If you are one of those interesting book readers who often watch the movies to assess the direction to compare it with its actual novel, then here is an interesting list of movies which are better than their novels. Let us now see how many of you agree with it!
Have a look!
1) Jurassic Park
There is nothing wrong with Michael Crichton’s 1990 science fiction novel “Jurassic Park” but what it couldn’t offer, was Dolby Surround Sound that put you right in the middle of a dinosaur infested amusement park. Of course getting to see dinosaurs on the big screen is going to be a much more fun experience than reading about them in a novel. Especially when you get a director like Steven Spielberg to turn the film adaptation into one of the most beloved movies of all-time with some of the best CGI available during that time period.
2) Notebook
The first part of both the hero and heroine’s lives when they are younger and the whole getting to be with each other scenario is taking place was depicted much better in the movie than in the book; however, the later part of their lives that is after they are married and all (the last chapter of the book) was captured in the book so magnanimously that the movie could not have possibly topped it.
They are both amazing in their own ways.
3) Harry Potter
It’s not everyday a movie series comes along that mixes magic, action, friendship, and Quidditch. The Harry Potter movies do all that and more, delighting fans of J.K. Rowling’s books while also entertaining those new to the Potterverse. Like the books, the movies do get darker and more intense as the series progresses. When it comes to magic, fantasy, suspense, movies provide the perfect picture. Reading a book will end giving some vague visualizations. The main characters have become extremely famous Harry, Ron and Hermione.
4) The Graduate
Charles Webb’s 1963 novel is mostly remembered these days for the generation-defining movie it inspired. But the screenplay (by Calder Willingham and Buck Henry), Mike Nichols’s inspired direction, the Simon & Garfunkel songs, and the iconic performances by Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft, and Katharine Ross combine with Webb’s original story of post-collegiate ennui to create the unforgettable experience of that 1967 film. Their absence is deeply felt when returning to the original book.
5)Jaws
Peter Benchley’s 1974 novel was a smash success upon its original release. Luckily, producers Richard D. Zanuck and David Brown had already bought the movie rights and took a chance on young Steven Spielberg to direct the film adaptation. Benchley adapted the screenplay, while Spielberg hired actor Carl Gottlieb, to revise the screenplay. Somewhere along the line, several of the book’s less fortunate plotlines were excised including the mayor’s mafia ties and an affair between Ellen Brody and Hooper and the leaner, tighter screenplay focused squarely on the pursuit of the shark. The results were spectacular; critics cheered and audiences flocked to the film, which became one of the highest-grossing pictures of all time.
6) The Godfather
Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather may very well be the greatest film ever made. Mario Puzo’s The Godfather is, well, not the greatest book ever written. Puzo, by his admission, wrote it as a purely commercial enterprise, after penning two novels that garnered respectable reviews but few sales. His book is punchy, well-paced, and fun to read, but it’s far from the work of art that Coppola’s film and its sequel are. The films add in the mood, texture, and depth missing from the book, while (thankfully) removing its inexplicable gynecological subplot.
7) Fight Club
Chuck Palahniuk’s punchy, stream-of-consciousness prose may not have seemed like obvious material for a movie, but in the hands of David Fincher this was an explosive tale of crumbling masculinity, rampant consumerism and homegrown terrorism. We’re not exaggerating when we say this is a modern classic.
8) High Fidelity
Stephen Frears’s 2000 film version of Nick Hornby’s novel somehow managed to translate the very young Brit author’s story and sensibility from London to Chicago and lose none of its considerable charm. In fact, through perfect casting and sharp dialogue , the film became one of the most vivid and believable portraits of pop culture obsession yet committed to film. Roger Ebert raved, in a four-star review: “This is a film about and also for not only obsessed clerks in record stores, but the video store clerks who have seen all the movies, and the bookstore employees who have read all the books.
9) The Lord of The Rings
The differences between the book and the film are easy to document because in both book and movie, the story maintains a single thread from beginning to end. While there are some changes in sequence, the storyline is well aligned between the two sources.
Naming all the unmistakably important passages present in the book, yet glaringly and obviously missing from the Movie would be time consuming. A complete, absolute and faithful rendering of the book into a screenplay would take years, and the final movie would have a very long running time. The differences in the book and the screen adaptation are all too apparent, but those who have read the book will surely agree that Jackson’s film is laudable given the enormity of the task.
10) One Flew Over Cuckoo’s Nest:
Ken Kesey’s novel is so wildly different from its acclaimed adaptation that this is again more a case of preference than objective quality. Kesey narrates the events from the Chief’s point of view and so delves more into the impact of an institution on the human psyche, while the film focuses more on McMurphy as the reluctant hero and on Jack Nicholson’s committed, ferocious performance. The novel has more substance, but the film’s raw emotional power is tough to match.
All for now,
Share yours,
Wishes,
About Nida Zaidi
Speak Your Mind
You must be logged in to post a comment.