What was better as a movie than as a book?

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

Me: The Godfather. Great pulpy bestseller paperback, but adding Coppola's direction, the beautiful cinematography and score, and the all star lineup of actors transformed the story into something much better, a beautiful dark animated painting, from the very first frame.

[terrya]

1. "The Manchurian Candidate"

The orignial, not the remake.

Richard Condon's novel was wonderful...but the movie just powerfully enhanced the paranoia of the themes. Kudos to John Frankenheimer, the director, George Axelrod, the screenwriter, and the cast for improving upon the book.

[DarkTirade]

2. Spaceballs.

The novel was terrible. :P

[ghostsofgiants]

14. The flamethrower was great though.

[alphafemale]

3. Jaws

The book was just alright.

The movie...well it changed how people viewed a day at the beach...forever.

I think it was the musical score that had much to do with it.

bah...DUM!

[FloridaJudy]

9. They cut out the idiotic adultery sub-plot that was in the novel

And made it all about the shark. It not only made the characters more sympathetic, but was much more effective in giving the audience the galloping dreads.

[NC_Nurse]

19. Agreed.

I read that the publisher made Peter Benchley add the adultery part. The movie was much better without the
tacked on sex plot.

[Capn Sunshine]

32. That was the best summer at the beach EVER

No one would go in the water. It made surfing so much easier , not having to worry about the kooks in the way!

[Tikki]

4. "Breakfast at Tiffany's" was a fine short....

story....as written by Truman Capote. But the movie was excellent.
See the movie than read the story, or the other way around.... they enhance
each other.

p.s. the screenplay was not written by Truman Capote.


Tikki

[alphafemale]

6. But there's that bit with Mickey Rooney as the Japanese landlord.

Jar Dropping Racist stereotype.

Completely NOT funny.

And adds NOTHING to the story.

[fishwax]

5. that's the first movie I thought of when I saw the thread title

I do like the book, but the movie is on a different level. Goodfellas might be another--the book is quite good, but the movie is :wow:

[leeroysphitz]

7. The Hunt For Red October.

Neater ending IMO.

[mikeargo]

8. I know many people will disagree

But I like the movie version of The Shining (the original, of course) better than Stephen King's book.

[ghostsofgiants]

15. I've never read the book, but that is a damn fine film.

[EFerrari]

18. Which one? There were two.

King had much more control over the second one and it highlighted alcoholism.

[Fox Mulder]

10. Fight Club

[DarkTirade]

16. I didn't really see much of a difference between the two.

The movie did a slightly better job of clarifying some things I think, but then again the book did a better job of clarifying a few others. All in all, I'd recommend reading the book and seeing the movie for that one. :)

[XemaSab]

11. Trainspotting

:P

[alphafemale]

12. Psycho.

for another

[begin_within]

37. Almost the perfect movie.

The only thing that can compete with "Psycho" (1960) for most nearly perfect movie is "The Bicycle Thief" (1948)

[yellowdogintexas]

13. "Reilly Ace of Spies"..technically not a movie, but the book was drop dead boring

the miniseries on PBS/Mystery with Sam Neill was beyond fantastic.

[sir_captain]

17. Barry Lyndon and The Shining

are the first two that come to mind for me, though The Godfather is an excellent choice as well.

I know a lot of people will disagree with me about The Shining, but I'll take Kubrick over King every time.

[quip]

20. The Natural, The Dead Zone. n/t

[Paladin]

21. "Starship Troopers"

Looking forward to the howls of outrage from all the Heinlein purists. For the record, I think the movie handled the whole "Citizen"/Nazi angle pretty skillfully---how can you resist a movie that puts Doogie Howser in an SS uniform (particularly now that Doogie's sexual preferences are out in the open)? Heinlein's novel was a bit too admiring of the whole future fascism thing to be comfortable with......

[Dr. Strange]

22. You're evil!

Just thought you should know!

:hi:

[Paladin]

26. Flattery Will Get You Everywhere!

Jeez, I can live on a compliment like that for a week.

FYI, "Starship Troopers" is known around my house as "The Bug Movie" (as in, "Oh God, dad's watching "The Bug Movie" again!"). I'm a big fan of the movie's director, Paul Verhoeven. (Bonus movie tout: Verhoeven's latest, "Black Book," available on disk now. Pretty similar to his other masterful WWll epic, "Soldier of Orange," but with a lot more gamey sex included. Both movies highly recommended.....)

[petronius]

23. A River Runs Through It (nt)

[Capn Sunshine]

33. Really?

I thought the book was great; not that the movie wasn't wonderful as well, but IMO the book featured a little more depth to the characters .

[petronius]

24. The Passion of the Christ

The book had a lot of extra stuff at the beginning, that just seemed like filler...

:evilgrin:

[InvisibleTouch]

25. It's close, but: "Jurassic Park"

Specifically, the ending of the movie was quite different than in the book, and while I liked elements of both endings, I prefer the movie version.

[BlueIris]

27. "The Princess Bride."

I love the book, too, but it has a lot of extraneous filler, and is actually quite dark. The film has much better focus.

[IndianaJones]

28. Lord of the Rings. nt.

[bigwillq]

29. Bridges of Madison County

[Arkham House]

30. Kiss Me Deadly

The book was a Spillanish piece of crap...but the film is a hard-edged nifty piece of 50s paranoia...

[mitchum]

31. "High Fidelity" and "The Ice Storm"

"If I had known so many people were going to read it, I would have written it better" Mario Puzo on "The Godfather"

[Capn Sunshine]

34. Patriot Games

Amplified all the characters and cut out most of the tripe Clancy is known for.

[sarge43]

35. The Maltese Falcon n/t

[Thirtieschild]

36. Gone with the Wind

[vademocrat]

38. "What Dreams May Come"

Robin Williams was great - I picked it up recently in the $5 rack at Target and loved the movie. Since I usually like books better than movies I couldn't wait to read the book and checked it out of the library. What a disappointment! Thoroughly awful book - I don't know how the director created such a unique and interesting film out of basically a germ of an idea - talk about creative genius (and license...)