# Movies that did the book justice



## Mandy (Dec 27, 2009)

Following up on the 'What book do you want to see made into a movie?' thread, what movie(s) do you feel gave an accurate portrayal of the book?


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## BTackitt (Dec 15, 2008)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00241YHMU/ref=atv_feed_catalog?tag=imdb-amazonvideo-20

The curious case of Benjamin Button.


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## bordercollielady (Nov 21, 2008)

So many of them -  Gone With The Wind, To Kill a Mockingbird,  Silence of the Lambs...


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## mestrin (Aug 27, 2012)

Buffalo Soldiers.
I don't think the book is that well known, which is a shame. It's the only novel I've ever read that's written in the second person. That takes some getting used to, but not much. The movie stars Joaquin Phoenix and Ed Harris. It's an excellent and faithful adaptation, although the film does make some departures from the text.


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## Guest (Jul 24, 2013)

For me it's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, but there are more, but since here is around one in the morning and hot like hell, I'm a little bit slow.


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## Teri Hall (Feb 10, 2013)

I liked the film version of Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. http://www.foxsearchlight.com/neverletmego/


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## Tony Rabig (Oct 11, 2010)

Eye of the Needle
The Haunting (the one directed by Robert Wise)
The Andromeda Strain (ditto)
Misery
Stand by Me
The Dead Zone
A Green Journey
Cape Fear (the version that starred Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum, even though it softened the ending)
Magic

This is off the top of my head, so I'm sure I've forgotten others -- the books are better, but these adaptations aren't bad at all.


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## skribe (Jul 16, 2013)

The Hunt for Red October.  The book rambled whereas the film cut away the deadwood and gave us the essential story.


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## lmroth12 (Nov 15, 2012)

Gone With the Wind, Captains Courageous, To Sir With Love, The Age of Innocence, The House of Mirth, etc. It's the more recent ones that try to please the audience and lose the integrity of the book that fail miserably.


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## BoomerSoonerOKU (Nov 22, 2009)

M*A*S*H


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## Krista D. Ball (Mar 8, 2011)

Thorn Birds. Even with some bad acting and writing, the mini series was probably even better than the book. It captured everything.

It's too bad it can't ever be remade again, though. It could use an updating


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## Carrie Rubin (Nov 19, 2012)

I thought the 'Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' series was done well, both the Swedish and American versions (though I preferred the Swedish versions). There was so much packed in the books that I thought the screenwriters did well translating them to film.


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

I thought that both "Catch 22" and "Slaughterhouse Five" did good jobs with books that seemed possibly difficult to transfer to the screen.


Sent from my Galaxy S4 via Tapatalk 2


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## Adaman14 (Mar 20, 2013)

'Das Boot' director's cut.


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## Gabriel Morcan (Mar 19, 2013)

'Zorba the Greek'. I would say it's even better than the book.


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## yogini2 (Oct 27, 2008)

Shawshank Redemption


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## Steve Robinson (Aug 14, 2011)

'Lawless' from the historical novel 'The Wettest County in the World' by Matt Bondurant.
I've got to add The Lord of the Rings - director's cut editions - and The Hobbit.


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## danielpatrick (Jul 28, 2013)

I'd definitely second The Lord of the Rings trilogy. I re-read the first book recently, and the movie brought it to life! I thought the Apollo 13 movie did a good job of transferring the action too, although it's a good book so all they had to do was follow that.


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## RickRS (Dec 28, 2011)

Lonesome Dove miniseries use the time to cover everything in Larry McMurtry's almost 1000 page western.


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

I think the movie version of _Shutter Island_ compared very favorably with Dennis Lehane's book. As did the movie version of _The Legend of Hell House_, although one might attribute this to Richard Matheson having adapted his own novel for the screenplay.

I'd agree that the screen versions of _The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo_ Trilogy compared favorable with the novels. Arguably they were the better for having cut out a lot of the 'fat' in the novels. 

Mike


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## 1131 (Dec 18, 2008)

I thought Hunger Games built on the book by including scenes that could not be in the book. 
Schindler's list was also a pretty good.


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## elizmiles (Jul 29, 2013)

Jack and the Beanstalk = Jack the Giant Slayer
-so funny, why they twist it too much.. -


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## brianjanuary (Oct 18, 2011)

because I was just talking to someone about early Alistair MacLean, I think _The Guns of Navarone_ translated faithfully to the screen.


