# Movies that were BETTER than the book they were based on **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 13, 2018, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-were-better-than-the-book-they-were-based-on/806515 "2018-01-13T05:36:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![Dr.Hackenbush](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Dr.Hackenbush](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Hackenbush)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2018, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-were-better-than-the-book-they-were-based-on/806515/181 "2018-02-23T21:54:00Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > I agree. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![ElmerH](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ea924/32.png) [@ElmerH](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElmerH)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2018, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-were-better-than-the-book-they-were-based-on/806515/182 "2018-02-23T22:43:39Z")
The Handmaid’s Tale ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2018, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-were-better-than-the-book-they-were-based-on/806515/183 "2018-02-23T22:51:32Z")
> [@ElmerH](#): > > The Handmaid’s Tale Haven’t seen the film, but it seems to have been pretty roundly panned by the critics and failed at the box office. What do you think makes it better than the book? ---
**Author:** ![Lamoral](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lamoral/32/16078_2.png) [@Lamoral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamoral)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2018, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-were-better-than-the-book-they-were-based-on/806515/184 "2018-02-23T22:54:58Z")
He might be talking about the show (in which case, I’d agree.) ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2018, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-were-better-than-the-book-they-were-based-on/806515/185 "2018-02-23T23:16:18Z")
> [@Jacquernagy](#): > > He might be talking about the show (in which case, I’d agree.) Well, if we’re allowed to nominate TV series now, let me propose _ **Game of Thrones** _. I started on the first book but had to give up due to the dull writing. Martin obviously comes up with some great characters and plots, but I think the TV producers have done a better job of bringing them to life. ---
**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:** [February 24, 2018, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-were-better-than-the-book-they-were-based-on/806515/186 "2018-02-24T21:23:01Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > While it is a great book to me, I’ve had lots of people (who like the movie) tell me that\* The Name of The Rose\* is well-nigh unreadable, with its large swathes of untranslated Latin. How bizarre. I’ve never heard such a thing. That is a wonderful book and my favorite of all of Eco’s works. Maybe I just hang around more educated people. ---
**Author:** ![bmoak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@bmoak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bmoak)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2018, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-were-better-than-the-book-they-were-based-on/806515/187 "2018-02-26T04:50:07Z")
I’m going to say the movie version of Prince Caspian is better than the book version. I won’t say that about the movie versions of The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe and Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Prince Caspian might be the weakest of Lewis’ Narnia books and, IMHO, the movie does a good job improving on the book’s plot and structural problems. 1. Book Miraz is lackluster villain, especially as a followup to the White Witch. He’s little more than a brutish thug. The movie makes him smarter, more dangerous, and more interesting. The movie also does a good job of developing the non-descript Telmarines. 2. The main characters are very passive in the book, especially the title character. The movie gives them more to do, and it helps that Caspian and the Pevenises are older than they are in the novel. 3. Caspian and the Pevensies are kept on parallel story tracks and don’t meet until near the end of the book. IIRC, Susan and Lucy don’t even meet Caspian until after the Telmarines are defeated at the very end of the book. The movie introduces them to each other much earlier, which allows them to interact witheach other more. The movie also makes a wise decision not to tell Caspian’s story completely in flashback like the book. 4. The book introduces Aslan very early. As Aslan’s a walking deus-ex-machina, the movie’s decision to hold him back until later and give the characters more time to flounder and make mistakes helps the narrative a lot more. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2018, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-were-better-than-the-book-they-were-based-on/806515/188 "2018-02-26T13:53:41Z")
