So I'm re-reading "Casino Royale," for the first time in what is probably 15-20 years, and I'm struck by how dumb James Bond is. Not just him, his whole team.
From the moment he arrives in Royale, he knows he's been made. Mathis tells him immediately. We also hear about how deadly SMERSH is, and get a list of other of their successful assassinations. M is involved, because this is a high profile case two secret services care about. We know Le Chiffre will die without the money, SMERSH will probably torture him to death. A serious threat of imminent murder is made towards Bond during the big game, we can ignore that if this were real life, this assassination plan is the DUMBEST PLAN EVER, in the book it's treated as serious business.
So Bond wins, and then just… Hangs out. Goes to the casino nightclub with Vesper. Has dinner. And then obviously gets immediately kidnapped. And he's all like "we miscalculated." No. Really?!?!?!?
My point is, Bond is dumb in the books, and he's not normally in the movies. Or not as dumb.
I don't think being dumb is the reason the movies are better than the Bond books, or not the sole reason, but what do you think some of the reasons some movies are just head and shoulders better than the books they're based on?
Other examples of books that just weren't as good include "Chocolat," for just sucking, "The Hunt for Red October," for not having Sean Connery in it, and "The Godfather," for having a surprisingly large amount of vaginoplasty.
Actually, I may have figured that last one out myself…
by Tweed_Kills
25 Comments
“10 Commandments” with Yul Brenner and Charleston Heston.
> “The Hunt for Red October,” for not having Sean Connery
Connery’s performance was horrible. Russian with a Scottish accent? No.
The Godfather.
While there are iconic moments in the book, it is shocking that the movie is as good as it is. Thankfully, the most infamous plot point of The Godfather was cut.
Should have read the whole post before making this comment.
I disagree with The Hunt for Red October – some of the nuance was lost.
Fight Club
Not a movie but I absolutely loved the TV show “The Magicians” and got halfway through the first book before I took it back to the library. TV show Quentin is annoying but kind of charming, book Quentin is an insufferable misogynist who cannot mention a female character without describing her boobs.
Children of Men. Fantastic movie, but the book is mid.
The Princess Bride
Forrest Gump the book goes off the rails. He goes on a space mission with an orangutan named Sue and is captured by cannibals. The movie is so much better than the world salad that is the novel.
* The Prestige
* No Country for Old Men
* The Price of Salt (or Carol)
* The Godfather
* The Silence of the Lambs
Life of Pi
The Lord of the Rings. Better pacing, more urgent, better tone.
I liked Cloud Atlas the movie more than Cloud Atlas the book.
Ben-Hur (1959). Even if it was a remake of a previous adaptation of Lew Wallace’s Ben-Hur: A Tale Of The Christ. It’s also an example of a movie adaptation of a book being more well known than the source material.
I loved the Bond books when I read them, kind of because it’s not a bunch of super spies. It’s just a bunch of people getting paid to spy. So they’re the kind of people who would sell information, often shitty people.
I can’t remember which book, but in one, Bond’s contact had a kidnapped girl chained up in his apartment, intending to marry her, iirc.
The Shawshank Redemption. The novella is quite good but the film made some adjustments that really improved it.
Doctor Sleep. The sequel to The Shining was just OK in novel form but holy hell was it an incredible film.
Sideways
And the author also wrote the screenplay.
This is, for me, the only movie that is better than the book.
As a side note, I have not watched a movie in over 15 years, so…
Ready Player One.
The movie edited the 80’s nostalgia navel gazing down by virtue of run time and the overall story was better for it.
The Notebook. I read the book after the movie and it was just… meh.
Cloud Atlas. The content itself wasn’t that different, so the sheer visual nature actually worked really well.
Children Of Men is one of my favorite movies of all time and the book is nothing like it besides the premise
Silver Linings Playbook
I found the book very self absorbed and monotonous and never really went anywhere – the film edited and found the story
Inspector Morse on TV is a loveable eccentric. Inspector Morse in the books is an insufferable intellectual snob.
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The original *Blade Runner* is better then the book *Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.*
A TV series but The Man in the High Castle.