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

brianjanuary said:


> because I was just talking to someone about early Alistair MacLean, I think _The Guns of Navarone_ translated faithfully to the screen.


Yes, _The Guns of Navarone_ and also _Where Eagles Dare_ both were quite like the books.

Mike


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## bhazelgrove (Jul 16, 2013)

The Great Gatsby. I never would have thought it would as I have read the novel twenty five times but it was very good. The director interpreted Fitzgeralds metaphors on film and that was very interesting and worked to move the story.


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## laandersen (Jul 19, 2013)

Hansel and Gretel


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## Dina (May 24, 2013)

Gabriel Morcan said:


> 'Zorba the Greek'. I would say it's even better than the book.


Absolutely. Brilliant movie. Certain wisdoms of Zorba were missing from the movie but the movie definitely nails it. And every time that theme song is played, I dance. In the bloo, I guess.

I also thought The Road was brillinatly done.


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## Russell Brooks (Dec 23, 2010)

The Lord of The Rings Trilogy, The Hobbit, The Millenium Series (Both Swedish and American).


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## bhazelgrove (Jul 16, 2013)

I have to say The Great Gatsby. I did not like the Redford version but this latest one hit the mark. I was all set to hate it until I saw it was filmed metaphor. Fitzgeralds prose is difficult to catch but the director did a great job. Much to my surprise.


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## chrisbiggs (Jul 30, 2013)

These two books maybe too current, I'd like it.

Percy jackson 
The hobbit


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## amykmaddox (Jul 18, 2013)

To Kill a Mockingbird was a very faithful adaptation, and the casting was great.

I think the LOTR trilogy was done really well, except I do NOT like the changes in how Faramir handled Frodo and the ring. In general, I don't mind if a movie adds or deletes scenes or minor characters so long as it honors the integrity of the story and the characters. I felt like the movie fundamentally changed who Faramir was, and that really bothered me. Otherwise, they're some of my favorite movies!


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## O_o (Aug 6, 2013)

I'd say Lord of the Rings was done about as well as it could be. Silence of the Lambs is a great shout too. I preferred the movie version of The Shining, which is a bit of a rarity I think!


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## Ben Finn (Mar 4, 2013)

Hunt for Red October
Word War Z

To some extent the first book in the "Bourne" series.


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## L M May (Mar 14, 2013)

Ben Finn said:


> Hunt for Red October
> Word War Z
> 
> To some extent the first book in the "Bourne" series.


I didn't realize that this series started out as a book. Is it worth a read?


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## L M May (Mar 14, 2013)

yogini2 said:


> Shawshank Redemption


I absolutely loved both the novella and the movie. It is one of my favorite movies.


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## L M May (Mar 14, 2013)

Umm ... I actually checked out this thread because I have a question. My niece wants to watch The Host with me on Friday night on DVD. Has anyone seen it? Is it any good? Is it suitable for a 14 year old? My son is refusing to watch it with us because he hates all the hoopla around the Twilight series and he hated the first movie. Does it have any redeeming qualities that might interest an almost 16 year old teenage boy? I read the book years ago and enjoyed it. 

Thanks in advance for any help


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## rachelhamm (Aug 6, 2013)

I think Forest Gump was a better movie than a book.  I remember reading the book and hating the Forest character, but the movie made him very likeable.

I may get flack for this, but the first 2 Harry Potter movies were incredibly faithful to the books.  They left a few minor things out, but nothing important


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## Germanio (Jul 15, 2013)

I keep thinking of The Dumas Club vs. The Ninth Gate.  Polanski changed the story completely and it became more sexualized, you know, than the book was.  But, since I love Johnny Depp, I still liked both of them.  But they were two very different stories, completely.


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## Tony Richards (Jul 6, 2011)

'The Unbearable Lightness of Being' was terrific. But then, Milan Kundera was heavily involved with the script, reworking it several times at his own insistence.


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

Germanio said:


> I keep thinking of The Dumas Club vs. The Ninth Gate. Polanski changed the story completely and it became more sexualized, you know, than the book was. But, since I love Johnny Depp, I still liked both of them. But they were two very different stories, completely.


