Play Book Tag discussion

What are some of the best (or worst) book-to-movie/TV adaptations?

Do you think a book is always better than its adaptation?

What book would you love to see turned into a movie or show?

The TV adaptations of Tony Hillerman and Louise Penny changed the characters too much. The movie based on the seafaring books of Patrick O'Brian had the Aubrey character right with Russell Crowe, but the Maturin character who was supposed to be small and ugly was tall and handsome. Otherwise, it did a good job of combining elements from several books.

2 movies that were better than the books were The Princess Bride and Sense and Sensibility.

Different but as good in their way as the book - The Martian, Cloud Atlas, and Possession.

Books that should be movies and are actually in the works - All Systems Red (the Murderbot series with Alexander Skarsgaard), The Thursday Murder Club with Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan and Ben Kingsley, and Project Hail Mary with Ryan Gosling

Best adaptations: The Godfather, Lonesome Dove and Stand By Me which is the novella The Body in Different Seasons.

Funny story: I took my 8 year old to see the new DogMan movie a couple of weeks ago. He and I have read all the books. Anyway, there is a scene where the Police Chief marries a character that is different than in the book and my son instantly poked me in the ribs and whispered loudly "!!what!!". I told him after the movie, 'It happens, get used to it, nothing is sacred.' I can hear Don Henly's End of the Innocence playing in the background.

Worst adaptations: So many....most recent which I only watched for 15 minutes before I turned it off was Leave the World Behind.

I do think a book is almost always better, but I know there is always an exception. A very close tie for me is Hearts in Atlantis.

I would love to see Palace of Treason as a movie.

Surprisingly, even though they had to leave a great deal out due to time, the adaptation of Snow Falling on Cedars was well done and stayed true to the book--however, I recommend reading the book first!

The Martian film was very good, but I saw it some years after reading the book, so had forgotten enough that the changes weren't as grating as they might have been.

I have mixed feelings about the adaptation of The Hunger Games books--I've seen the first film enough that it's grown on me and it's well done, but they changed too many things, IMO.

As for worst, there are far too many to list or remember off the top of my head.

I do not watch a lot of films, but these come to mind right away:

One of the best film adaptations IMO is The Shawshank Redemption, based on the novella:
Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption

I think the Harry Potter movies are quite good.

One of the worst is: The Hobbit, or There and Back Again. Not sure how they managed to screw it up so much since the book is awesome, and the people who made The Lord of the Rings Trilogy got it right.

I can't say it's the worst adaptation, but I think the supposedly "great" Academy Award Winner, American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer is pretty bad. The book was much better.

Also, somehow they could not bring much excitement to the film for:
The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics - everyone was portrayed as so angry - compare that to Chariots of Fire to get an idea of what I mean.

As far as a book I'd like to see as a film:
All the Glimmering Stars and
We Lived on the Horizon

I loved Oppenheimer except for the element of the extramarital affair, which I felt was gratuitous (at least in the way it was portrayed). I still haven’t read the book though.

Agree about The Hobbit even if it did pay my younger son’s rent for quite some time. I am still bemused by that Tauriel storyline! Though I confess I will never see Thorin in quite the same dismal light as I did before Richard Armitage played him in the films … (happy sigh).

On the other side of the ledger, the LOTR films are probably my all-time favourite film adaptations. The recent TV series of Shōgun was also very good indeed

I don't see too many movies, but I think these adaptations were excellent:
To Kill a Mockingbird
House of Sand and Fog
Gone With the Wind

And I agree that the TV mini series of Lonesome Dove with Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones as Gus and Call was excellent.

I really hated the film adaptation of Pride & Prejudice starring Keira Knightly as Elizabeth.

I almost always think the book is better.

Robin P wrote: "The TV adaptations of Tony Hillerman and Louise Penny changed the characters too much. The movie based on the seafaring books of Patrick O'Brian had the..."

Robin ~ I agree that Sense and Sensibility the movie was better than the book. I actually like the movie adaptations of all Jane Austen novels are better than the actual novels.

I keep thinking about Prince of Tides. Because it was probably the very first book to movie I had ever seen. Now there are so so many. Good books become good movies. But it didn't used to be a thing way back when. So it was separate. Now who can read or think about Harry Potter without a young Daniel Radcliffe and the rest of the cast? I can no longer read Outlander and not picture the Starz cast. It becomes interchangeable. Funny how what you pictured at first becomes replaced by the iconic characters we know and love.... But as I said, my mind went to the very first. Barbara Streisand and was it Nick Nolte? Cannot recall.

I did say recently, that I liked Lessons in Chemistry, but LOVED the HBO version. Same with Nine Perfect Strangers by Lianne Moriarty. That one was not my favorite of her books. but the 8 episode Hulu, also with Nicole Kidman? She knocked it out of the park both times!

The Wedding People would make a great movie. I always thought so. Also the Hearts Invisible Furies.

Well, I agree with much stated here. Sometimes though I don't necessarily think one is better than the other because I am often able to allow the adaptation to be judged on its own merits rather than in comparison to the book. Examples. the classic film Rebecca and Tale of Two Cities. However the Netflix remake of Rebecca is just bad.

LOTR - absolutely one of the best adaptations ever.
The Hobbit - one of the worst ever
Game of Thrones -- I know there is much disagreement, especially the last 2 seasons which were the parts not written by the author yet - but I happen to think it excellent - so richly cinematic and with brilliant performances on a level of film, not tv series.

