When a great book is adapted into a movie, conventional wisdom states the movie will never be as good as the book. But conventional wisdom isn’t always right. Sometimes the movie is very good, but quite different from the book. Sometimes the movie’s a terrific adaptation, but simply too limited in time or scope to include everything that was in the book. Other times the movie is a very true visual rendition of exactly what was on the page. And of course, the box office is littered with those that failed to serve the source material at all.
Here are some noteworthy examples, where it’s worth experiencing both the book and the movie. With some of these, you may not have even known the movie was based on a book, or that there ever was a video adaptation made!
Shrek
The book and movie have the same message, about being true to oneself, but they convey that message in different ways.
In the picture book (4/5 stars, ages 4 and up, $6.99 in paperback edition, not yet available in Kindle edition), Shrek is an ugly, terrifying ogre, but there’s no fairy tale land, no donkey, and no human princess under a magic spell. From Publishers Weekly:
No doubt about it, Shrek is the ugliest guy in town. Everywhere he goes, people and animals flee. If his hideous appearance does not immediately fell them, the smoke belching from his ears and his “putrid blue flame” sends even the mighty–including “a whopper of a dragon”–packing. Yet Shrek is inordinately proud of his green knobby head and loathsome figure, and he roams the countryside having the kind of fun that only tormenting the vulnerable can provide. Hearing a witch prophesy that he will marry a princess who is even uglier than he is, Shrek is intrigued, and he sets out to find this repulsive bride. When they finally meet, the two break into heartfelt declarations of mutual admiration. (“Your horny warts, your rosy wens, / Like slimy bogs and fusty fens, / Thrill me.”) …Steig’s epigrammatic genius is given full rein in this engrossing and satisfying tale. – (c) Reed Business Media
In the movie (PG, 4.5/5 stars, currently priced at $2.99 to rent and $9.99 to buy), Shrek is cast in the role of unlikely and reluctant hero, sent on a quest to rescue a human princess from a dragon and defeat a despotic prince who’s intent on eliminating all fairy tale creatures from his land. Shrek still gets his ogre princess by the end of the story, but not in the same way as in the book. From Amazon:
Winner of the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, Shrek sparked a motion picture phenomenon and captured the world’s imagination with the Greatest Fairy Tale Never Told! Relive every moment of Shrek’s daring quest to rescue the feisty Princess Fiona with the help of his loveable loudmouthed Donkey and win back the deed to his beloved swamp.
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The Colour of Magic
Fans have loved Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series books for generations, and at last, some of them have been adapted into miniseries. In the case of The Colour of Magic, many viewers are saying the miniseries adaptation (with a cast that includes Jeremy Irons and Tim Curry!) is even better than the book on which it is based.
Terry Pratchett’s profoundly irreverent, bestselling novels have garnered him a revered position in the halls of parody next to the likes of Mark Twain, Kurt Vonnegut, Douglas Adams, and Carl Hiaasen.
The Color of Magic is Terry Pratchett’s maiden voyage through the now-legendary land of Discworld. This is where it all begins — with the tourist Twoflower and his wizard guide, Rincewind.
The Colour of Magic Miniseries (4/5 stars, currently priced at $2.99 to own both episodes in the miniseries) – Constantly failing at the Unseen University, the wizard Rincewind is given the task by the Patrician of looking after the Discworld’s first tourist: Twoflower.
Amazon reviewers say:
“ Where possible, the movie seems to improve on the book. ”
“I didn’t care for Rincewind in the books, he just wasn’t one of my favourite characters, but after seeing the movie, I have a much greater appreciation for him. ”
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Hogfather
Also from the Discworld series, Hogfather is a holiday-themed tale that’s especially fitting this time of year.
Hogfather in Kindle edition (4.5/5 stars, currently priced at $6.99) – From Amazon:
Who would want to harm Discworld’s most beloved icon? Very few things are held sacred in this twisted, corrupt, heartless — and oddly familiar — universe, but the Hogfather is one of them. Yet here it is, Hogswatchnight, that most joyous and acquisitive of times, and the jolly old, red-suited gift-giver has vanished without a trace. And there’s something shady going on involving an uncommonly psychotic member of the Assassins’ Guild and certain representatives of Ankh-Morpork’s rather extensive criminal element. Suddenly Discworld’s entire myth system is unraveling at an alarming rate. Drastic measures must be taken, which is why Death himself is taking up the reins of the fat man’s vacated sleigh . . . which, in turn, has Death’s level-headed granddaughter, Susan, racing to unravel the nasty, humbuggian mess before the holiday season goes straight to hell and takes everyone along with it.
The book was adapted into an excellent Hogfather Miniseries (5/5 stars, currently priced at $4.99 to buy each episode or $7.99 to buy both episodes in the full miniseries) – From the imagination of best-selling novelist Terry Pratchett comes a deliriously twisted take on the holiday season. In the parallel universe of Discworld, it’s the night before Hogswatch, that special time when the Hogfather delivers presents to the kiddies at the mid-winter festival in the medieval melting pot of Ankh-Morpork. But when the Hogfather is kidnapped by a cadre of villains called the Auditors, the inspiring belief in Hogswatch could be lost forever. So could humanity, unless the Auditors’ evil plan is undone ASAP.
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Fight Club
Fight Club Kindle book (4.5/5 stars, currently priced at $8.51) – From Amazon: The first rule about fight club is you don’t talk about fight club.
Chuck Palahniuk’s outrageous and startling debut novel that exploded American literature and spawned a movement. Every weekend, in the basements and parking lots of bars across the country, young men with white-collar jobs and failed lives take off their shoes and shirts and fight each other barehanded just as long as they have to. Then they go back to those jobs with blackened eyes and loosened teeth and the sense that they can handle anything. Fight club is the invention of Tyler Durden, projectionist, waiter, and dark, anarchic genius, and it’s only the beginning of his plans for violent revenge on an empty consumer-culture world.
