Have you ever liked a movie better than the book (or story) it was based on?

Also, here’s Ann Althouse’s take on the subject.

I enjoyed the movie Gone With the Wind more than reading book. An amazing accomplishment for its time!

While I have yet to read all of the Harry Potter books, I did start the first one and did not find it half as captivating as the movies, which are, in my opinion, spectacular. I know I will get a lot of shit for this.
Fight Club is one. Don’t get me wrong, I very much enjoyed the book. Just a matter of preference on my part, I guess.

I liked The Firm better as a movie.

I liked The Pelican Brief better as a book.

The Bourne Identity is a tough one because the movie & book only share names and a couple of plot points. In the end, I think the book better as I didn’t like the direction that the movie went in, both story & character development.

echoed, Rob. Also, it seems like Grisham and Crichton books are expected to be adapted into movies; still waiting for “Airframe.”

The Bridges of Madison County. Saw the movie first and loved it, so I read the book. What a piece of crap! Great story, but awful, overblown writing.

I think The Blackboard Jungle “works” better as a novel, than as a movie (and I know Glenn Ford’s son), because the book was more realistic, I believe.

In the book, Anne Dadier loses her baby to a miscarriage, but in the movie version, that doesn’t happen.

Take a good look at “To Kill A Mockingbird” the movie was great, the book so so.

@NVOld: I don’t know…I love them both.

Dirty Harry the movie was far superior to the book. That said, I am not sure if the movie was based on the book or if possibly the book was written after the movie was a success. I’ll have to check on that. In any case, Dirty Harry.

The only movie I like even as much as the book was Brokeback Mountain. Heath Ledger is so yummy in it.

I liked the movie ending of Nanny Diaries better than the book ending. The book ending felt incomplete and unsatisfactory.

I liked Stardust by Neil Gaiman better as a movie. The book was a little dry and drab compared to his others but the movie was beautify done.

For example, there is no way an American Gods movie would be better then that book. I couldn’t put it down.

I know this will probably offend some real fanboys out there, but I actually liked the Lord of the Rings movies better than the books.

The Godfather. I enjoyed the book, but it was too long, and the story was disjoint. Puzo was brilliant to break it up into two screenplays, taking the story of young Vito Corleone into the second film.

I really liked both the book and the movie Hi Fidelity. I think the movie was the best adaptation I’ve ever seen. I liked the small changes they made to have it work better for an American audience. It worked far better than a movie that stayed much more strictly to the book would have.

In the Name of the Father I liked the movie better. There are certain things in the book about crazy guys in prison that I’m glad I didn’t see in the movie.

I liked The Notebook better as a movie.

I almost always like the book better than the movie, but I liked Blade Runner better than “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?”

I still find it hard to believe that PK Dick, of all people, didn’t see (or didn’t choose to pursue) the angle of making Deckard a replicant:

- It would’ve been pretty much a signature PKD move to do so.

- It heightens and reinforces the emotional impact of the story, because you’re given a chance to develop some rapport with and sympathy for Deckard before it’s revealed that he’s a replicant – unlike the other replicants.

- It only makes sense. In a dystopia where they manufacture people for all of the cruddy and dangerous jobs, is anyone seriously going to consider sending a “real” person to hunt down escaped replicants, when they could just use another replicant to do it?

Plus the movie does away with the whole Mercerism thing, which I don’t think I ever really understood the point of.

Good call. The whole Mercerism thing seemed like it belonged in a different story to me. There wasn’t much point to it.

Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Ordinary People.

Forrest Gump

Great music, even better screenshots. Visually, the novel couldnt have been painted in a more scenic way.

Off the top of my head:

- The Neverending Story
– Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood
– the Masters of Horror episode “The Damned Thing”
– Brokeback Mountain
– Children of Men
– The Last King of Scotland
– the Lord of the Rings trilogy (love the stories, hate JRRT’s writing style)
– Deliverance (which I still hated but it was better than the book)

Not after I’ve read the story, no. But there are a lot of movies based on books and stories for which I choose not to read them first. I’m definitely a big movie fan here.