The Martian - I saw the film before reading the book. So good.

HP - I think the later ones are particularly good - the first couple always fall flat for me as sticking too closely to the book.

Austen - Persuasion to me is on equal standing as the book. Pride & Prejudice tv adaptation with Colin Firth stands with the book. Emma Thompson's Sense and Sensibility is superior, based on my recent re-reading.

And I too dislike intensely the Kiera Knightly version of Pride and Prejudice. The earlier BBC series version from 1980 is very good -- starring David Rintoul and Elizabeth Garvey - and possibly sticking more closely to the book than the 1995 Colin Firth version - no Darcy in his bath or meeting her while wet after a swim.

The best version of Emma is Clueless! It's brilliant how it adapted to the era. The heroine is the same type of well-meaning but off-base character. The one with Gwyneth Paltrow was pretty good though.

(Emma is my favorite book and heroine of Austen, because she is so mistaken. My least favorite book and heroine are Fanny Price from Mansfield Park. She is never wrong and the book isn't funny.)

The Poldark miniseries was terrific though somewhat different from the books. Demelza was taken in as a much younger character and took time to grow up, also it was stated she was dark, with gypsy blood, but the actress had red hair. Still she was excellent in the part.

I think the BBC series of Brideshead Revisited is quite good.

KateNZ wrote: "I loved Oppenheimer except for the element of the extramarital affair, which I felt was gratuitous (at least in the way it was portrayed). I still haven’t read the book though.

Agree about The Ho..."

Was your son in the movie or did he work behind the scenes? Film work is a big industry in my home province; more people make a living behind the camera than in front of it.

Robin P wrote: "The Poldark miniseries was terrific though somewhat different from the books. Demelza was taken in as a much younger character and took time to grow up, also it was stated she was dark, with gypsy blood, but the actress had red hair. Still she was excellent in the part."

I saw the original miniseries with my parents and loved it when I was growing up, so found it difficult to read the novels because I saw her as a redhead. I can't remember how many of the novels I read because it was back when I lived in Ottawa; I found them at the main branch of the library.

A lot of BBC and British series adaptations are excellent - such as of Dickens' Bleak House, Zola's Nana, the Dick Francis mystery series, Agatha Christie mysteries - especially Joan Hickson as Miss Marple and the early seasons of David Suchet's Poirot, even Elliot's Middlemarch, and one of my favorites is Mapp & Lucia. At this point those are considered to be old but I think most of the time they are far better than current adaptations.

The budgets were smaller of course but the quality just seems so much better.

I agree, Joyce, about The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. I stopped watching the movie half way through.

Joanne wrote: "I agree, Joyce, about The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. I stopped watching the movie half way through."
I just watched it recently on one of my Sunday night viewing instead of my usual documentaries, and was so disappointed.

Currently watching the BBC 3-part series of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and it is excellent, though I would not say better than the book.

Two films that were better than the book IMO are:

Forrest Gump and

Field of Dreams based on Shoeless Joe

@Joy - I agree on Brideshead Revisited. The movie Field of Dreams is so good ... it has kept me away from the book!

I also have 2 stage perfomances that are vast improvements on the books.

First is Benjamin Britten's opera adaptation of Henry James' The Turn of the Screw, especially the 2013 production at New York City Opera.

Second is the musical Wicked. It turned the nasty, mean spirited Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire into something wonderful. Have not seen the movie version of the musical as they never seem to have even a fraction of the live performance energy.

I agree that Wicked the Musical is quite good. I have not read the book.

Theresa wrote: "A lot of BBC and British series adaptations are excellent - such as of Dickens' Bleak House, Zola's Nana, the Dick Francis mystery series, Agatha Christie mysteries - especially Joan Hickson as Mis..."

I agree--their Pride and Prejudice remains my favourite because it stays true to the book in intent, etc. even though there were a couple of actors in the A & E one who were better (not a fan of Firth--he can never be Mr. Darcy for me--but the woman who played Caroline Bingley in the A & E one was brilliant. I can't remember who else was better.)

I haven't watched any made after those two because I don't want to watch a regular length film version of my favourite Austen novel.

Karin wrote: "Theresa wrote: "A lot of BBC and British series adaptations are excellent - such as of Dickens' Bleak House, Zola's Nana, the Dick Francis mystery series, Agatha Christie mysteries - especially Joa..."

You remind me that the absolute best and true to the book Mr. Collins can only be found in the BBC series adaptation with David Rintouil and Elizabeth Garvie. He's actually to me one of the weakest characters in the 1995 Firth adaptation.

The Warden and Barchester Towers were put together as a 2-part series by BBC I think. It was on PBS in the US. The first book has a lot of topical references which are meaningless and confusing today, so they left those out, which is food. The 2nd book has a delightfully smarmy clergyman played by Alan Rickman.

Theresa wrote: "Karin wrote: "Theresa wrote: "A lot of BBC and British series adaptations are excellent - such as of Dickens' Bleak House, Zola's Nana, the Dick Francis mystery series, Agatha Christie mysteries - ..."

Thanks--I agree. I can't picture Mr. Darcy any other way than David Rintoul, and I agree about Firth--he was miscast as Darcy. Plus I have a laundry list of other complaints with the A&E one, but there were a couple of stellar performances within it.