# movie better than the book? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 12, 2009, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-better-than-the-book/480915 "2009-01-12T15:40:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![johnspartan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a183cd/32.png) [@johnspartan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnspartan)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-better-than-the-book/480915/1 "2009-01-12T15:40:03Z")
It’s chic to go to or watch a film based on a book and say the requisite “Well the book was MUCH better. I mean, there were whole parts of the book left out of the movie! Well I guess they have to do that for time, or whatever”. Where have you seen the opposite be true — movies that were _better_ than the book they were based on? Big one that comes to mind for me is Goldfinger. I read the book and the movie’s more entertaining. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-better-than-the-book/480915/2 "2009-01-12T15:48:00Z")
Forrest Gump, no question. The book is absolutely bizarre. Forrest is an abrasive retard with a pet ape who travels to Africa and then goes into space. I have no idea how they took that and made a decent movie script from it. ---
**Author:** ![Gadarene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Gadarene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gadarene)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-better-than-the-book/480915/3 "2009-01-12T15:54:33Z")
_About a Boy_. The film’s ending was completely different, and nailed the narrative arc in a way that the book couldn’t come close to. Such an awesome film all-around, in fact. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-better-than-the-book/480915/4 "2009-01-12T15:55:28Z")
**Lord of the Rings.** \ ---
**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 12, 2009, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-better-than-the-book/480915/5 "2009-01-12T15:56:23Z")
_Silence of the Lambs_–The book is good, but you never heard of it until the movie, right? _One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest_–A difficult book to turn into a movie, but Michael Douglas absolutely did it perfectly. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-better-than-the-book/480915/6 "2009-01-12T16:02:32Z")
In 1993 there was a movie version of [The Age of Innocence](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106226/) by Edith Wharton. I love the book, but the movie out did it in two ways. One, the movie version brought forward the opulence the characters lived in to a modern audience. Two, in the book, May (the main character’s wife), is as dumb as a box of rocks. In the movie, you at least get a glimmer of intelligence and the idea she knew what was going on and was doing her simple best to prevent it. ---
**Author:** ![villa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@villa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/villa)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-better-than-the-book/480915/7 "2009-01-12T16:05:34Z")
I’d say _King Rat_, mainly because I really hate how James Clavell writes. ---
**Author:** ![Spudo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbce88/32.png) [@Spudo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spudo)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-better-than-the-book/480915/8 "2009-01-12T16:07:00Z")
The three stories in the movie _Sin City_ work much better than the graphic novels they’re based on. ---
**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 12, 2009, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-better-than-the-book/480915/9 "2009-01-12T16:07:05Z")
_Kiss of the Spider Woman_–The book is not so good, the movie was excellent, as was the musical. Odd vehicle for a musical, but it worked. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-better-than-the-book/480915/10 "2009-01-12T16:12:29Z")
The movie _Patriot Games_ was far better than Tom Clancy’s original novel, IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![Jettboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/85e7bf/32.png) [@Jettboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jettboy)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-better-than-the-book/480915/11 "2009-01-12T16:12:38Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > Forrest Gump, no question. The book is absolutely bizarre. Forrest is an abrasive retard with a pet ape who travels to Africa and then goes into space. I have no idea how they took that and made a decent movie script from it. I was going to chime in with that one. I read the book long before the movie came out and thought it was absolute dreck; the main character was an irredeemable dingus, the situations were idiotic and contrived, and the writing could have been a college freshman’s creative writing assignment. Reading “Forrest Gump” was a waste of a good afternoon. When I saw the film I was amazed that anyone could spin literary shit into film gold (or at least film silver). Quite a testament to the skill of a good screenwriter. ---
**Author:** ![Tequila\_Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/41988e/32.png) [@Tequila\_Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tequila_Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-better-than-the-book/480915/12 "2009-01-12T16:16:14Z")
It’s been long time since I’ve read the book or seen the movie, but I always thought Stephen King’s The Dead Zone worked much better as a movie than it did as a book. ---