> [@Dr.Hackenbush](#): > > Read [_The Wonderful Wizard of Oz_] as a teen. I don’t think it’s as dull and boring as you found it, but yeah the movie is waaay more fun. I would agree, an improvement. I read it and a good bit of the rest of the Oz books at about age 10, so I was in the right demographic. My parents would visit some old friends of theirs, taking me along. They had no children but for some reason had at least a dozen of the Oz books on their bookshelf. While the adults talked about boring, mysterious stuff I’d read the books. While the movie was fun, I remember being annoyed by the “it was all a dream” trope (but… but Oz is _real!_) When I got a Kindle, one my first stops was to visit [Gutenberg](http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=oz) and collect all 17 of the books, trying to recapture my childhood. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2018, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-were-better-than-the-book-they-were-based-on/806515/189 "2018-02-26T19:28:47Z")
> [@Capn\_Carl](#): > > The Council of Elrond is the chapter I’ve re-read the most. In the book, the wisest beings on Earth gather to reason and debate a solution to a crisis. In the movie, the ‘wisest’ beings on Earth gather to argue and yell at each other. This was the scene that totally ruined the movie for me. The drawn-out silence into which Frodo says, “I will take the Ring, though I do not know the way” - that moment, AFAIAC, is the heart of the entire three-book tale. And Peter Jackson, may he be perpetually infested with the fleas of a thousand camels, turned that heart-rending moment into a cacophonic shouting match. ---
**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:** [February 26, 2018, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-were-better-than-the-book-they-were-based-on/806515/190 "2018-02-26T21:55:56Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > …And Peter Jackson, may he be perpetually infested with the fleas of a thousand camels, turned that heart-rending moment into a cacophonic shouting match. Luxury! May he instead lose all his fingers and then get a bowling ball for Christmas. ---
**Author:** ![CaptMurdock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/captmurdock/32/11736_2.png) [@CaptMurdock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptMurdock)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2018, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-were-better-than-the-book-they-were-based-on/806515/191 "2018-02-28T00:12:39Z")
> [@Dr.Hackenbush](#): > > ’ > Could not disagree more. Alan Moore has this inconvenient tendency to try and speak to the reader’s intelligence. Every director who has gotten their hands on his work just goes and appeals to the viewer’s… I might cut myself off right there. If the Telepathic Space Octopus ending was Moore’s attempt to “speak to the reader’s intelligence” I’d rather go with the director’s appeals to my… cut-offs. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Capn\_Carl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/838e76/32.png) [@Capn\_Carl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capn_Carl)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2018, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-were-better-than-the-book-they-were-based-on/806515/192 "2018-02-28T02:36:25Z")
> [@TreacherousCretin](#): > > Luxury! May he instead lose all his fingers and then get a bowling ball for Christmas. I’ll say this for Jackson: as mentioned earlier, he gave Arwen a bigger role. Tolkien should have left Glorfindel dead. If Tolkein had been less patriarchal, he’d have seen that Arwen was an obvious fit for the role Glorfindel got. ---
**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:** [February 28, 2018, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-were-better-than-the-book-they-were-based-on/806515/193 "2018-02-28T20:31:04Z")
we recently had a discussion in another thread about **Dr. Strangelove** , which is appropriate here. The movie is definitely better than Peter Bryant/Peter George’s original novel **red Alert**. He rewrote the novel after the film came out to be more like the film, but it still lacked the absurdist humor of the film. (I don’t think that’s been mentioned yet – I just did a quick search, but I know those can go wrong) For all its flaws – and Og knows there are plenty – George Pal’s low-budget fantasy **Atlantis the Lost Continent** is easily more palatable than the play it’s based on, Gerald Hargreaves’ play **Atalanta**. I know – I went out of m way to get a copy. It’s awful. And — it’s a musical! Hargreaves (an Officer, an MP, and a Judge) not only wrote the play, but also the music. And included detailed watercolor set designs in the book. I don’t know if anyone ever produced it, but after all that work, someone _should_ have. ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2018, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-were-better-than-the-book-they-were-based-on/806515/194 "2018-03-01T14:40:21Z")
