# Which movies got it wrong the most **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 27, 2008, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-movies-got-it-wrong-the-most/465483 "2008-09-27T18:18:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2008, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-movies-got-it-wrong-the-most/465483/81 "2008-09-30T01:06:58Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > Duly noted for future reference. I think you mean “Duly noted for future reference, O Dork King!” ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2008, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-movies-got-it-wrong-the-most/465483/82 "2008-09-30T02:05:24Z")
If somebody makes an adaptation you hate, what’s the point of melodramatically declaring that it didn’t happen? Silly and childish. I _wish_ the Sci-Fi Channel hadn’t done their abysmal movie (or mini-series, I forget which) loosely based on Phil Farmer’s great “Riverworld” series of books. But they did. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2008, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-movies-got-it-wrong-the-most/465483/83 "2008-09-30T02:07:31Z")
> [@Baldwin](#): > > If somebody makes an adaptation you hate, what’s the point of melodramatically declaring that it didn’t happen? It’s a joke, dear. We ape descended life forms like them sometimes. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2008, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-movies-got-it-wrong-the-most/465483/84 "2008-09-30T02:08:09Z")
> [@Baldwin](#): > > If somebody makes an adaptation you hate, what’s the point of melodramatically declaring that it didn’t happen? Silly and childish. It’s a joke. Have you heard of jokes? We use them to keep from slitting our wrists while watching the nightly news. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2008, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-movies-got-it-wrong-the-most/465483/85 "2008-09-30T02:10:31Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > It’s a joke, dear. We ape descended life forms like them sometimes. WhyNot, I really resent it when you copy my posts, then use your time machine to skip back 60 seconds so that you can post first. Not only is doing so dangerous to the space-time continuum and DIRECTLY responsible not merely for the current credit crisis and also the disappearance of the all-musical, all-nude episode of Firefly that aired only on Showtime, but it makes me look silly. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2008, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-movies-got-it-wrong-the-most/465483/86 "2008-09-30T02:13:35Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > WhyNot, I really resent it when you copy my posts, then use your time machine to skip back 60 seconds so that you can post first. Not only is doing so dangerous to the space-time continuum and DIRECTLY responsible not merely for the current credit crisis and also the disappearance of the all-musical, all-nude episode of Firefly that aired only on Showtime, but it makes me look silly. I’m sorry. I’ll try to have done better last time. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2008, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-movies-got-it-wrong-the-most/465483/87 "2008-09-30T02:17:46Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > I’m sorry. I’ll try to have done better last time. Sure you will. That’s what you said, or rather will say, the last (next) 10 times. You polyamorists NEVER stop until the Big Bang starts undoing itself and I have to drop EVERY DAMN THING I’M DOING to stop it from not happening. ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2008, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-movies-got-it-wrong-the-most/465483/88 "2008-09-30T02:29:48Z")
1999’s remake of **The Haunting** by Jan de Bont was brain-scrapingly wretched in comparison to both Shirley Jackson’s novel and Robert Wise’s 1963 film. I wish someone would go back in time and stop de Bont’s movie from happening, or at least keep me from paying to see it. ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2008, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-movies-got-it-wrong-the-most/465483/89 "2008-09-30T02:35:25Z")
> [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](#): > > Just to avoid having this discussion go over predictable and oft-trod ground, how about we stick to divergence between film and book… and ignore the question of the quality of either? > > I thus submit an oldie: TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT - the movie with Bogart and Bacall has nothing, but nothing, to do with the Hemingway story. Did that really annoy you, though? True, they just stuck the book title on the movie, but would the book have made a good movie? By your criterion, I would have to vote for _To Live and Die in L.A._ Great movie, but how they got there is a mystery to me. I _ **hated** _ the _Earthsea_ adaptation; they didn’t miss the basic themes, they completely perverted them. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2008, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-movies-got-it-wrong-the-most/465483/90 "2008-09-30T02:58:56Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > For what it’s worth, I can’t say I think that the movie **Bladerunner** is a LOT closer to its nominal inspiration than Starship Troopers is. For all hollywood’s apparent love of Philip K. Dick, practically every film version has undergomne massive plotting and writing changes. **a Scanner Darkly** seems to be the closest interpretation of Dick’s original. I’ve never seen _Starship Troopers_ so I wouldn’t know, but _Blade Runner_ doesn’t seem any further from _Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?_ to me than most screen adaptations of novels. It’s certainly not the most true-to-the-book movie ever, but it’s far from the least. A lot of things are left out or simplified and the Rachel character is quite different, but there’s a clear relationship between the broad plot and themes of the movie and those of the book. ---
