Quote: David Bussell @ March 21 2011, 7:55 AM GMTTry reading The Godfather, or rather, don't.
An excellent book.
Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ March 21 2011, 9:36 AM GMTThe book lost me not far through it, the film gripped me from the first minute.
Tsk.
Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ March 21 2011, 9:36 AM GMTA Clockwork Orange
Good call, although the movie omits the final chapter of the book.
I have said so before somewhere on these forums but the James Bond novels by Ian Fleming are fantastic.
Some of the films are great but they are only vague allusions to the books. And I do mean vague!
As you know James Bond is a govermnent secret agent with an official license to kill. Great tag line and in the books he does just that.
He is a nasty cold killer that kills women as well as men. As an example, in Goldfinger the movie he 'gets it on' with Pussy Galore.
In the book she is a lesbian and at one point James kicks her very hard in the lady garden. (Not the movie JB at all)
And one more while I'm on; The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Great film but no film or remake has the original tragic ending from the book.
Quote: AngieBaby @ March 21 2011, 12:09 AM GMTNot quite what you've asked but I'd have to say the Lord of The Rings trilogy. I've tried to read the books but just couldn't get into them but I LOVED the movies.
Maybe I should try read the book again?
Interesting examples here.
Nearly all the examples quoted for me fall into the category of either seen it and not read it or read it but not seen it, except for Lord of the Rings.
I loved the books and waited with bated breath for the first (animated) film back in the early 80s to come out. I thought that it was complete pants, took liberties with the story and then didn't even bother finishing it. I think there was talk of doing the second half as a follow-up in the same format. Thankfully they never did.
So it was with considerable trepidation I waited for the Peter Jackson versions.
I was more than delighted with what they did. I think it was because they took on such an enormous project in terms of scope and budget, that in doing so it allowed them to be faithful to the books almost to the letter. So I guess that for me LotR is the exception that proves the rule.
One niggle was that I thought the Hobbits weren't really what I had imagined (a bit too Walt Disney) but even they grew on me as the series progressed.
I found George Orwell's tale of Soviet totalitarianism quite heavy going, but I must have watched Animal Farm 17 times.
Some people would say The Shining was better as a film than a book. Likewise The Princess Bride. And some French folk say Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources improved on the two books on which they were based.
Quote: Stephen Goodlad @ March 21 2011, 9:56 AM GMTand at one point James kicks her very hard in the lady garden. (Not the movie JB at all)
That would have been hilarious.
The book Bond sounds way better than the film one.
Starship Troopers the movie was far better, and far more satirical, than the gung-ho book by Robert Heinlein.
Quote: Stephen Goodlad @ March 21 2011, 9:56 AM GMTI have said so before somewhere on these forums but the James Bond novels by Ian Fleming are fantastic.
Some of the films are great but they are only vague allusions to the books. And I do mean vague!As you know James Bond is a govermnent secret agent with an official license to kill. Great tag line and in the books he does just that.
He is a nasty cold killer that kills women as well as men. As an example, in Goldfinger the movie he 'gets it on' with Pussy Galore.
In the book she is a lesbian and at one point James kicks her very hard in the lady garden. (Not the movie JB at all)And one more while I'm on; The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Great film but no film or remake has the original tragic ending from the book.
I quite liked the novel Bond, he's a very strange sad figure. Mentally unwell to say the least.
Quote: Stephen Goodlad @ March 21 2011, 9:56 AM GMTI have said so before somewhere on these forums but the James Bond novels by Ian Fleming are fantastic.
Some of the films are great but they are only vague allusions to the books. And I do mean vague!
Disagree completely. Read Casino Royale and Live & Let Die (incidentally my two favourite Bond films) and they are the worst kind of bollocks. He couldn't write for shit.
Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club is an ace book, but Fincher turned it into so much more in the film. It's my favourite film ever.
Jurassic Park is a brilliant book and much better than the film. However, Crichton's follow-up, The Lost World, is so obviously written to be a movie it's much worse than the film could ever be. The fact that the film is a completely different story to that book suggests that the screenwriter(s) agree with me!
Dan
I'm not a huge fan of the film Blade Runner, but it is better than Dick's novel Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? Dick was far better as a short story writer.
Fleming's plots and story lines for the books are even stupider than the films.
You only live twice wouldn't pass a GCSE in English for dogs
The Bridgit Jones books leapt to life through the films so the films were better I would say.
Of the Thomas Harris books I think only The Silence of the Lambs was as good as the book, the others that I can remember, Red Dragon and Hannible were best left on the page
Plot of You Only Live Twice
1 Blofeld builds a depressing garden in a hot spring.
Thus encouraging a small number of depressed Japanese people to commit suicide there.
2 The Japanese rather than arresting him or digging up said garden. Ask Mi6 to send an agent who doesn't speak Japanese to assassinate Blofeld.
3 Bond spends several months disguising himself as a retarded coal miner then sneaks into Blofeld's garden.
4 Blofeld trys to kill Bond with a hot geyser up the bum, Bond kills Blofeld instead.
Now compare that to Roald Dahl's superlative script that had ninjas, volcano bases and rockets
Quote: chipolata @ March 21 2011, 11:40 AM GMTStarship Troopers the movie was far better, and far more satirical, than the gung-ho book by Robert Heinlein.
The only good bug is a dead bug!
Quote: chipolata @ March 21 2011, 12:07 PM GMTI'm not a huge fan of the film Blade Runner, but it is better than Dick's novel Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? Dick was far better as a short story writer.
I like his full length novels a lot. I enjoyed Do Androids, but it's almost completely different to the film.