Great Books made into Great Movies (1 Viewer)

[Roger Kint]

Does anybody know any great books made into great movies? One that comes to mine is 'To Kill a Mockingbird'. Wondering if there are any others...

 

[Vickie_M]

I agree with you about To Kill A Mockingbird. I love the book and the movie equally.
Might I suggest:
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

 

[Lew Crippen]

There are a bunch, but of course it all depends on the definition of great:

Great Expectations—Dickens/Lean
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest—Kesey/Forman
Henry V—Shakespeare/Olivier—OK, it’s a play not a book
Woman of the Dunes/Suna no onna—Abe/Teshigahara
The Last Temptation of Christ—Kazantzakis/Scorsese
War and PeaceTolstoy/Bondarchuk—this last is the 6+ hour, Russian film, which might not really be a great movie.

This is just for starters.

And there will be a lot of controversy on anyone’s selections. For example, although I was blown away with ‘Mockingbird’ when it was released, I no longer think the movie ‘Great’.

 

[Lew Crippen]

Might I suggest:

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

I considered this one Vicki, but thought, on balance, I’d wait for the whole movie. I don’t consider just the first book, as Tolkien did not like the idea of his single work being split into thirds by the publishers.

If J.R.R., hisownself, was opposed, who am I to disagree?

 

[Rich Malloy]

Though certainly altered in the translation, I think "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" fits the bill. The same goes for "The English Patient" (even more greatly altered). And I'd also include "Lolita" in this category (the Nabokov version, naturally).

 

[Rich Malloy]

Aw hell... I'll say it. Though by no means anything approaching a comparable experience, and probably of little to no value for anyone who hasn't read it first, Raul Ruiz's "Time Regained" is nonetheless a helluva great effort at bringing Proust to the screen.

If you haven't read it (and I mean the entirety of "In Search of Lost Time", not merely "Time Regained"), then I doubt much of what occurs will resonate very deeply, and you may not even be able to keep the characters straight, much less understand their relation to one another. Still, I've seen it three times now, and each time it's an even greater joy. Is it a great film, like others mentioned here? Perhaps not. But, as an adaptation of what appears to be a completely unadaptable book, it works in novel and heretofore unknown ways. I think Ruiz simply decided that there was no way to create a self-contained film out of this work, and thus made a work that could only appeal to those fully-versed in the original work.

 

[Simon Massey]

Schindler's List for one
Fight Club
Lord of the Flies (original) though the 1990 version isnt bad

 

[Lou Sytsma]

Charly - based on the book - Flowers for Algernon
Stars Cliff Robertson

Shawshank Redemption - based on the Stephen King novella - Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption.

 

[Bill J]

Does anybody know any great books made into great movies? One that comes to mine is 'To Kill a Mockingbird'.

I think both the book and the film are great, but I think the book is a little superior because it captures the concept of the days "seeming longer than 24 hours." The film's pacing is a little too fast and it may have worked better if it was 3 - 3 1/2 hours long instead of 2.

 

[Brent Bridgeman]

"Lonesome Dove"
Great book, wonderfully acted miniseries. I have a hard time thinking of Robert Duvall as anyone but Augustus McRae anymore.

 

[Lew Crippen]

A discussion point, not an argument, Rich: even though the acting is uniformly great, as is the direction, I’ve never been convinced that Lolita is a great movie. Mostly because Sue Lyon is just way too sexy for me to not understand why both Humbert Humbert and Quilty were attracted to her.. Nabrokov makes the point that she is a nymphet (almost pre-pubescent) and not physically developed.

He makes lusting after Lolita aberrant—and, at least for me, I had no problem at the time understanding why one would lust after Lyon, and I still don’t today.

So, for me, this has always kept me from putting the movie into the ‘great’ category. But as to a debate on the technical merits of the movie: acting, cinematography, directing, and so on, I would come down on the side of superb. I have not seen Lyne’s version, so I can’t comment.

I agree with your assessment of The Unbearable Lightness of Being, although I am sure that many would feel that the novel was not satisfactorily represented in the film. On this one, I come down on the side of two different media doing things differently. And both doing it well.

 

[Marc Colella]

The Sweet Hereafter Russell Banks/Atom Egoyan
Trainspotting Irvine Welsh/Danny Boyle

 

[Mark Pfeiffer]

I'll agree with Marc. Egoyan did a great job of evoking what happens in the novel while still making one substantial change plot-wise. Wonder Boys is a terrific book made into a terrific film. The middle of the book is essentially missing from the film, but it works just fine. Really curious what Chabon can do adapting his own The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.

 

[Blaine Skerry]

DAVID COPPERFIELD-Charles Dickens/George Cukor
One of Dickens' best novels and a film with a superlative cast. God, I hope this is released on DVD soon.

 

[Malcolm R]

Gone with the Wind

The Wizard of Oz

Jaws

 

[James T]

No one mentioned Jurassic Park yet? I'm surprised, considering it's a top grossing movie with a well known writer.

On a similar note, what are great books that have bad movies (I assume many, so pick your least fav).

My great book, bad movies are:
The Shining: I didn't like Kubrick's version or the tv
version.
Prince of Tides: Tried to turn a book that had the relationship as a second story (and really only started towards the last few chapters) into the main plot of the movie.

 

[Roger Kint]

There are a bunch, but of course it all depends on the definition of great:

I guess I'm looking towards more of the classic or established literature vs. books that are popular today and forgotten tomorrow. I wanted to put together a reading list of very good books that any well read person would have read and that also has a decent movie made out of it. I'm currently reading To Kill a Mockingbird and really like the book so far and so am pretty psyched that the movie adaptation was a good one(won many awards) and can't wait to see it and how it was done.

Lew, your recommendations are great, thanks. And thanks to the others who posted their lists, it certainly gives me a place to start.

 

[Rob T]

Misery

 

[Stacie]

Your tastes may not run this direction, but here are a couple of my favorites:
Howards End (E.M. Forster / Merchant and Ivory)
Sense and Sensibility (Jane Austen / Ang Lee (adaptation by Emma Thompson))
Both are great novels, extremely well-adapted for the screen.

 

[JeremySt]

Are you kidding?
Dances With Wolves
Vertigo
Psycho
A Clockwork Orange
The Haunting
The Bridge On The River Kwai
Secret of Nimh
The War of The Worlds
Dracula
Frankenstein
American Psycho
The Exorcist
Silence of The Lambs
The Shining
Forrest Gump
Interview With The Vampire
Last of The Mohicans
Planet of The Apes
just off the top of my head