**Author:** ![Uzi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/91b2a8/32.png) [@Uzi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uzi)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2008, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-movies-got-it-wrong-the-most/465483/91 "2008-09-30T03:30:41Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > It’s right-wing porn, like “24,” with all that crap about earning citizenship. Everyone is a citizen in the world of Starship Troopers. Everyone has the right to free speech, to own property, to start a business, etc. What you have to earn is the right to vote. To earn that right you have to spend two years of your life in federal service. If you choose to do so they, the government, has to allow you to serve and find a place where you can. It isn’t easy, though. If you are not willing to serve then why should you be allowed to vote? A debatable point, to be sure. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2008, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-movies-got-it-wrong-the-most/465483/92 "2008-09-30T03:40:14Z")
Thank you for the cite, silenus (all my 3-law short stories are hidden away in a box), but > [@silenus](#): > > An excerpt from Harlan Ellison’s **I, Robot** Harlan Ellison? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![MacSpon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@MacSpon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacSpon)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2008, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-movies-got-it-wrong-the-most/465483/93 "2008-09-30T09:24:53Z")
> [@Arnold\_Winkelried](#): > > Thank you for the cite, silenus (all my 3-law short stories are hidden away in a box), but Harlan Ellison? :dubious: Harlan Ellison. He wrote a script, with Asimov’s approval, for a movie of “I, Robot”. He wrote a _great_ script which was, therefore, never used. (Okay, Ellison telling a studio mogul that he had the brains of an artichoke might have had something to do with the decision.) But the script has been published in book format, so you can see how good it would have been. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2008, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-movies-got-it-wrong-the-most/465483/94 "2008-09-30T09:29:50Z")
> [@Arnold\_Winkelried](#): > > Thank you for the cite, silenus (all my 3-law short stories are hidden away in a box), but Harlan Ellison? :dubious: Harlan wrote **the** screenplay of the book, with Isaac’s blessing. (He modeled it after _Citizen Kane_.) The cinematic abortion we got was, apparently, a script that someone had written when folks realized that there could be legal issues with Asimov’s estate, rather than changing the script, or optioning Harlan’s they simply bought the rights to the name, did an “auto replace” on the names in the script and filmed it. Harlan’s script _has_ been published, both as a serial in _Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine_ and as a standalone book. Well worth picking up if you can find it. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2008, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-movies-got-it-wrong-the-most/465483/95 "2008-09-30T09:54:23Z")
I did not know that. But to know what Ms. Calvin looked like, we of course should go back to Isaac Asimov’s words. If I have time this week-end I’ll dig out my Asimov collection. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2008, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-movies-got-it-wrong-the-most/465483/96 "2008-09-30T10:30:56Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > I’ve never heard of anyone liking the book period. > > Despite the movie being almost universally hated here at the SDMB, I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone in real life who didn’t like it. It has an 8.5 on IMDB and makes a lot of “best movies of the '90s” lists. I liked the book,my mates liked the book we all of us totally loathed the movie. you are to date, the only person I have ever come across who thought that the movie was good. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2008, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-movies-got-it-wrong-the-most/465483/97 "2008-09-30T10:36:12Z")
Every adaptation of Jekyll and Hyde ever (except the one movie not named after it to preserve the twist. I, Monster). ---
**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:** [September 30, 2008, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-movies-got-it-wrong-the-most/465483/98 "2008-09-30T12:00:06Z")
> [@](#): > > Every adaptation of Jekyll and Hyde ever (except the one movie not named after it to preserve the twist. I, Monster). What – you didn’t like the Rouben Mamoulian/Fredric March version? That was a heckuva movie, and pretty faithful to the book. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2008, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-movies-got-it-wrong-the-most/465483/99 "2008-09-30T12:08:20Z")
> [@Arnold\_Winkelried](#): > > I did not know that. But to know what Ms. Calvin looked like, we of course should go back to Isaac Asimov’s words. If I have time this week-end I’ll dig out my Asimov collection. I suspect you’ll find there aren’t many. Well, wait, of course there are lots of words, but few of them describe Ms. Calvin. Good ol’ Uncle Isaac wasn’t really one for the detailed characterizations. I’ve been digging through my collection, and coming up pretty short. Nothing that contradicts Ellison’s vision, anyhow. ---
**Author:** ![sciurophobic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@sciurophobic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sciurophobic)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2008, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-movies-got-it-wrong-the-most/465483/100 "2008-09-30T14:28:20Z")
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