> [@MacLir](#): > > They took a bug hunt movie they had already started, then, when they discovered Heinlein had already written a story like it, overlaid it with a mistaken impression of the society in the book. Actually, while they were originally just targeting right-wing militarism in the present day, they hit the mark on the authoritarian, militaristic society in the book. I don’t know why so many Heinlein fans think of the ST book society as being an admirable example of how things should be done, when what’s actually presented is an extremely antidemocratic society with an extreme fetish for military service and corporal punishment, with a teenage fantasy of ‘dad tried to hold me back and argued against me, but now he sees that I was right and he takes orders for me’ tossed in. They didn’t make the action at all like the book (which does a great job of showing a high-tech military force in action), but the impression of the society in the book appears dead-on to me. ---
**Author:** ![psiekier](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psiekier/32/116_2.png) [@psiekier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psiekier)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2018, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-were-better-than-the-book-they-were-based-on/806515/195 "2018-03-01T18:12:41Z")
> [@Martini\_Enfield](#): > > I think the Schwarzenegger _Total Recall_ is better than its basis short story _We Can Remember It For You Wholesale_, personally The first thing I thought of for this thread was another Schwarzenegger movie, _ **The Running Man** _. [del]Richard Bachman’s[/del] Stephen King’s story was to me, less exciting, and certainly didn’t have the kind of hero Arnie portrayed in the movie. The best thing it had going for it was the way the chapters count down to the end of the book. > [@Atomic\_Alex](#): > > _Edge of Tomorrow_ was a movie adaptation of a book done right in my opinion, it took the original source material, _All You Need Is Kill_ by Hiroshi Sakurazaka and adapted it to a new story while remaining faithful but not slavishly tied to the original. I certainly came out of the cinema satisfied anyway. > > I wouldn’t say the movie is _better_ but unlike most adaptations its different enough to be fresh and new but respectful of the original source material. I’ll agree to this in a vein similar to my enjoyment of _Starship Troopers_. I liked _All You Need is Kill_ a lot, and I also liked _Edge of Tomorrow_, but since they are so different, it’s really for disparate reasons. If I had to pick, I think I’d like the book a bit better (the manga even more so!), though - if nothing else for the free green tea after the meal. > [@Atomic\_Alex](#): > > Around the same time the movie adaptation of _World War Z_ also came out, an example of _how not_ to do a movie from book conversion Emperor’s Teeth! You’re not kidding! Max Brooks’s book was _great_. The movie with Brad Pitt was watchable, but not even close. > [@Pastork](#): > > I first read “Starship Troopers” 50 years ago, more or less, and have revisited it several times since then. A careful comparison of the movie to the novel would show that apart from character names and several other proper nouns (ship names and planets), there is essentially nothing connecting Verhoeven’s movie to Heinlein’s book. I disagree. **Blue Blistering Barnacle** picked the number one standout, that it was Zim who captured the Brain Bug during “Operation Royalty” (and that Operation Royalty happens!), but that’s not the only thing: [ul][li]The novel begins _in media res_ with a raid on a Skinny capital. After this scene, the next large portion of the book is all flashbacks up until the “present day”. Sure, the Skinnies aren’t even mentioned in the movie, but the plot structure is similar.[/li][li]The turning point in the tensions between the Humans and the Bugs - as far as Rico is concerned - is the destruction of Buenos Aires. Never mind the movie’s ridiculous attempt at explaining how the Bugs actually accomplished this.[_]During the first (unsuccessful) invasion of Klendathu, the Ypres and the Valley Forge collide in orbit; all hands are lost. Watch this scene in the movie again carefully, and you’ll see it happen.[_]Klendathu was an unmitigated disaster, with incredibly heavy losses for the MI - though Verhoeven was nice and let Sky Marshal Dienes live long enough to accept responsibility and resign.[_]After being picked up by Rico and Ace, Dizzy Flores dies of wounds sustained in combat while riding the retrieval boat on the way up to the Rodger Young.[_]The ending of both the book and the movie is the same: Rico as an officer preparing for the _second_ invasion of Klendathu, with the outcome to be determined.[/ul][/li]So, Vehoeven might not have read the book, but _somebody_ on the production team did. Don’t get me wrong - _Starship Troopers_ is my favourite book, and as an adaption, I agree with you that Verhoeven’s film falls flat on its face, but c’mon… it is an absolute _blast_ to watch! ---
