# What adaptation is least like the source? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 20, 2021, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-adaptation-is-least-like-the-source/949238 "2021-08-20T20:44:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2021, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-adaptation-is-least-like-the-source/949238/101 "2021-08-22T04:49:55Z")
> [@Bonum\_Legatum](#): > > **Can the source be “real life”?** Because I’d nominate Bonnie and Clyde (1967). No - they weren’t two 1970’s young rebels. They weren’t Robin Hood types. The reality was much more sordid. _The Right Stuff_ ? ---
**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:** [August 22, 2021, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-adaptation-is-least-like-the-source/949238/102 "2021-08-22T18:17:56Z")
I read this on the internet so take it with a grain of salt. If you’ve watched the movie _The Emerald Forest_ you’ll recall the movie is about an American man who’s son was kidnapped and brought up by Amazonian natives. The “real” story it was based on was about a Brazilian man’s son who was kidnapped by terrorists who lived in the nearby jungle. ---
**Author:** ![Bootb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19b73/32.png) [@Bootb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bootb)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2021, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-adaptation-is-least-like-the-source/949238/103 "2021-08-22T20:22:02Z")
> [@Mijin](#): > > What was the book’s intent? > > Because, famously, many reviewers of the movie didn’t notice the satirical undertones at the time and criticized it as a gung-ho pro-war movie Heinlein in general was very big on doing one’s duty and earning rights/respect. I once read an essay (can’t remember the name) in which he advocated for making it harder to vote in real life. His reasoning was that only people who were willing to do research and find out what they were going to be voting on/for would be motivated to vote if it were harder. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2021, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-adaptation-is-least-like-the-source/949238/104 "2021-08-22T23:00:15Z")
He had a number of suggestions about changing the voting system - limiting voting to women only, opening voting to people of any age as long as they could solve a quadratic equation, making a vote to start a war equivalent to volunteering for that war, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2021, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-adaptation-is-least-like-the-source/949238/105 "2021-08-22T23:00:46Z")
My 2-¢ on Heinlein and _Starship Troopers_: to draw a very fine line here, I think the novel isn’t pro-military so much as it is anti-pacifist. As has been mentioned before military service wasn’t the only- or even preferred- way to earn full citizenship. But the military instructors maintain that sooner or later force is necessary because peace n’ love doesn’t seem to be the way the universe works. Heck, we’re even given the explicit example of the planet with such a low mutation rate that evolution is near-zero, and Terran wheat crowds out the native plants like an invasive weed. ---
**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:** [August 23, 2021, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-adaptation-is-least-like-the-source/949238/106 "2021-08-23T01:10:07Z")
I agree with many of the above, especially **Starship Troopers** and **I, Robot**. But there are LOTS of others. Science fiction novels are usually vastly altered in being turned into films. Nineteenth century authors, in particular, are subject to this. Also a lot of espionage novels. Most James Bond movies bear only a passing resemblance to Ian Flemings’s original books (although **Goldfinger** , **Thunderball,** and **On Her Majesty’s Secret Service** come close, as does **For Your Eyes Only** to the short stories that inspired it.) Here are a few notables: **Ice Station Zebra** – aside from **The Guns of Navarone** (which still took some liberties), Alastair MacLean’s novels have been vastly changed in the transition to the screen. _Ice Station Zebra_ is a nifty film, but it ain’t MacLean’s story. Nor was _Force 10 from Navarone_ . I haven’t read or seen _Breakheart Pass_ **The Ostermann Weekend** – has nothing to do with Robert Ludlum’s novel. Nor, I think, do all those Jason Bourne movies (although the Richard Chamberlin TV miniseries was apparently pretty close) Jules Verne – Disney’s version of **20,000 Leagues under the Sea** comes at all close to Verne’s novel, of all adaptations of any of Verne’s works, and even there, the story was significantly altered. There are good points about the silent version (the only one to depict Nemo as Indian), but it ambitiously tried to adapt both 20,000 Leagues and The Mysterious Island, and that’s too big a bite. Speaking of which, the part silent/part talking 1929 **Mysterious Island** is apparently trying o be a completely rewritten 20,000 Leagues under the Sea. It’s awful. And it sure as heck ain’t Verne. The 1958 Czech film released in the US as **The Fabulous World of JUles VErne** is a pretty decent adaptation in semi-animated form of one of Verne;'s lesser-known works. And the Mike Todd **Around the World in 80 Days** is pretty close, although it added that balloon voyage. But almost all others are pretty awful From the Earth to the Moon The Light at the End of the World Around the World in 80 days (the other versions) Journey to the Center of the Earth – James Mason is sterling in this, and