# What's the most faithful adapation ever made? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 3, 2003, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-faithful-adapation-ever-made/216604 "2003-12-03T00:21:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![PigArcher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bcef8e/32.png) [@PigArcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PigArcher)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2003, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-faithful-adapation-ever-made/216604/41 "2003-12-03T19:16:13Z")
_The Graduate_ is pretty close to the book. Much of the dialog is straight from the book. There is a chapter near the beginning that got left out, and the timing of events near the end (with all the shuffling back and forth between LA, Berkley, and Santa Barbara) got smothed over (an improvement IMO). ---
**Author:** ![Rhum\_Runner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rhum\_Runner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhum_Runner)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2003, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-faithful-adapation-ever-made/216604/42 "2003-12-03T20:22:53Z")
I’d have to say that _Starship Troopers_ was very close to the book. It is also my favorite movie. I nominate it. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2003, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-faithful-adapation-ever-made/216604/43 "2003-12-03T20:30:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Rhum Runner \* > \*\*I’d have to say that _Starship Troopers_ was very close to the book. It is also my favorite movie. I nominate it. \*\* … Am I being whooshed here? ---
**Author:** ![myles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/779978/32.png) [@myles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/myles)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2003, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-faithful-adapation-ever-made/216604/44 "2003-12-03T20:48:33Z")
I cant believe there’s disagreement on this subject. Most movies cannot be completely faithful and include every last detail from the book, most movies can only be several 2-3 hours long, and books are a lot longer than that. But the film Greed is over 9 hours and 40 minutes long. Every sentence that is in the book is in the movie. Hell, every grammatical punctuation mark that is in the book is in the movie. Everything is in the movie. Unfortunately, the movie studio, seeing as how they are the living embodiment of evil on earth, forced it to be cut to 140 minutes. ---
**Author:** ![SmackFu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2003, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-faithful-adapation-ever-made/216604/45 "2003-12-03T23:48:37Z")
How about short stories? Has there ever been an adaptation of a short story that was “super-faithful”, in that it included the whole story, plus some other stuff? ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-faithful-adapation-ever-made/216604/46 "2003-12-04T00:08:21Z")
You mean like _The Cat in the Hat_? Which includes every word of Seuss’s book plus about forty thousand other words Seuss wouldn’t have wiped his dog’s ass with? ---
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-faithful-adapation-ever-made/216604/47 "2003-12-04T00:30:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Rhum Runner \* > \*\*I’d have to say that _Starship Troopers_ was very close to the book. It is also my favorite movie. I nominate it. \*\* _Starship Troopers_? Wha? Among other things, it added the drawn-out love story (and Denise Richards topless; no complaints there), spent no time at all on the esprit de corps that the book went on and on about and very little on the training that made up about half the book; completely ditched Heinlein’s saber-rattling, psychotic right-wing propaganda diatribes; and _it didn’t have those cool suits_! The suits that make them strong as Godzilla and able to fly and so on were the reson I went to see it in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-faithful-adapation-ever-made/216604/48 "2003-12-04T03:41:08Z")
“Dr. Strangelove” is a pretty faithful adaptation of Peter Bryant’s “Two Hours to Doomsday/Red Alert.” The ending was changed, and Kubrick added a lot symbolism with sexual metaphors, but he actually followed the book pretty well. Its apocalyptic brethren “Fail-Safe” and “On the Beach” were also pretty close to their respective novels. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-faithful-adapation-ever-made/216604/49 "2003-12-04T04:01:50Z")
The only faithful Heinlein adaptation ever was _Destination Moon_, for three major reasons. First, it was explicitly written to be filmable. The movie was part of the plan right from the beginning. Secondly, Heinlein was given a near-absolute veto over everything in the movie. And thirdly, the studio was absolutely bound and determined to get it perfect, and damn the cost. And **Rhum Runner** , when was there a _Starship Troopers_ movie made? I know there were rumors of such a project, but from what I heard, it never got off the ground. A shame, really… It would have made an excellent movie. ---
**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-faithful-adapation-ever-made/216604/50 "2003-12-04T04:20:27Z")
Another movie that was extremely faithfull to the book was _The Andromeda Strain_. And _The Godfather_ was the first thing I thought of when I read the title of the thread. ---
**Author:** ![lawoot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/35a633/32.png) [@lawoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawoot)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-faithful-adapation-ever-made/216604/51 "2003-12-04T04:33:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Chronos \* > \*\*And **Rhum Runner** , when was there a _Starship Troopers_ movie made? I know there were rumors of such a project, but from what I heard, it never got off the ground. A shame, really… It would have made an excellent movie. \*\* OK, I’m PRETTY sure you’re being sarcastic here, but [just in case…](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120201/) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-faithful-adapation-ever-made/216604.md?page=2)