# Movies that Ruin the Book **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 15, 2003, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-ruin-the-book/195386 "2003-08-15T14:43:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![The\_Bad\_Astronomer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@The\_Bad\_Astronomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Bad_Astronomer)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2003, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-ruin-the-book/195386/121 "2003-09-07T04:55:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Krisfer the Cat \* > \*\*{slight hijack} > > **The Stand \*\* was filmed here in my homestate. In fact the scene where Rob Lowe’s caharacter meets Bill Foggerbakke’s is only about 5 blocks from my house! > {end hijack}** {sub-hijack} That scene is supposed to take place in Pratt, Kansas. My in-laws live in the next town over from Pratt. I had my honeymoon (well, we stayed in Motel 6 for the night) in Pratt. I have asked around, and I am amazed at how few Pratt people know about The Stand. But they do have two water towers, one marked “hot” and the other “cold”. It’s pretty funny. {end sub-hijack} ---
**Author:** ![The\_Bad\_Astronomer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@The\_Bad\_Astronomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Bad_Astronomer)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2003, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-ruin-the-book/195386/122 "2003-09-07T04:57:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Fiver \* > \*\*Phil, I’ve never been more disappointed in you than when you posted your positive review of that awful movie. \*\* That’s your option. And your opinion; clearly, we differ on this. I liked the movie when I first saw it, and I still like it now. I also like ABBA, and The Fairly OddParents, and eating an ice cream sandwich by peeling off the chocolate wafers with my teeth first. As we like to say on the web, YMMV. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Krisfer\_the\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Krisfer\_the\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Krisfer_the_Cat)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2003, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-ruin-the-book/195386/123 "2003-09-07T05:00:45Z")
{to continue the hijack theme} Part of the program **Everwood** are filmed or have been filmed on that same street… just further east. The set is sitting between two biker bars:D {hijack done} mmm ice cream sandwiches… ---
**Author:** ![Kaitlyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/73ab20/32.png) [@Kaitlyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaitlyn)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2003, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-ruin-the-book/195386/124 "2003-09-07T06:46:52Z")
A movie and a book are vastly different experiences. A book, and here I’m going to assume that most of the time the word “book” is being used to mean “novel”, is primarily an internal, cognitive experience. Books are experience through language. Books are interpreted by the reader. Meaning is created within the reader’s mind. Books, the best ones anyway, require as much input from the reader as from the writer. Books are the ideal medium for letting a story find its duration, for complex, interwoven storylines and truly deep, complex characters, settings, and plots. Books allow one to take time to focus on insignificant details that don’t push forward the plot, but enhance the flavor of the story, add nuance and subtlety. Books take time, are meant to be lived with and in for a while. A movie (and here I’m interpreting the word “movie” to mean primarily a feature length fiction film) is more of an emotional experience, which happens to us rather than within us. Movies are primarily visual experiences, with sound playing a large, though smaller role. Movies have their own visual and aural language, and are “read” using the visual and auditory parts of the mind rather than the language part. For most movies, even very good ones, the viewer is a more of a receiver of the content than a co-creator of it. Movies have a very narrow acceptable duration (the vast majority are 90-150 minutes, with very few exceptions), and are almost always intended to be absorbed in their entirity in a single sitting. Enough philosiphizing. Now for some practical matters. It is the time difference that creates the most problems when adapting a novel into a movie. _Of Mice and Men_, about 120 pages in most printings, becomes a 2 hour plus movie when adapted faithfully. _Holes_, a roughly 160 page children’s book, leaves out some parts of the story and still has to rush from plot point to plot point. Start with a novel that is substantially longer, and it becomes necessary to do some major condensing–leaving out or compositing characters, leaving out or condensing plot points, and reducing the number of rounded characters. No filmmaker is ever going to do this in a way that makes all of the readers of the book happy–some favorite parts have to be left out just because there’s no time for them. Also, some things that work in the abstract, or work just because the author is skilled with the language used to present them, just don’t work in a visual medium. Movies and printed words are fundamentally different media for presenting a story. Movies should be compared only to other movies and books only to other books. No movie, no matter how well or badly made, has ever altered the quality of the book from which it was adapted. ---
**Author:** ![RogueRacer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7ab992/32.png) [@RogueRacer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RogueRacer)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2003, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-ruin-the-book/195386/125 "2003-09-08T19:31:54Z")
/hijack on Well, I can now say that I have seen posts from The Bad Astronomer! I have to admit that the screen name seems a little wrong though. Shouldn’t it be The Good Astronomer Debunking Bad Astronomy or something? 🙂 /hijack off ---
**Author:** ![Moeman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c37758/32.png) [@Moeman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moeman)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2003, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-ruin-the-book/195386/126 "2003-09-10T16:43:16Z")
In the Mouth of Madness by HP Lovecraft. I have yet to see any director be able to translate it ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2003, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-ruin-the-book/195386/127 "2003-09-10T17:11:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by CalMeacham \* > **I love Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. There have been about half a dozen versions of it made (including cartoon versions). Not one approaches the original. Two were star vehicles shaped more by the lead actor than the material (Will Rogers and Bing Crosby). The PBS version – PBS, fer cryin’ out loud! – was worse than any of them, changing Merlin into a _real_ wizard, when the whole point was that Hank Morgan’s _real_ science trumped Merlin’s self-delusional “magic”.** The Bugs Bunny version was excellent! ---
**Author:** ![tigandmax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/278dde/32.png) [@tigandmax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tigandmax)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2003, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-ruin-the-book/195386/128 "2003-09-10T17:17:39Z")
When I was in high school, my father began reading VC Andrew’s “Flowers in the Attic” books. He got me hooked on them as well. Then we went to see the movie. It was soooo awful. I realize that, for me, books tend to be much better. I am able to create my own movie in my head while reading. While it is quite difficult for me to practice, I also realize that movies cannot follow the book exactly and must make a few sacrifices. But the “Flowers in the Attic” movie went way beyond horrible. Since this experience, I am more hesitant to watch movies that are based on books that I have read. While not ruining the book for me, seeing a “book-based” movie that does not meet my expectations makes me hate the movie even more. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-ruin-the-book/195386.md?page=6)