When a Film is actually as good as the book?

[Pig Cat]

At the risk of sounding like a teenage girl, I saw the hunger games at the pictures today.
Sure, the book had more aggression and plot formation, but the film conveyed the story and emotions really well.
A very nearly as good.

I've read the whole Hunger Games trilogy. I loved the first one, liked the second but found the third a painful grind to read. I am certain that there is no way the third adaptation will be worse than the book.

 

[Tall_Paul]

LOTR - better than the books! :icon_razz:

Another agree from me.

I love 'The Hobbit', just the right length and a great story. It'll be very interesting to see the Peter Jackson interpretation of it.

And LOTR, though it is a great story, has too many meanderings off into elvish songs and other trivia (to my mind at least). Great if you're into that sort of thing, but I personally found it a bit of a drag and a distraction from the story.

I think that's why I prefer the films. It's like they've taken the Tolkien books, with all the additional material, and distilled them until the essence of the story drips out. And what a great story it is!

 

[mattlad]

Starship Troopers. The film may have been just another teen rom shoot 'em up action sci-fi movie but it was hugely better than the book - which was a new era in total boredom:dodgy:

Yes, I agree, but I think the film has more to it than that.

I can't comment on the book, but the heavy satire in the film Starship Troopers makes it stand out from many no-brain Hollywood shoot-em-ups.

Sorry! I didn't mean to give the impression that I was doing the film "Starship Troopers" down, I thought it was an excellent film that I thoroughly enjoyed, and I have re-watched on a number of occasions.

I agree with Francorelli about the satire in the movie, there are also excellent allegories about the way we "do" war and view an enemy and even whether we are as right as we like to think we are........

I do stand by what I said about the book though. It was quite possibly the most boring book I have ever read. This view was reinforced by the film's director, Paul Verhoeven who found the book "boring and depressing" and did not finish it. People have commented that that is why the film has a satirical tone not present in the book.

 

[Frankieabbott]

The Shawshan Redemption. But my choice may be biased as the book containing the novellas that the film was based on wasn't published until after the film was released. So I ask the question....does reading the book of the film before or after the films release make any difference to how we interpret what might be better?

 

[Dr Rick]

Re: RE: When a Film is actually as good as the book?

The Shawshan Redemption. But my choice may be biased as the book containing the novellas that the film was based on wasn't published until after the film was released.

If by "after" you mean "twelve years before", then you're absolutely right. Otherwise, not so much .

 

[Frankieabbott]

Hard to explain but the book containing the novellas was published after film release. I know that the original Stephen King novella named something like Shawshank and Rita Heyworth was published earlier.

 

[Tall_Paul]

Stephen King is one of my favourite authors so I am somewhat biased, and don't think any of the films are better than the books.

However, I would say the films of Shawshank Redemption and Green Mile are as good as the books.

 

[cruciate]

I dunno, I lol'd at The Mist more than I thought I would!

 

[Gingerpose]

Hard to explain but the book containing the novellas was published after film release. I know that the original Stephen King novella named something like Shawshank and Rita Heyworth was published earlier.

Are you confusing the book of Shawshank Redemption with the Green Mile, which was released in serial form, after the cinema release of the movie of Shawshank?

 

[Dr Rick]

Re: RE: When a Film is actually as good as the book?

Hard to explain but the book containing the novellas was published after film release. I know that the original Stephen King novella named something like Shawshank and Rita Heyworth was published earlier.

The film is based on the original novella. I'm not at all sure what you mean.