I read the book after I saw the movie, and liked them both very much. I watch the movie (or at least have it on and look once in a while) whenever it's on.

Mike


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## johnlmonk (Jul 24, 2013)

No Country for Old Men was, imho, perhaps the best book-to-movie ever.  I think they used only dialogue from the book, or it sure seemed that way.  They covered every scene, they did it well.  Highly recommended


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## Geoffrey (Jun 20, 2009)

I recently Read Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk and while they had to clean portions up for the movie, they did a pretty good job - I enjoyed both. They are both dark and weird in the best possible way. I'd be afraid of them making many of his other books into movies as they are so over the top- but if I hadn't seen the movie for this one, I'm not sure I could see how this one would have been pulled off successfully.

I was also surprised by The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure. The outer shell story in the movie completely different from the book (there is no Wonder Years being read to by Columbo) but the story itself is almost word for word accurate. While reading, I was watching the movie in my head listening to the characters doing their lines. It amazed me.

How's that for two very disparate tales?


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## johnlmonk (Jul 24, 2013)

Geoffrey said:


> I was also surprised by The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure.


I didn't know this was a book - I'll have to pick it up. Thanks for the tip.


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## Austin_Briggs (Aug 21, 2011)

I just watched Battle Royale -- and was thinking about the same question. While the plot was necessarily simplified (you can't really tell 42 stories within one movie, can you?), the film did capture the book's mood, I thought. That's despite some rather significant changes to a couple of key characters.


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## senserial (Jan 29, 2013)

A brilliant movie that I saw this year with two great actresses - Meryl Streep and Renée Zellweger - "One true thing": http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120776/

It is based on the novel by Anna Quindlen, which I haven't read.

Has anyone seen the movie or read the book to share an opinion?


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## Maverick (Nov 8, 2012)

Schindler's List. Steven Spielberg did a phenomenal job.

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## Guest (Sep 9, 2013)

Maverick said:


> Schindler's List. Steven Spielberg did a phenomenal job.
> 
> Sent from my KFTT using Tapatalk 2


Agreed.

For me Richard Lester's Three Musketeers/Four Musketeers came the closest to getting the book onscreen - it's certainly one of the few that continues after the Queen's diamonds are recovered and tells the rest of the story.


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## Greg McCabe (Sep 9, 2013)

I think Hellraiser did The Hellbound Heart justice. I've met a lot of people who love the Hellraiser movies and didn't even know it was based off an amazing book!


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## Daniel Harvell (Jun 21, 2013)

Shawshank Redemption, Misery and The Mist immediately come to mind. Actually thinking about it, I'm kind of amazed at the number of King's works that were translated well on the big screen.


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## Cappy (Sep 6, 2011)

I always thought the Merchant Ivory team did a good job on E. M. Forester -- "A Room with a View" and "Howard's End"


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## JamesDearling (Aug 15, 2013)

I thought the Fletch movies were pretty damn good. Vintage Chase.


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## ER Pierce (Jun 4, 2013)

Shawshank redemption. The Lord of the Rings, and the first three Harry Potter movies. Actually they did okay with the Goblet of Fire too. But after that.... Sighs.
I liked the Hunger Games.


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## RaeC (Aug 20, 2013)

_Fight Club_


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## Nicholas Andrews (Sep 8, 2011)

rachelhamm said:


> I may get flack for this, but the first 2 Harry Potter movies were incredibly faithful to the books. They left a few minor things out, but nothing important


The first movie was really good. It got me into the series. The second movie, while faithful, was awful in just about everything else. It was basically the first movie right down to the scene transitions, except this time the main characters were too old to pull off the hammy acting they did in the first movie. Best thing the movies ever did was get rid of Chris Columbus.



johnlmonk said:


> I didn't know this was a book - I'll have to pick it up. Thanks for the tip.


The book and screenplay were written by the same writer. Reading the book made me appreciate how things that are usually cut out of a movie can be creatively worked in. And after reading the book, I finally understood why the movie was framed with those seemingly non-sequitur grandfather/grandson scenes.


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## worldbeat99 (Sep 14, 2011)

I thought "Never Let Me Go" was more compelling as a movie than as a book.
For me, the book saw relentlessly somber. But the more touched me more.
I felt the hope and struggle of the characters more.

