards redeeming it, if you don’t mind the story)… and where they got the sequel from, only Beelzebub knows… but I can forgive Disney almost anything after seeing **The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe**. A few short years ago, and I’d never have believed they could have done it justice. Credit where 'tis due. ---
**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:** [January 16, 2006, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-bastardized-work-from-book-to-screen/339876/60 "2006-01-16T15:29:07Z")
**Boulter’s Canary** I find your comment interesting, but for the life of me I don’t see why you quoted me in front of it. There’s nothing in my post about **Bladerunner** , and Philip K. Dick had nothing to do with the adaptation. So I don’t see the connection. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-bastardized-work-from-book-to-screen/339876.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-bastardized-work-from-book-to-screen/339876.md?page=4)