# movie better than book? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 17, 2020, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-better-than-book/854005 "2020-05-17T23:09:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2020, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-better-than-book/854005/41 "2020-05-18T18:26:26Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > I believe Neil Gaiman’s _Stardust_ was produced in both book and movie form at about the same time - I prefer the movie, though they’re both pretty good Happy ending vs. very melancholy ending. I like happy endings generally, but I think the graphic novel packs a little more unexpected punch. That said I agree both are pretty decent( the movie benefits quite a bit from the campy Michelle Pfeiffer performance ). ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2020, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-better-than-book/854005/42 "2020-05-18T18:58:54Z")
I recently read _The Wonderful Wizard of Oz_ for the first time. The plot of the movie is a lot more straightforward and makes more dramatic sense\*. Killing the Wicked Witch isn’t even the climax of the plot, but there are a bunch of other adventures after that. \*It does however make more sense as to why the Good Witch of the North doesn’t tell Dorothy that her silver (rather than ruby) slippers will take her home right away: she doesn’t know. Dorothy has to visit the Good Witch of the South to find that out. ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2020, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-better-than-book/854005/43 "2020-05-18T19:11:47Z")
I liked the movie _The Mouse that Roared_ better than the book. I think that it’s due to Peter Sellers. I thought the movie _Dune_ was better than the book because it was easier to understand what was going on. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2020, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-better-than-book/854005/44 "2020-05-18T19:13:46Z")
2 Robert Altman films: M_A_S\*H and The Long Goodbye. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2020, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-better-than-book/854005/45 "2020-05-18T19:20:37Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > IMHO, both The Shining and Dr Sleep were better movies than the books. I realize this will be a minority opinion. Dr. Sleep was definitely a better movie than it was a book. I enjoyed the book fairly well, but I thought the movie was one of the best of the year. I remain blown away that IT had two movies that were hits. I could not stand the IT movies they made, but really liked Doctor Sleep. > [@Alessan](#): > > YMMV, but “The Princess Bride”. I found William Goldman’s novel nasty, cynical and unpleasant to read, and I credit Rob Reiner with paring it down to the movie we love - the best parts of the good parts, as it were. How different is the movie from the screenplay Goldman turned in? He did adapt his own book. ---
**Author:** ![XOldiesJock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/ec9cab/32.png) [@XOldiesJock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XOldiesJock)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2020, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-better-than-book/854005/46 "2020-05-18T19:24:28Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > These are both examples where the books and movies can’t directly be compared. The books provide a much richer and more complex experience. The movies cut out much of what makes the books great, but provide a more entertaining experience by hyping the action at the expense of depth. Each is great in its own way, but one isn’t “better” than the other, unless you define “better” as being either more complex or more exciting. Colibri, you’ve given me something to think about. I haven’t read “Moby Dick” since Freshman American Lit, 50 years ago. Hardly the best circumstances for appreciating a classic. I think I may still have the book from college. My wife read it back in the 80s (I think) and enjoyed it. Perhaps I should give it another shot with a more mature perspective! ---
**Author:** ![Dropo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2020, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-better-than-book/854005/47 "2020-05-18T19:26:44Z")
_The 39 Steps_ – Hitchcock’s 1935 film made several critical improvements, including eliminating some gratuitous anti-Semitism, adding Mr. Memory and changing the significance of the eponymous steps. _Out of the Past_ a.k.a. _Build my Gallows High_ – Simplified and more focused than the novel it’s based on, the filmmakers also wisely changed the name of the femme fatale from “Mumsie McGonigle” to “Kathie Moffat.” _Kiss Me Deadly_ – The movie version effectively subverts the puerile Mickey Spillane ethos by showing what a sleazy fuckwad detective Mike Hammer really is, while tying into ’50s nuclear paranoia in place of the novel’s focus on a cache of drugs. _Night of the Hunter_ – The book is unrelievedly pretentious swill, but it was turned into a unique film directed by Charles Laughton starring a crazed (and reportedly very drunk) Robert Mitchum as a serial killin’ psycho preacher. _The Fountainhead_ – Book unreadable, but the movie is at least watchable under “I can’t believe how audaciously awful this is” parameters. _Casino Royale_ – The 1967 movie is both better and worse than Fleming’s novel. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2020, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-better-than-book/854005/48 "2020-05-18T19:33:38Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > _The Treasure of the Sierra Madre_ by B. Traven is mostly forgotten Despite all those book tours and public readings Traven did to promote sales of his work. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2020, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-better-than-book/854005/49 "2020-05-18T19:36:16Z")
> [@XOldiesJock](#): > > Colibri, you’ve given me something to think about. I haven’t read “Moby Dick” since Freshman American Lit, 50 years ago. Hardly the best circumstances for appreciating a classic. I think I may still have the book from college. My wife read it back in the 80s (I think) and enjoyed it. Perhaps I should give it another shot with a more mature perspective! I read _Moby Dick_ in high school English, and hated it. A few years later, I bought a copy on impulse, and read it cover-to-cover. If you read it at your own pace, and you don’t have to write essays on the Symbolism and Meaning, it’s a fun book. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2020, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-better-than-book/854005/50 "2020-05-18T19:48:26Z")
If we include tv series, the Star Trek episode “Arena” is better than Fredric Brown’s short story. Although the connection between the story and the script is muddled. Gene Coon wrote the script for the show in 1967 and some people noticed it was similar to the story that Brown had written in 1944. To avoid possible legal problems, the studio bought the rights to Brown’s story and gave him a credit. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2020, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-better-than-book/854005/51 "2020-05-18T19:49:18Z")