there’s so good stuff. But they added an antagonist , a female companion, some dimetrodons, and the Lost Continent of Atlantis. Five Weks in a Balloon – differed so much from Verne that they wrote a completely new novelization as a tie-in when the film was released In Search of the Castaways – Even though Disney made this, it’s still a disappointment Master of the World – Even Vincent Price (and a young Charles Bronson) couldn’t save this, really an adaptation of Robur the Conqueror Valley of the Dragons – supposedly an adaptation of Off on a Comet The Mysterious Island – The Harryhausen film has wonderful effects, but they changed the story of survival so much that it’s not Verne’s any more. H.G. Wells: The Time Machine – both versions. They seem to have completely missed the point The Island of Dr. Moreau – all versions. Again, they didn’t know or care what they were doing Things to Come – all versions, including the one written by Wells himself War of the Worlds – All versions depart significantly Food of the Gods – none of the films supposedly derived from this come at all close to Wells’ story First Men in the Moon – the Harryhausen animation is great, but it’s not exactly Wells’ story. The Invisible Man – the classic version was rewritten to include another guy’s story in it. Arguably the best Wells adaptation was **The Man Who Could Work Miracles**. Good special effects, and it takes the story pretty much as written and translates it to the screen. Edgar Allan Poe The only “adaptation” that’s at all close to Poe’s original work, I suspect, is **An Evening with Edgar Allan Poe** , a virtual one-man show of Vincent Price reading and acting three Poe stories. It’s absolutely straight and accurate. No other Poe adaptation seems unadulterated, and I don’t just mean Roger Corman’s films – there are plenty of others that were made by other filmmakers, and just about all of them make significant changes. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2021, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-adaptation-is-least-like-the-source/949238/107 "2021-08-23T06:29:12Z")
> [@Kron](#): > > Wow, you and I saw a _completely_ different film. My friends and I laughed our arses off at that, at the cinema, with everyone else around us acting like it was a genuine war/action movie and shushing us (and, of course, that made us laugh more). Possibly the advertising was at fault? I can’t remember what it was like for that movie (in the UK, since they vary a lot). But, still. It was patently an over-the-top parody. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2021, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-adaptation-is-least-like-the-source/949238/108 "2021-08-23T08:43:57Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > My friends and I laughed our arses off at that, at the cinema, with everyone else around us acting like it was a genuine war/action movie and shushing us (and, of course, that made us laugh more). Possibly the advertising was at fault? I can’t remember what it was like for that movie (in the UK, since they vary a lot). But, still. It was patently an over-the-top parody. Poe’s Law. But remember, Poe’s Law works both way. Just as any parody, no matter how ridiculous, can be mistaken by someone as being serious, any attempt a serious work can be mistaken by someone for a parody. You seem to believe that ST is a parody that some people mistake for a serious film, while I believe that it’s a ham-handed attempt at a serious film that some people mistake for parody. There’s no way for us to know the truth - even asking the creator won’t help, because creators lie. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2021, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-adaptation-is-least-like-the-source/949238/109 "2021-08-23T08:54:10Z")
Not parody, _satire_. And satire can be serious; it’s not either-or. For me personally while there were a few laugh out loud moments there were plenty of things like eg the “brain bug” being tortured at the end, that were still making a satirical point but were sad or unpleasant. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2021, 9:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-adaptation-is-least-like-the-source/949238/110 "2021-08-23T09:08:46Z")
> [@Mijin](#): > > For me personally while there were a few laugh out loud moments there were plenty of things like eg the “brain bug” being tortured at the end, that were still making a satirical point but were sad or unpleasant. I won’t argue that the “newsreel” sections were supposed to be satirical - that wasn’t very subtle (although I think they were also an attempt at 1997 “the internet is soooooo cool!” trendiness). The movie between them, though, was IMHO intended to be serious. ---
**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:** [August 23, 2021, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-adaptation-is-least-like-the-source/949238/111 "2021-08-23T09:24:39Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > Not seen the movie _The Cat On The Hat_ . I read the book and its sequel quite some time ago. It was written, if I recall, on a bet to produce a book first graders could not put down. It had to use words from a list of 348 possibles, and ended up using just over 200. So it is possible the source material is a tad thin. Chuck Jones did a perfectly fine job without resorting to toilet humour. (Admittedly, his version is about an hour shorter than the Mike Myers one, but it still added plenty of new material.) ---
**Author:** ![Bonum\_Legatum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bonum_legatum/32/6183_2.png) [@Bonum\_Legatum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bonum_Legatum)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2021, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-adaptation-is-least-like-the-source/949238/112 "2021-08-23T10:00:13Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Most James Bond movies bear only a passing resemblance to Ian Flemings’s original books Absolutely. To add another. Ian Fleming’s short story **The Spy Who Loved Me** was about criminals who were going to destroy a motel (for the insurance money?) and kill a (lady) caretaker in the process. James Bond happens to stop by and saves the day - then leaves. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2021, 10:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-adaptation-is-least-like-the-source/949238/113 "2021-08-23T10:03:56Z")
I wish the movie hadn’t cut the Zoo of Death, though. ---
**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:** [August 23, 2021, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-adaptation-is-least-like-the-source/949238/114 "2021-08-23T11:57:45Z")
> [@Bonum\_Legatum](#): > > Absolutely. To add another. Ian Fleming’s short story **The Spy Who Loved Me** was about criminals who were going to destroy a motel (for the insurance money?) and kill a (lady) caretaker in the process. James Bond happens to stop by and saves the day - then leaves. In this one case the lack of resemblance between the book and the film is understandable – Fleming stipulated that they could only use the title, and not the story. They almost certainly would have changed the plot completely, in any case. By that time the films had little to do with the books (although the second film to follow – **For Your Eyes Only** , following **Moonraker** , marked a brief return to Fleming’s texts. It didn’t last past part of **Octopussy,** though.), and the original plot wasn’t very exciting or sexy, and the story was told completely through the eyes of the “Bond girl”, who was riding around upstate New York on a Vespa. If they kept any of that, she’d have been on a souped-up supercharged Harley. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2021, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-adaptation-is-least-like-the-source/949238/115 "2021-08-23T12:45:03Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > The movie between them, though, was IMHO intended to be serious. For the purpose of this thread, it’s enough to say that that position is very much disputed; it’s described as a satirical movie pretty unanimously among film review sites, so it’s a good example for the OP. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2021, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-adaptation-is-least-like-the-source/949238/116 "2021-08-23T13:00:19Z")
> [@Mijin](#): > > For the purpose of this thread, it’s enough to say that that position is very much disputed; it’s described as a satirical movie pretty unanimously among film review sites, so it’s a good example for the OP. Maybe the book is supposed to be satirical too. There’s no way you can prove it isn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2021, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-adaptation-is-least-like-the-source/949238/117 "2021-08-23T14:17:40Z")
Sure and maybe fast and furious 8 is supposed to be an educational film about kinetics. I mean, if we’re ignoring what the authors say, what movie reviewers and experts say, the opinion of most people who’ve watched the film and the synopsis, then why not? Can’t prove it! ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2021, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-adaptation-is-least-like-the-source/949238/118 "2021-08-23T17:29:40Z")
When I was eight, Disney’s _Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang_ taught me the lesson that moviemakers care nothing about the book whose title they use. Ever since, if I find a movie that actually follows the book, I’m pleasantly surprised. ---
**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:** [August 23, 2021, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-adaptation-is-least-like-the-source/949238/119 "2021-08-23T17:48:35Z")
Except by reading everything RAH ever wrote about it, of course. ---
**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:** [August 23, 2021, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-adaptation-is-least-like-the-source/949238/120 "2021-08-23T17:50:56Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > When I was eight, Disney’s _Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang_ taught me the lesson that moviemakers care nothing about the book whose title they use It’s a common mistake, but Chitty Chitty Bang Bang wasn’t made by Disney – it was made by Albert Broccoli (of James Bond fame – Ian Fleming wrote the Bond books, too) and released through United Artists. There are connections. Broccoli made the film after the success of **Mary Poppins** , so he got the male star of that film – Dick Van Dyke, and he got the same songwriting team, the Sherman brothers. It’s kind of like the wat Jonathan Harris tried to duplicate the success of **Seventh Voyage of Sinbad** by getting the same director and two of the same stars to make his **Jack the Giant Killer** , but not Ray Harryhausen. I don’t think either **Chitty Chitty Bang Bang** or **Jack the Giant Killer** lived up to expectations. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-adaptation-is-least-like-the-source/949238.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-adaptation-is-least-like-the-source/949238.md?page=7)