Close to the book?....

[Jon George]

Originally Posted by wanderer085

It's been a long time since I read it, but Slaughterhouse Five the movie was quite different than the book as I remember, I think some characters names were even switched in the movie.

I was just about to nominate this, so we'll have to agree to differ. My other was Catch 22, or did they change the names in that, as well?

[Giovanna Clairval]

Talking about films that do not respect the plot in a book, Minority Report must win the first place. The novel has almost nothing to do with the story. I wasn't enchanted by either of them.

A very different interpretation of a novel, if well done, can be as satisfying as the original idea.
Blade Runner has little fidelity to Do Android Dream of Electric Sheep and, from this point of view, it was a disappointment for many PKD's fans.
On the other hand, for those who accept to avoid comparing it with the book, Blade Runner is a great film.

Who is right in this never-ending debate about fidelity to the original?

[Toraspanda]

On the whole, I don't much care for filmed adaptations of books, with the exception of the BBC serialised classics - Austen, Dickens etc, which are always extremely well realised.

I've enjoyed the Harry Potter series, though agree that some of the later ones must be hard to follow for those who have not read the books. I loathed the Lord of the Rings adaptations, less for what was omitted than for what was changed , and added, that was absolutely not in the books and which was completely alien to Tolkien's creation.

One film, however, stands out for me as being actually better than the book, and that was Zorba the Greek. The book petered out in a lot of meandering anecdotes of Zorba's subsequent life, but the film had a coherence and a dramatic tension that were, IMO, entirely absent in the book.

[Connavar]

I liked BBC minis about Dickens work. They were pretty good,captured what made the books good.

[jackokent]

The film of Arthur Ransom's Swallows and Amazons was an absolutely perfect representation of the book. Don't know how widely it was aired though. Agree with all those who mentioned Hinton's Outsiders.

[Highlander II]

Originally Posted by Culhwch

The Prestige is certainly one that would qualify as such. I've almost finished the book, and it's quite different to the film, but both have their own strengths.

pulling from the beginning of the thread - I agree, The Prestige is one of the best movie-from-a-book movies that I've seen. Very few get reworked to the point that they work as well as this one did.

The Thornbirds was rather well done, though it was a mini-series instead of a feature.



ETA: and I just realized I'm repeating myself, but that's okay...

[Teresa Edgerton]

Originally Posted by Connavar

I liked BBC minis about Dickens work. They were pretty good,captured what made the books good.

I think that the only adaptations of favorite books that have wholly satisfied me were BBC miniseries -- maybe, in part, because the mini-series format gives enough space for a faithful adaptation -- Austen, Dickens, Gaskell, the Brontës, Sayers.

I'm glad that some of the older ones are now on DVD, because it's such a pleasure to revisit them.

[Overread]

Don't forget the narnia ones they made - I don't think that they made them all, but they were faithful (least as faithful as they could get with no CGI and no anamatronics!!)

[Teresa Edgerton]

I've actually been trying to forget the Narnia ones, Overread. Perhaps the scripts were faithful, but they looked so bad, all the magic went out of them for me -- and without magic you don't have Narnia.

I do find that people who were very young when they first saw that series have little trouble getting past those faults that seem so glaring to me. But I was already middle-aged and jaded when the series was made.

[BookStop]

Chocolat was very close to the book.
Princess Bride felt the same as the book, although a few small scenes were left out - namely the dungeon.
Secret of Nimh was very spot on until the rats brought out the amulet.
I really liked the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice (1995- Colin Firth)

[Teresa Edgerton]

Originally Posted by BookStop

I really liked the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice (1995- Colin Firth)

For me, the best P&P was the 1985 series, with Elizabeth Garvie and David Rintoul. Not so sexy as Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle, but more faithful to the book.

[TK-421]

Very faithfull to the book and an excellent adaption, not to mention one of the best films to come out in some time: No Country for Old Men.

I found The English Patient to be quite different from the book by Michael Ondaatje.

[j. d. worthington]

Some of the smaller filmmakers are actually better at remaining faithful to the material, though the problem is that they seldom have the budget for the effects necessary to carry it off as well. Had they that, though, several of these could be in the first rank, and they're certainly more respectful of the original stories than 95% of what else is done.

One which comes to mind particularly is the film adaptation of "The Call of Cthulhu", done as a silent film. Very few real actors there, but nonetheless they pull off the air of the silent era rather well; and their adherence to the story itself is amazingly faithful... a few minor details changed, and that's about it.

This seems to be the case with at least a fair amount of what's floating around out there; largely, I think, because the filmmakers in this case actually give a damn about the writers' work and that love for the material shows through....

[Highlander II]

Originally Posted by BookStop

Chocolat was very close to the book.
Princess Bride felt the same as the book, although a few small scenes were left out - namely the dungeon.
Secret of Nimh was very spot on until the rats brought out the amulet.
I really liked the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice (1995- Colin Firth)

The reason Secert of Nimh was modified (and I can't believe I remember this from elementary school) is b/c the author passed away before they could secure the rights to it, so several things had to change to avoid stomping on copyrights.

[Overread]

JD and Teresa I think you are both right - there are very few film makers out today who do stay faithful to the original works - I think its this mindset in the "big industry" that they don't want to copy anothers work, they want the admiration for their story.
Off the top of my head I can only think of Sin City and The 300 as being faithful big bugdet films