> [@XOldiesJock](#): > > Colibri, you’ve given me something to think about. I haven’t read “Moby Dick” since Freshman American Lit, 50 years ago. Hardly the best circumstances for appreciating a classic. I think I may still have the book from college. My wife read it back in the 80s (I think) and enjoyed it. Perhaps I should give it another shot with a more mature perspective! When we read it in high school, my English teacher gave us a list of chapters we could skip if we wanted to. We didn’t have to read all the chapters on whales and whaling. You can get away with just reading the narrative chapters. But as a budding naturalist, the ones on whales were the ones I found most interesting. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2020, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-better-than-book/854005/52 "2020-05-18T19:51:24Z")
I have not read _Psycho_, but given how highly acclaimed Hitchcock’s movie was it seems like a good possibility. And that would lend credence to what **Chronos** said about Hitchcock choosing mediocre books to turn into movies. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2020, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-better-than-book/854005/53 "2020-05-18T19:56:27Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > I read _Moby Dick_ in high school English, and hated it. A few years later, I bought a copy on impulse, and read it cover-to-cover. If you read it at your own pace, and you don’t have to write essays on the Symbolism and Meaning, it’s a fun book. Highly recommend the Arion Press/University of California edition, with woodcut illustrations by Barry Moser. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2020, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-better-than-book/854005/54 "2020-05-18T20:16:10Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Despite all those book tours and public readings Traven did to promote sales of his work. I understand Banksy is his illegitimate son. Traven’s novels (whoever he was) were very successful in the 1930s and 1940s, and several besides _Treasure of the Sierra Madre_ were made into movies, but none were remotely as popular as that one. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2020, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-better-than-book/854005/55 "2020-05-18T20:23:27Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > **The Day the Earth Stood Still** – definitely superior to Harry Bates’ story _Farewell to the Master_ Agreed. > [@madsircool](#): > > 2 Robert Altman films: M_A_S\*H… Agreed. (I omitted “The Long Goodbye” because I’m not familiar with it.) Hoping this doesn’t lead to arguments, I’ll submit **Blade Runner**. Far more thought provoking than the Androids/Electric Sheep story. Although I sometimes wonder if Ridley Scott’s story is more of a “based on a story” than it is a film adaptation. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2020, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-better-than-book/854005/56 "2020-05-18T20:28:41Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > IMHO, both The Shining and Dr Sleep were better movies than the books. I realize this will be a minority opinion. I agree with you about _The Shining_. But for _Doctor Sleep_, I found the novel vastly superior, especially the ending. > [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > The World According to Garp is my choice. > > In the movie, you have to imagine Garp’s book from the montage with the gloves and the falling piano, and Garp’s description. “…when he takes the gloves off, he finally touches his family, but he dies.”\* “If that’s what it’s about, I like it!” > > In the book, Irving actually includes an excerpt. All it shows is that Irving isn’t as good a writer as Garp. For things like that, it’s best to leave magical writing to the reader’s imagination. > > PLus, I love the cyclical nature of the film, the constant repetition of themes as if the movie were the score of a play. None of that is in the book. > > But the book does have a large section on how every character died. Kind of a bummer ending, dude. More to the point, you could do that with every novel ever written. It doesn’t really add anything, or tell you anything insightful. It’s not all that clever. > > \*from memory I loved that ending, which is just one of the many ways the book is better. (It was sort of like what they did at the end of _Six Feet Under_.) But I don’t recall the plane crashing into the house being in the book, and I did like that. > [@Colibri](#): > > When we read it in high school, my English teacher gave us a list of chapters we could skip if we wanted to. We didn’t have to read all the chapters on whales and whaling. > > You can get away with just reading the narrative chapters. But as a budding naturalist, the ones on whales were the ones I found most interesting. You can buy abridged versions of great novels where they leave that sort of stuff out for you, but I hate those. My personal feeling is if it was important enough for the author to go to the trouble of writing that, then I’m darned well going to read it. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2020, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-better-than-book/854005/57 "2020-05-18T20:30:03Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > IMHO, both The Shining and Dr Sleep were better movies than the books. I realize this will be a minority opinion. There is hardly any movie and not that many books better than Stephen King’s book _The Shining_. It’s his best book. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2020, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-better-than-book/854005/58 "2020-05-18T20:32:56Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > I agree with you about _The Shining_. But for _Doctor Sleep_, I found the novel vastly superior, especially the ending. You might give the Directors Cut of Dr Sleep a chance. While it adds another 30 minutes to an already long film, the added material is mostly filling out scenes already in the film. I thought it superior to the original version and further develops the characters. ---
**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:** [May 18, 2020, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-better-than-book/854005/59 "2020-05-18T22:54:23Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > If we include tv series, the Star Trek episode “Arena” is better than Fredric Brown’s short story. > > . Blasphemy! I challenge you, sir! Phasers at dawn! ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2020, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-better-than-book/854005/60 "2020-05-18T23:00:14Z")
“Awakenings.” Movie much better than book, although that’s not hard for Oliver Sacks because while he was a great doctor, most of his books were rather, um, turgid? Is that the right word? Except for his autobiography, “On The Move”, the ones I’ve read were difficult to follow. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-better-than-book/854005.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-better-than-book/854005.md?page=4)