blog post What'cha Readin' - Best Film Adaptations of Books + Elvis Book Giveaway

Yes, I saw The Road last night and it was an excellent adaptation. The book is so brilliant and moving and, by remaining completely faithful to it, the film is the same.

This is a very bold pitch idea.  Yet I think I'm up for the challenge.

Do you want a full work cited with cover page and douple lined spacing. 

Vish! my favorite book adaptations are slaughterhouse five and mother night and breakfast of champions. all kurt vonegut books and fantastic movies. they are actually better than the books, which is a very rare thing. even the author admits that adaptations of his books are better, which is refreshing and humble. i love his books and was surprised the movies were so darn good.

thanks

dan

Seriously...slaughterhouse five was my second pic.  I just caught it on tv the other night.

The editing is so spot on and reflects how Vonnegut wrote it.

I'm going to pick The Shawshank Redemption, even though it was more of a novella than a full on novel.  For one thing it's a Stephen King book, which in my opinion, generally get made into not great movies (Stand By Me, The Shining, aside).  The fact that this one managed to get made well is a feat in itself.  The story is phenomenal, it's about friendship and hope and false imprisonment in a corrupt system, which of course ends on a very positive note.  The acting is superb, Morgan Freeman is classic, and it's my favorite roll of Tim Robbins.  The movie has consistently been in my top 5 movies of all time, and I don't see that changing ever.

Martin

I'm halfway through Shutter Island and I'll be interested to see how the Scorsese/DiCaprio adaptation works out.  Hopefully they get the oppressive stormy New England atmosphere right.

Keeping with the music theme of Radio 3, I would like to nominate High Fidelity.

The book by Nick Hornby was pretty great, but the film managed to capture the same spirit even if it wasn't adapted completely.  The transition of the British setting of the book to the Chicago setting of the film was well done, whereas most Americanizations completely miss the mark.  John Cusack plays Rob Gordon extremely well.

The best part of the movie, however, is the transitional name of Jack Black's band, Kathleen Turner Overdrive.

I know I started it, but to be devil's advocate.. I lean away from High Fidelity because it is TOO us. I bet the majority of us have both read and watched already.. or planned to read for many many years in my case. Maybe we should step out of our box a bit. Then again, it's a guaranteed crowd pleaser. Hmm. Tough job for Vish to make the decision.

I kinda wanted to hear from the Zolas.  But I guess I'll listen to what the Wooden Sky has to say instead...

but did The Wooden Sky tour across Canada with a webcam in their van, so we could see how exciting (not very) touring is?

This song pleases me.

But I have heard Whale Music (the book) was more brilliant than the movie which I have seen and loved.

Given the yesterday's news about Quarrington's succumbing to cancer, I am going to pitch Whale Music for February's book

But I am going to pitch Quarrington's Whale Music for February.

So my putch for best adaptation is Ghost World. It was based on a graphic novel by Daniel Clowes. While I absolutely loved the drawing style in his Eightball series which is where Ghost World came from, the true jewel of his stories is always been the way he sees the world, and how he communicates that through his narrative.

I think they captured it wonderfully in the movie. Not only with masterful casting (Buscemi and Thora Birch!), but also in the way it was shot and how it felt, frank, honest and surreal.

I think if you haven't seen the movie or read Eightball, you should!

High Fidelity is pretty good, but I actually prefer About a Boy as far as film adaptations of Nick Hornby books go.  I know that the last half of the movie takes a radical departure from the last half of the book, but that's part of what makes it a great adaptation - changing things for the sake of film and current cultural conditions.  It still remains true to the spirit of the book without having to follow it exactly.

Wes Anderson's adaptation of Roald Dahl's Fantastic Mr. Fox is also, well, fantastic.

But is there a more beloved book-to-film adaptation than The Princess Bride?  I don't think so. 

You just said "Hell" on the radio.  Don't get yourself in trouble again...

That's so awesome, John. 150% of targeted amount. I hope all benefits go that well. I'm going to the CBC one tonight.

No, I think it's the other way around.  And all movies of the week are based off crappy saturday morning comic strips. 

wow, congrats John.  that's fantastic.

E-mail? What's that?

Fight Club or American Physco!!!

In the Fight Club DVD there is commentary  by Chuck Palahniuk the author and  Jim Uhls the screenplay guy. That is great to listen to as Palahniuk was really impressed at Uhis's take on the book.

And American Physco because the essence of the book was kept true and was interesting to see how a Female director was able to handle such a gory book into a movie.

Watchmen was really well done too... but only if you cut off the last 30-45 minutes of the movie

I'd like to pitch another based on a movie I haven't seen but from what I have heard, was an awesome adaptation.

Except Where the Wild Things Are isn't available for rent yet, is it?

The best film adaptation of a book I have ever seen is Everything Is Illuminated.  The book was excellent.  Jonathon Safran Foer made it semi-autobiographical but used another character to relive his experiences: Alex, the translator whose English is "not so premium." This role in the film was perfectly filled by Gogol Bordello's lead singer, Eugene Hutz.

What I love best about the film is that, though still essentially the same story, it is so different that you can watch the film before you read the book and it hasn't ruined it for you.  Both are beautiful, funny, and tragic.  I dare you to watch the movie and NOT fall in love with the grandfather.

Highway 61 was better.

Highway 61 wasn't a book though. Was it, tb3?

I could have won something!?!? I didn't read your whole post vish. I came in late.