**Author:** ![SunSandSuffering](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@SunSandSuffering](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SunSandSuffering)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-better-than-the-book/480915/13 "2009-01-12T16:24:12Z")
It’s been a while since I’ve read it but for me A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess doesn’t quite have the edge that Kubrick’s film does. It’s a fine book allright but it’s a little boring and has a happy ending that comes out of nowhere. The movie though has scenes that just chill to the bone and has those wonderful Kubrick touches throughout - all helped by crazy 70s music, suggestive artwork and Malcolm McDowell’s overacting. ---
**Author:** ![johnspartan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a183cd/32.png) [@johnspartan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnspartan)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-better-than-the-book/480915/14 "2009-01-12T16:28:04Z")
Agree w/ Clockwork Orange. I tried starting reading it a couple of times and couldn’t get through it. Movie’s solid though. LA Confidential is a better movie then it was a book. But only if you watch the movie first before reading the book, like I did… because the “big reveal” in the movie is established in the book pretty early as a basic fact. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-better-than-the-book/480915/15 "2009-01-12T16:30:11Z")
The 1939 version of _The Four Feathers_. It’s a great Adventure Story with amazing scenery, well done battle scenes, and is a shining example of Everything That Is Right With Adventure. And it’s in Colour. 😃 The book, on the other hand, has far too much sappy romance and musing and people sitting in parlours taking High Tea, and not nearly enough gunfire. ---
**Author:** ![Caprese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9a28c/32.png) [@Caprese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caprese)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-better-than-the-book/480915/16 "2009-01-12T16:30:45Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > **Lord of the Rings.** > > \ I’ll agree with that one, and brazenly refuse to duck. > [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > _Silence of the Lambs_–The book is good, but you never heard of it until the movie, right? Actually, I had–and had also read the previous Red Dragon. Both books freaked me right out, I think maybe I preferred _Silence_. Not sure if I like the film better, though. I always get mixed reactions to this, because so many people dislike the movie, but I preferred the cinematic version of _The English Patient_ to the stream-of-consciousness book. I much prefer the filmed version of _Last of the Mohicans_ to Cooper’s book, which comes off rather stilted. \* The Godfather\* was a good book but a better movie. ---
**Author:** ![AngelSoft](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/angelsoft/32/440_2.png) [@AngelSoft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AngelSoft)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-better-than-the-book/480915/17 "2009-01-12T16:35:48Z")
Well it was a mini-series but maybe we can call it a long movie. But Stephen King’s IT was much better in film form. Of course from what I could see from behind covered eyes. Being terrified of clowns, I still don’t know what possessed me to watch the damn thing. Probably to try and ‘cure’ myself lol. But the book was a thousand pages of boring crap. I basically skipped though 2/3 of the book and didn’t feel like I missed much. ---
**Author:** ![SunSandSuffering](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@SunSandSuffering](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SunSandSuffering)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-better-than-the-book/480915/18 "2009-01-12T16:43:20Z")
> [@AngelSoft](#): > > Well it was a mini-series but maybe we can call it a long movie. But Stephen King’s IT was much better in film form. Of course from what I could see from behind covered eyes. Being terrified of clowns, I still don’t know what possessed me to watch the damn thing. Probably to try and ‘cure’ myself lol. But the book was a thousand pages of boring crap. I basically skipped though 2/3 of the book and didn’t feel like I missed much. Totally agree with this one. Can I also nominate “Pet Sematary” another King book that is so boring I had to literally force myself to read the second half. The movie, while not perfect by any means, is a pretty good horror. That Zelda bit “Rachel…” gives me the shivers every time. ---
**Author:** ![Spatial\_Rift\_47](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a8b319/32.png) [@Spatial\_Rift\_47](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spatial_Rift_47)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-better-than-the-book/480915/19 "2009-01-12T16:43:25Z")
Fight Club. ---
**Author:** ![NAF1138](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naf1138/32/3245_2.png) [@NAF1138](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NAF1138)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-better-than-the-book/480915/20 "2009-01-12T16:50:00Z")
> [@Spatial\_Rift\_47](#): > > Fight Club. Word. That’s what I opened the thread to say. Polanuck isn’t a great writer and the narrative stucture of the book was much imporved upon by Fincher. Removing the mother was also a good choice. I disagree with Clockwork Orange, but I think that’s a matter of taste. I think the book and movie are trying to accomplish totally different things and for a good long while thought that Kubric had missed the point. I now understand that Kubric missed the point intentionally because he wanted to make a different point. They both work, but work differently. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-better-than-the-book/480915.md?page=2)