The revived Atlas Shrugged thread got me thinking about the fact that in cases where a movie is based on a book, the book is almost always better. However, I have run into a few cases where the reverse is true:

1. Blackhawk Down-The movie gives up considerable detail in exchange for better dramatic pacing. The book is useful for students of military history (I consider myself one) and its resulting impact on foreign policy, strategy, and tactics, whereas the movie is more about two hours of heroic badassery (Can I say that here?).

2. We Were soldiers-Same thing, although in this case the level of detail in the book gets to the point of being downright boring at times. The author was a general officer, and I've noticed that books written by generals have a tendency to offer a cure for insomnia. Erwin Rommel wrote a book called Attacks that comes across as very dry and boring, but I think a film adaptation could be quite interesting.

3. 1408-Actually based on a short story rather than a book. Consequently the screenwriter took the time to add in quite a bit of story and character development that was absent from the original short story.

So, does anyone else have examples of movies that were better than the book?

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I'll be following this list. Sphere was much better in print then on film.

-J

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Movie was deeper than the book.

HAW !!!!!! ------------> :

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Pretty much every movie based on Stephen King's books and stories...

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Lord of the Rings. The books were just way to detailed and bogged down the story line. In movie form, awesome, A picture is indeed worth a thousand word description

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I'm going to have to disagree on LOTR, but with the qualification that I just got done watching the extended versions, which run around 3.5 hours each. They drag a wee bit in parts.

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Whoever said there's nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes never had a cheap Jaguar.

83 300D Turbo with manual conversion, early W126 vented front rotors and H4 headlights 400,xxx miles
08 Suzuki GSX-R600 M4 Slip-on 22,xxx miles
88 Jaguar XJS V12 94,xxx miles. Work in progress.

No Country for Old Men. Not the case with The Road.

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Movies were made for people who are too stupid to read the book. I cannot think of any movie that was as good as the book. I remember way back in 4th grade being disappointed by the movie Jaws after reading the book. There is just not enough time for character development and details in a movie.

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We were soldiers was written by Hal Moore and Joe Galloway, both who were there, Joe was a journalist. Neither was a General Officer, unless Hal got promoted.

Another book/story that turned out well was Fast Times at Ridgemont High

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Hal Moore retired at Lieutenant General. It even says so on the cover of the book.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hal_Moore

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Whoever said there's nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes never had a cheap Jaguar.

83 300D Turbo with manual conversion, early W126 vented front rotors and H4 headlights 400,xxx miles
08 Suzuki GSX-R600 M4 Slip-on 22,xxx miles
88 Jaguar XJS V12 94,xxx miles. Work in progress.

The movie was HIGHLY embellished. Hal never fired his weapon. The real pilot hero was barely mentioned, I think he died recently and might have won the Medal of Honor.

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IMO, the book "We Were Soldiers" was much better than the movie. Off hand, I can't think of a single movie that was better than its book.

I was trying to jog my memory of novels I'd read that have been made into movies, and I found a good, concise list at this site:

http://www.ocl.net/bookinfo/if/movies.shtml

'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' by Ken Kesey, of course, was an excellent film with Nicholson. The book very good also.

I read Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand before I saw the movie. The movie had some nice scenes but only OK. I couldn't put the book down.

'Far from the Madding Crowd' by Thomas Hardy was a pretty good film. Had Julie Christie, Terence Stamp, and Peter Finch. I saw it before I read the book and then I saw the film again. The book is good but I'm hard pressed to say it was better than the movie.

I got on a Hardy kick once, Tess of the d'Urbervilles was a pretty good film, the Roman Polanski version with Nastassja Kinski that is, about as good as the book.

I see the list in the link is way incomplete. Didn't have Madding Crowd, Zorba the G, Last Temptation, Les Mis, or the Hunchback of Notre Dame. It did remind me of a few though.

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