Do you think films/movies which are based on books are always worse than the original story? Have you ever seen a film which was better than the book it was based on?
Post your answers on your blog, but don't forget to leave a link to the post here so that other participants can come and have a read. If you don't have a blog, no problem, just leave your thoughts in the comments below.
Technorati Tags: film+meme, movie+meme, films+based+on+books
Whatever my strengths and weaknesses as a writer, one thing I have discovered is I'm crap at writing reviews. However, to answer your question, despite the fact that I've read Lord of the Rings probably 8 or 9 times in my life, I thought the films were better. I was quite blown away by them and kept commenting to my wife how these were the only films I'd ever seen where the pictures were better than the ones in my head. And if you've ever read Tolkien's work, you'll know that especially the last book is really dry and hard going. It reads more like the bible than a decent novel. Almost every paragraph begins with "And..."
ReplyDeleteYou know, I have always thought that about the third part of LOTR - it is slow going. I prefer the opening chapters, in the Shire, and when the Hobbits set off on their journey. For me, it went down hill a bit after they met Aragorn.
ReplyDeleteOops, forgot to post my answers.
ReplyDeleteDo you think films/movies which are based on books are always worse than the original story?
On the whole yes. Sometimes, a production company will order so many rewrites of the script the original plot vanishes without a trace. On other occasions, a director will not have the right feel for the kind of work an author produces. Even when a great effort is made to maintain the spirit of the original work, it is hard to translate certain aspects of a novel into a purely visual format. Thought processes, back stories and so on can be difficult to reproduce authentically and naturally.
Have you ever seen a film which was better than the book it was based on?
Yes, Jaws is much better than the Peter Benchley novel.
When the mix of writer and director are good and the producer is just as keen it really works. I'm thinking of LOTR and some of the super hero films where the people who have worked on it like, loved or were fans of the source. The Harry Potter books are a good example where good budget has improved the books. This is because the writer there tells a great story but is a weaker writer than her fame suggests.
ReplyDeleteAh, LOTR, we will have to agree to differ about that - I didn't like the way Peter Jackson directed it at all. (But, I don't like his films full stop.) It felt more like Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings, than an actual retelling of the story. Francis Ford Coppola did the same thing with Dracula and ruined it.
ReplyDeleteI do think Sam Raimi has done a good job with Spiderman though - but he does have a knack for making that kind of film.