I strongly disagree about The Princess Bride. The book is 100 times better than the movie.
The movie is fine as a kiddie film, but the book is far deeper and more complex.
1 Like
Yeah, I’ll go with that. IIRC it handled the Gus Grissom “incident” with a bit more aplomb. And loads of details about the outward-facing aspects of a pilot’s life (the watches, the hanging of the thumbs on one’s belt, “if one must,” with fingers facing forward, and a bunch of stuff I can’t remember, but it was the right stuff).
The comedic aspects of the movie don’t hold up that well to me, but I’ve only seen it a dozen times, so maybe it’s outlived itself in my mind.
Whoops. I was responding to the wrong post. Never mind! I have permission to wet my diapers.
3 Likes
What about cases where both the books and the adaptations are not very good? Such as the Twilight or Gor series? I guess it boils down to the lesser evil in those cases.
3 Likes
I think book and movie both work very well in serving their respective formats. The book would have been unfilmable as written, since it’s more a series of vignettes than a continuous narrative. (The Wicked Witch of the West is only really in one chapter.)
L. Frank Baum was unusual in his time for recognizing that the needs of the screen and the stage differ from those of the printed page. I think he would have been delighted with the 1939 film if he’d lived to see it, despite the differences from the book.
4 Likes
Where do we put things like A Clockwork Orange, where both are excellent but lead to fundamentally different places because of the the last chapter (or lack thereof)?
2 Likes
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a weird example because both the book and the movie are good, but they’re very different. In the book, the silent Chief is the main character and a lot of it is about his paranoid delusions, but the basic plot is also the same. That said, I think the movie ekes out a win in this case, mostly because of Louise Fletcher and Jack Nicholson both being incredibly good in their respective roles, especially Fletcher.
2 Likes
I like the movie version of The Firm better than the book. In the book, the protagonist merely runs away and hides, which is less clever than how the film version ended.
2 Likes
The Godfather, Jurassic Park, No Country For Old Men, and Silence of the Lambs all blow the books out of the water.
1 Like
I adore the movie, I didn’t realize there was a book! Might have to hunt that down…
1 Like
Kubrick and Hitchcock are in their own class.
Excellent example not yet mentioned!
The 1979 Prophecy came up on another thread where I mentioned this. “Both suck equally!”
4 Likes
Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Was far superior to it’s literary paradigm Who Censored Roger Rabbit? because of its more streamlined plot and focus on characterization with visual effects that convey mood in a way the book never could. The icing of the cake is the miraculous mix of characters from both Looney Tunes and Disney that will never be replicated again.
7 Likes
This one is a hard call, as both are good, but I’m giving it to the movie because of the incredible cast. David Bowie as Nikola Tesla is just genius.
The Prestige
3 Likes
The trouble with American Splendor the comic book is that Harvey Pekar didn’t do a good job of conveying how much he clearly loved the medium. He had a fear of writing stories which were too “genre,” as he put it. In other words, stories which openly played on a reader’s emotions and emphasized action rather than introspection. I would get aggravated reading them even when the art was good. (Which would vary, as he worked with many different artists.) Every time he got close to making you really feel rapport with him, he’d back away.
You can argue that he had a lot of determination and integrity to keep his cool, detached brand of slice-of-life story going for decades: long enough for Superheroes to slacken their iron grip on the face of the medium. He lived long enough to see many devoted makers of autobiographical comics move comfortably into the space he held open for them, against all odds.
BUT it’s American Splendor the movie which really makes you see, and FEEL, how much he loved comics, and what they can do in the right hands. The director made him personable in a way he just never was in the comics. The perfect soundtrack, the top-notch acting, and the peculiar irresistible tension between real Harvey before the camera vs. his actor counterpart. SO. FREAKIN’ GOOD. 
3 Likes
I think Harvey was probably on the autism spectrum (as I am), and making rapport with strangers can be a very difficult thing. He thought he had some interesting stories to tell people, and he was right. His book about his fight against cancer gets more personal, but that might be because his wife co-wrote it. He also loved to write informational comic strips about music and other stuff he loved. His graphic novel about the Beats is a great read.
4 Likes
There are times when detachment is good. Not The Israel My Parents Promised Me is served well by it. Sometimes when a subject is that emotional to so many different people, the best thing to do is step back somewhat. (I highly doubt that could work well in film form, either.)
Oddly enough, I met him and Brabner at a Comic Con many years ago, and in person he was a real sweetheart. In fact, he seemed to handle that environment better than some of the other creators.
Weirdly, the only Pekar OR Crumb comics I own are the ones where they work together. I don’t enjoy either of them half so much in other settings. (Flying in the face here of the idea that only comics with the artist as auteur could really qualify as Art. I think that’s nonsense.)
1 Like
That part of the movie is brilliant and almost shocking in how effective it is. Breaking the Fourth Wall usually alienates the audience from the story, and here you find yourself even more endeared to the subjects and the performers.
Agreed.
2 Likes
By the way, when the movie came out, I was working as a civil servant myself. Kind of like Pekar. One of the killer dino flicks was also coming out a week after that and I’d already seen A.S. the week before. Now it was Friday afternoon. I heard co-workers all around me talking about the dinos, and I couldn’t resist standing up in my cube. One of them had the movie listings in his hand and I pointed at it and burst out something like, “Who gives a f*ck about another damn dinosaur! Go see this other thing! It’s about US! OUR PEOPLE!” Of course they all looked at me like I’d lost my damn mind. 
4 Likes
Maybe they would have preferred…
2 Likes
There’s a reason I left that field, even though the money was really good and it’s unlikely I’ll ever do that well again. 
3 Likes
I guess they weren’t really “our people”.
Of course, now I’m wondering what Dinosaur movie it was…2003…uh…Dinocroc? I mean, I can sorta understand wanting to see Dinocroc…
2 Likes