The Boys From Brazil movie near enough lived up to it’s written version, imho. And the Manhunter/Red Dragon coupling wasn’t bad, either
I was gonna say The Boys From Brazil, too. Brrr, they’re both chilling but good.
Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and the 2005 movie remake are both simply excellent (although I understand and appreciate that Austen purists don’t like the many omissions of the movie). As a non-Austen acolyte, I will further - and heretically - say I prefer the 2005 movie to the 1995 BBC miniseries. Owww! Stop hitting me!
Charles Frazier’s Civil War romance/adventure Cold Mountain and the movie are very complimentary to each other. I’d actually bogged down in the book before I saw the movie, and the movie totally opened up the book to me. Very odd, but wonderful.
Kit Denton’s The Breaker is quite good on its own, and gives considerable background detail to the outstanding Australian court-martial drama Breaker Morant.
Alan Dean Foster’s novelization of Star Wars (ghostwritten for George Lucas) is just as good fun as the movie.
Dr. Zhivago–Having Yevgrav, who is a minor character in the book, tell the story was a stroke of genius.
The Green Mile was one of the best and most faithful adaptations of a book I’ve ever seen. They kept as close to the book as they could (with a few itty-bitty changes that I hardly even noticed when I watched it), and that’s a very good thing, IMO. The book was fantastic; the characters, story, and spirit of the book all translated very well to the screen. Also, the casting was absolutely spot on. I can’t look at David Morse anymore without thinking of Brutus Howell. The performances were great, of course, and this all translated to one hell of a movie.
Stand By Me was one of the best and most faithful adaptations of a novella I’ve ever seen. They kept as close to the book as they could (with a few itty-bitty changes that I hardly even noticed when I watched it), and that’s a very good thing, IMO. The novella was fantastic; the characters, story, and spirit of the book all translated very well to the screen. Also, the casting was absolutely spot on. The performances were great, of course, and this all translated to one hell of a movie.
The Shawshank Redemption was one of the best and most faithful adaptations of a novella I’ve ever seen. They kept as close to the book as they could (with a few itty-bitty changes that I hardly even noticed when I watched it), and that’s a very good thing, IMO. The novella was fantastic; the characters, story, and spirit of the book all translated very well to the screen. Also, the casting was absolutely spot on. The performances were great, of course, and this all translated to one hell of a movie.
Is there an echo in here? 
Princess Bride is an odd transition from book to movie. Both are brilliant; both are hilarious; and the film’s plot is quite faithful to the text. (The only major differences I can see is that we never learn Fezzik’s backstory in the movie, Wesley gets the “Life is pain!” line, and the ambiguity of the book’s ending is discarted.) But for all that, the tones of the two works are utterly different, and they are very different experies. This is a huge difference from, say, Silence of the Lambs, in which the movie is basically the book brought to life with no real changes at all.
But I don’t think this should be restricted to most true to the book or else I would not have mentioned the Lord of the Rings and Wizard of Oz. Hell if the Shining had been a better book, I would have nominated that pair and the movie only has a passing resemblance to the book.
Oh, I wasn’t saying PB doesn’t count; I was just commenting on the strange combo–quite faithful plotwise, utterly different tone-wise. I’m with Goldman-the-character in thinking that novel-Buttercup & novel-Wesley probably; but the movie has an unalloyed happy ending that works just as well, because the tone is so different. Every sentence in the book is writ ironically; every line of the movie (except for Humperdinck’s lies) is sincere.
My top three are The Exorcist, Misery, and Lonesome Dove.
Regarding The Princess Bride, I’ve always said that the book is a satire and the movie is a parody. What they have in common is a deep affection for the fairy tales that are their inspiration. Satires and parodies can be mean, but neither of these is.
More Stephen King: “The Stand” miniseries. An epic handling of an epic book.
“It” is also recommended, just for all the famous names and Tim Curry’s “Pennywise”
Heh, I was just watching that on DvD the other day. They had an interview with the director/producer where he talks about how difficult it was to get funding, essentially because no-one could adequately explain who the potential audience was (something like “see, it’s an adult movie. An animation about the adventures of talking rabbits. With rabbit secret police, war, and horrific genocide.” - business types chomp, unconvinced, on cigars)
How about No Country for Old Men?
It’s been too long since I’ve watched the movie–and even longer since I read the book–but there is one major difference between the book and the movie. In the book there is a fairly big subplot that takes place in the “present” in which the narrator is telling the story to his friend in the nursing home. The movie does show us the nursing home as bookends to the story–but in the book there were a lot more cuts to the present throughout the story and it involved a worker at the nursing home who was kind of a bully in the same way that Percy was in the prison. None of that conflict made it into the movie.
I need to watch it again–it really is a good movie and I totally agree with you about the casting being terrific–especailly David Morse.
If we are nominating mini-series then I have to mention my favorite obsession, Band of Brothers. Book and series were excellent. And they compliment each other. Certain parts of the book are barely mentioned and others are expanded. (Both got PVT Blithe wrong)
One thing for sure this thread is doing, it is making me add to my reading list. 
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
Most of you probably haven’t read the Winifred Watson book or seen the 2008 movie, but if you like dry British humor in the Golden Age of mystery (it’s not a mystery, but set in the early 30s), you’ll like both of them. The film stays remarkably true to the novel, only changing those details that wouldn’t film well. A pleasure. Not a laugh riot, just an enjoyable few hours.
Agree re TKAM, Rebecca, GTWT(again the spirit, if not the details) and LOTR.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone was very true to the book. The rest, not so much (I still like them, though). The series does get the flavor and tone of the books (except for Gambon’s Dumbledore–he’s too intense and dour).
Bridget Jone’s Diary (only the first one) is also a very good fit between book and film.
Lot’s of good stuff on this list so far, but I can’t believe that no one has mentioned 2001: A Space Odyssey yet. An amazing film and a book that makes the symbolism make sense.
I’ll be honest. I dismissed that as the book was based on the screenplay in an odd writing project where both were written effectively at the same time. To me it just didn’t seem to fit. I am probably not being fair though.