Fight Club movie adaptation (R, 4.75/5 stars, currently priced at $2.99 to rent and $9.99 to buy) – Sick of his dead end, white bread existence, Jack encounters an intriguing stranger who alters his relationship with reality.
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The Ramayana
The Ramayana: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic Kindle book (4/5 stars, currently priced at $12.99) – From Amazon:
A sweeping tale of abduction, battle, and courtship played out in a universe of deities and demons, The Ramayana is familiar to virtually every Indian. Although the Sanskrit original was composed by Valmiki around the fourth century BC, poets have produced countless versions in different languages. Here, drawing on the work of an eleventh-century poet called Kamban, Narayan employs the skills of a master novelist to re-create the excitement he found in the original. A luminous saga made accessible to new generations of readers, The Ramayana can be enjoyed for its spiritual wisdom, or as a thrilling tale of ancient conflict.
(Note that you can also get the original text of the Ramayana in Kindle format for free, though the free version is the original translation and its language may be more difficult to follow than the modern-language update linked above)
This Hindu folktale has been adapted into a magical, gorgeous, DRM-free animated film by artist Nina Paley, which she has made available for free viewing and download online via a Creative Commons license. If you download, be sure to get one of the .MP4 editions because they will play on your Kindle Fire.
If you download a copy, viewing on your Fire is easy. See this post for information about how to do it on a first-generation Fire. On the Fire HD, the process outlined in the post is essentially the same, but once you’ve copied the film over to your Fire (connect with the mini USB cable that came with your Fire HD, then copy the file over from your computer to the Movies folder on the Fire HD) you will find it under the Videos > Movies > Device tab instead of in the Gallery tab.
You can also buy the film on DVD at her site, as well as other merchandise related to the film. If you enjoy the film, we strongly recommend you support the artist by purchasing the DVD or some other merchandise from her site.
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The Silence of the Lambs
This film was actually based on source material from two Thomas Harris novels: Red Dragon and The Silence of the Lambs.
Red Dragon (4.5/5 stars, currently priced at $9.99) – Amazon reviewer Tim Appelo says:
Lying on a cot in his cell with Alexandre Dumas’s Le Grand Dictionnaire de Cuisine open on his chest, Hannibal “The Cannibal” Lecter makes his debut in this legendary horror novel, which is even better than its sequel, The Silence of the Lambs. As in Silence, the pulse-pounding suspense plot involves a hypersensitive FBI sleuth who consults psycho psychiatrist Lecter for clues to catching a killer on the loose.
The sleuth, Will Graham, actually quit the FBI after nearly getting killed by Lecter while nabbing him, but fear isn’t what bugs him about crime busting. It’s just too creepy to get inside a killer’s twisted mind. But he comes back to stop a madman who’s been butchering entire families. The FBI needs Graham’s insight, and Graham needs Lecter’s genius. But Lecter is a clever fiend, and he manipulates both Graham and the killer at large from his cell.
That killer, Francis Dolarhyde, works in a film lab, where he picks his victims by studying their home movies. He’s obsessed with William Blake’s bizarre painting The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun, believing there’s a red dragon within him, the personification of his demonic drives. Flashbacks to Dolarhyde’s terrifying childhood and superb stream-of-consciousness prose get us right there inside his head. When Dolarhyde does weird things, we understand why. We sympathize when the voice of the cruel dead grandma who raised and crazed him urges him to mayhem–she’s way scarier than that old bat in Psycho. When he falls in love with a blind girl at the lab, we hope he doesn’t give in to Grandma’s violent advice.
This book is awesomely detailed, ingeniously plotted, judiciously gory, and fantastically imagined. If you haven’t read it, you’ve never had the creeps.
Red Dragon was originally adapted into a film called Manhunter (R, 3,5.5 stars, currently priced at $1.99 to rent and $9.99 to buy), which stars William Peterson as Will Graham and Brian Cox as Hannibal Lecter. The book was again adapted into a newer film, also entitled Red Dragon (4/5 stars, currently priced at $9.99 to buy), starring Anthony Hopkins in the Hannibal Lecter role.
The Silence of the Lambs Kindle book (4.5/5 stars, currently priced at $7.99) – From Amazon:
A serial murderer known only by a grotesquely apt nickname-Buffalo Bill-is stalking women. He has a purpose, but no one can fathom it, for the bodies are discovered in different states. Clarice Starling, a young trainee at the FBI Academy, is surprised to be summoned by Jack Crawford, chief of the Bureau’s Behavioral Science section. Her assignment: to interview Dr. Hannibal Lecter-Hannibal the Cannibal-who is kept under close watch in the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane.
Dr. Lecter is a former psychiatrist with a grisly history, unusual tastes, and an intense curiosity about the darker corners of the mind. His intimate understanding of the killer and of Clarice herself form the core of The Silence of the Lambs-and ingenious, masterfully written book and an unforgettable classic of suspense fiction.
The Silence of the Lambs movie (R, 4.5/5 stars, currently priced at $2.99 to rent and $9.99 to buy, currently FREE for Amazon Prime members to view) – From Amazon:
Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins deliver sensational, Oscar-winning performances in this “shockingly powerful thriller” (New York). “Stunning” (Los Angeles Times) and “spellbinding” (The Hollywood Reporter), this terrifying masterpiece garnered five Academy Awards, including Best Picture. A psychopath nicknamed Buffalo Bill is murdering women across the Midwest. Believing it takes one to know one, the FBI sends Agent Clarice Starling (Foster) to interview a demented prisoner who may provide clues to the killer’s actions.