A topic for discussion
A topic for discussion
I got to talking about this with somebody at work the other day.
Generally speaking, of books that have been turned into movies, still enjoy the books better than the movies.
But there are a couple of instances where I enjoyed the movies better than the books....
I'm not the biggest Forrest Gump fan in the world, but the movie flows narratively so much better than the Winston Groom novel it's based on. I didn't necessarily dislike the Groom novel. It's got elements of fantasy that put it more in line with the Big Fish line of stories that, for me, didn't work very well within the frame of the story. I thought that the movie Forrest Gump just flowed better, and in the movie, Forrest's bumps with history weren't as forced as they felt in the book.
Another, and I say this hunching my shoulders, is The Postman. I'm the only person in the world who liked Kevin Costner's movie about a post-apocalyptic area of American communities being pulled together by Kevin Costner's character impersonating a Postman. It's a cheesy movie, with great overacting by Will Patton.
But David Brin's original novel is just rough, rough Science Fiction. The book starts out the same way, but along the way the Postman has to fight a Super Computer, and the book deals, believe it or not, with the mundanites of being a Postman in a post-apocalyptic world.
Those were the big two that I could think of.
My co-worker's examples started with the Lord of the Rings movies. He likes the books, but felt like they got bogged down in its own mythology. He felt like Peter Jackson's movies humanized everything and made the characters more accessible. His is an argument I've heard before, and can appreciate. As it is, I think I like the movies and books right around equally.
His other example was Mystic River, which I could buy, as well. He just like Clint Eastwood's movie a lot more than he liked the book.
By and large, we both still liked the books better than the movies made out of them. But these were the exceptions we came up with in our short conversation.
Any other instances?
I got to talking about this with somebody at work the other day.
Generally speaking, of books that have been turned into movies, still enjoy the books better than the movies.
But there are a couple of instances where I enjoyed the movies better than the books....
I'm not the biggest Forrest Gump fan in the world, but the movie flows narratively so much better than the Winston Groom novel it's based on. I didn't necessarily dislike the Groom novel. It's got elements of fantasy that put it more in line with the Big Fish line of stories that, for me, didn't work very well within the frame of the story. I thought that the movie Forrest Gump just flowed better, and in the movie, Forrest's bumps with history weren't as forced as they felt in the book.
Another, and I say this hunching my shoulders, is The Postman. I'm the only person in the world who liked Kevin Costner's movie about a post-apocalyptic area of American communities being pulled together by Kevin Costner's character impersonating a Postman. It's a cheesy movie, with great overacting by Will Patton.
But David Brin's original novel is just rough, rough Science Fiction. The book starts out the same way, but along the way the Postman has to fight a Super Computer, and the book deals, believe it or not, with the mundanites of being a Postman in a post-apocalyptic world.
Those were the big two that I could think of.
My co-worker's examples started with the Lord of the Rings movies. He likes the books, but felt like they got bogged down in its own mythology. He felt like Peter Jackson's movies humanized everything and made the characters more accessible. His is an argument I've heard before, and can appreciate. As it is, I think I like the movies and books right around equally.
His other example was Mystic River, which I could buy, as well. He just like Clint Eastwood's movie a lot more than he liked the book.
By and large, we both still liked the books better than the movies made out of them. But these were the exceptions we came up with in our short conversation.
Any other instances?
posted by Tommy at
08:16
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