As opposed to McCarthy's "The Road."  That book moved me when I read it.
But the movie did not strike me as much.  It could be that some of the power of
the book was in the narrator's voice.

I'm an author of speculative fiction and a screenwriter is starting to adapt one of my novels.
I'm crossing my fingers!


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## JGR (May 11, 2013)

rachelhamm said:


> I think Forest Gump was a better movie than a book. I remember reading the book and hating the Forest character, but the movie made him very likeable.
> 
> I may get flack for this, but the first 2 Harry Potter movies were incredibly faithful to the books. They left a few minor things out, but nothing important


Agree on Forest Gump.

In some ways I felt the first two Harry Potter films were *too* faithful, in that they tried to cram too much in and ended up feeling rather rushed.

I was impressed by the Twilight movies. I read the books first and felt they did a really good job bringing them to life. Everything important was there, it didn't feel rushed and the casting was perfect.


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## MorganMK (Nov 16, 2012)

It's an old movie, and maybe little known but I loved The Ipcress File with a young Michael Caine as insolent cockney spy Harry Palmer. The movie is pretty faithful to the book while capturing the mood of it too - i love it when that happens. I've only read the first Twilight book but I far prefer the film version to the book, which I didn't especially enjoy. I didn't particularly warm to Bella in the book, but thought she was quite likeable on screen. And I second Hellraiser from Clive Barker's Hellbound Heart. Loved both book and movie, way back when.


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## Tony Rabig (Oct 11, 2010)

An enthusiastic second for _The Ipcress File_.
And a few more:
The Incredible Shrinking Man, script by Richard Matheson based on his novel
Burn, Witch, Burn, script by Matheson and Charles Beaumont from Fritz Leiber's novel _Conjure Wife_
Seconds, script by Lewis John Carlino from the novel by David Ely
The Intruder, script by Charles Beaumont based on his novel

Been too long since I read the novels, but it seemed to me that A Tale of Two Cities with Ronald Colman did a nice job on the Dickens classic, and The Razor's Edge with Tyrone Power (can't say about Bill Murray's take as I haven't seen it yet) ditto for Maugham's novel.


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## TWErvin2 (Aug 7, 2010)

RickRS said:


> Lonesome Dove miniseries use the time to cover everything in Larry McMurtry's almost 1000 page western.


This (Lonesome Dove) is the title I came to post for this topic, but RickRS beat me to it...so I'll echo his opinion.


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## hs (Feb 15, 2011)

The first two Hunger Games movies have done a pretty good job doing the books justice, in particular _Catching Fire_.
_The Lord of the Rings_ were also good, but don't even get me started on the _Hobbit_ movies.


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## AmishAuthorSicilyYoder (Jun 27, 2013)

Good evening, Mandy. I thought The Shunning did an excellent job of portraying the storyline and the characters.


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## paperzarun (Jun 30, 2013)

The Princess Bride - surely the best movie ever!

"My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die..."

My 6 year old happily recites that as he swings a foam sword at me.


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## belindaf (Jan 27, 2011)

Dennis Lehane's Gone Baby Gone was arguably a BETTER movie than a book.



A great read/watch if you haven't already seen it. The ending is one of those that stays with you long after.


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## SLGray (Dec 21, 2013)

hs said:


> The first two Hunger Games movies have done a pretty good job doing the books justice, in particular _Catching Fire_.


I thought _Catching Fire_ was much more smoothly translated to the screen than _The Hunger Games_, but they're pretty good. Does make me worry for the _Mockingjay_ pair, but I suppose we'll see how that goes soon enough.


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## JeanetteRaleigh (Jan 1, 2013)

The only movie that I thought completely outshone the book was The Thirteenth Warrior based on The Eaters of the Dead.  It's one of my favorite movies.  The book, although interesting, didn't quite bring the story to life the way the movie did.


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## Owen (Aug 24, 2011)

Someone might have said this already, but I always thought Silence of the Lambs captured the book really well. 

Shame about Hannibal though.


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## Laurel Cremant (Dec 10, 2013)

Perfume...The casting I feel was on point and the film adaptation did this pretty fantastical book justice.


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## Nicholas Benedict (Nov 18, 2013)

Catching Fire: I thought the first Hunger Games movie was terrible, but I think they did a pretty good job with Catching Fire.

Fight Club: I actually like the movie more than the book on this one.


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