Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Back on the Blog Chain: Books and Movies

For this round, Michelle picked the topic:

What is your favorite book-to-movie adaptation? Why? What's your least favorite and why?

I've mentioned before on this blog that I don't watch movies much any more; there are so many other things I need to do. The last time I saw a movie in the theater was before I became pregnant, and even at home I don't watch movies. (Usually my husband and son do most of the TV watching in our house.) My memory for the relative few book-to-movie adaptations I have seen is therefore a bit rusty. For favorite, I would put The Lord of the Rings for the scenery. Least favorite--I really don't have one. While I'm sure there are movies out there that differ significantly from the book, I can't recall one that I've seen and disliked. Maybe I'm just repressing the memory. ;)

Readers, could you please help me out by telling us your favorite and least favorite book-to-movie adaptations? And please check out Kate's post before mine and Christine's tomorrow. I'm sure both of them will have more to say on this topic.

4 comments:

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

My favorite would be LOTR as well. Least favorite was The Relic. They left out the main character, Agent Pendergast!

Sandra Ulbrich Almazan said...

Leaving out the main character is a pretty big change, Alex.

solitarium said...

Worst book to film adaptation has to be "I Am Legend". Richard Matheson published his novel in 1954 and to this day it works as an enthralling "last man alive" tale with Vampires thrown in. It is one of my favorite novels to pick up and read and what's best about it is that it doesn't bow down and give in to the "happy ending" that society requests. It actually has a rather ambiguous ending in relation to the stories moral message/ issues and I for one was very pleased with its conclusion. Now the film adaptation obviously did not incorporate this factor into the narrative and messed up on basically everything else too. I wont go any further as I would just be ranting but "I Am Legend" is my choice for WORST adaptation.
I'll have to think about best though. "The English Patient" is my favorite film but as I saw it before reading the book I was forced to abandon Michael Ondaaje's novel, concerned that it might have an impact on the way I perceive the film.

Demitria said...

LOVE LOTR as a best adaptation post! I watch a lot of movies so I have a bunch of different choices for best and worst. :)

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