**Author:** ![Doyle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doyle/32/439_2.png) [@Doyle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doyle)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2018, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-were-better-than-the-book-they-were-based-on/806515/196 "2018-03-01T18:42:19Z")
> [@Jim\_s\_Son](#): > > One minor thing I will say that is better in Mario Puzo’s “The Godfather” than the movies is Mama Corleone. She isn’t a major character by any means but the few scenes where she interacts with Kay are amusing. The two differ in that in the movie Michael goes to New Hampshire after he returns from Sicily. In the book Kay is in New York on vacation, telephones Mama Corleone to ask if she has any news about Michael. Kay is shocked to find out Michael has been back for six months without calling her (they were in the process of eloping when Vito was shot). Initially Kay doesn’t want to go out to Long Island so Mama says “You a nice girl. You gotta nice legs. But you no gotta much brains. You come see me, not Mikey. And you tell a the cab driver you pay him two times, otherwise he no come to Long Beach”. Been 30 years since I read it and it was nice to be reminded how fond the entire family was of Kay, especially Mama Corleone. After being battered over the head about being Sicilian being everything and then comes Kay being as Anglo as they come receiving total acceptance into the family. In the same vein, throughout the book it was noted again and again was how important it was to have a “masculine child.” Over and over. But at one point it states, “Connie was clearly the Don’s favorite.” How the heart wins their “accepted” beliefs was a lot of fun. ---
**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:** [March 3, 2018, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-were-better-than-the-book-they-were-based-on/806515/197 "2018-03-03T14:57:08Z")
> [@psychonaut](#): > > Speaking of the Bible, let me nominate _Jesus Christ Superstar_ as being better than the gospels they’re based on. Besides replacing the tedious, archaic prose with groovy rock music, Rice raised Judas from a cardboard villain to a thinking, feeling, conflicted political activist, imbuing him with a plausible and even agreeable motivation for betraying his friend. The script and production also take a secular, even atheistic, view of Jesus, presenting no miracles or other evidence of his divinity. Even most of his followers don’t seem to believe or care that he’s the son of God, except (in some cases) to the extent that it empowers them politically or personally. > > Of course, the concept album and music theatre production upon which the film is based are even better than the film, but any of the three serve as a more accessible and believable biography than the scriptural sources. And let’s mention Stephen Schwartz’s songs from Godspell, which pretty much did the same thing, though no so radically. Speaking of Schwartz, Wicked the musical is much better than Wicked the book. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2018, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-were-better-than-the-book-they-were-based-on/806515/198 "2018-03-03T15:14:40Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > And let’s mention Stephen Schwartz’s songs from Godspell, which pretty much did the same thing, though no so radically. > > Speaking of Schwartz, Wicked the musical is much better than Wicked the book. Most of the songs in Godspell are old hymns set to new music. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2018, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-were-better-than-the-book-they-were-based-on/806515/199 "2018-03-03T15:19:49Z")
> [@Pantastic](#): > > Actually, while they were originally just targeting right-wing militarism in the present day, they hit the mark on the authoritarian, militaristic society in the book. I don’t know why so many Heinlein fans think of the ST book society as being an admirable example of how things should be done, when what’s actually presented is an extremely antidemocratic society with an extreme fetish for military service and corporal punishment, with a teenage fantasy of ‘dad tried to hold me back and argued against me, but now he sees that I was right and he takes orders for me’ tossed in. They didn’t make the action at all like the book (which does a great job of showing a high-tech military force in action), but the impression of the society in the book appears dead-on to me. We read two different books. The society in the book is the opposite of the one in the movie. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2018, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-were-better-than-the-book-they-were-based-on/806515/200 "2018-03-03T15:30:31Z")
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