I’ve been doing this thing where I read book then watch the film, and I have been let down by the film every time.
I can’t name a film adapted from a book that was as good as the book. Do you know of any books that have been adapted and the film didn’t add/ remove characters or change major plot points?
by Unusual_Artichoke_73
22 Comments
It’s not a movie but the ‘95 bbc adaptation of Pride and Prejudice definitely does the book justice
Holes. It’s a YA novel/family movie, it’s done really well.
And I might be misremembering because it was many years ago, but I think Life of Pi was good?
I also think Lord of the Rings movies feel really true to the books.
No Country For Old Men
The Godfather.
Pretty much the only difference is the film removes a subplot which was disconnected from the main story and was a bit weird anyway. The book would be better without it.
I thought that the Hunger Games films did the books justice.
Also Lord of the Rings, but not The Hobbit
The Wages Of Fear. (1953)
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby is an amazing book actually told by a man with locked-in syndrome through his only means of communication – blinking his eyes. The movie directed by Julien Schnabel (I’m not a fan of his visual art, but he can really direct a movie) is one of the best movies I’ve seen and actually better than the book.
Station Eleven.I loved the book but I think the adaptation on HBO was even better!
I honestly like The English Patient movie better than the book. Also, there is no way I could ever watch a movie based on a John Irving book–there’s no way a movie could do justice to all those nuances.
The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks
I actually think the movie is better than the book!
Fight club, obviously!
The Martian.
The film is like an abridged version of the book but I thought it was pretty faithful. Loved it.
The Princess Bride
Jumanji is much better than the book.
No Country for Old Men
Cloud Atlas
Lord of the Rings original trilogy is a classic
The Princess Bride. The book and film feel quite different, but both are wonderful. The author of the book wrote the screenplay (and he was an accomplished screenwriter as well as an author), and it’s very interesting to compare them.
Muppet Christmas Carol! 😄
American Physco. Excellent book and movie.
The new Guillermo Del Toro Frankenstein didn’t follow the book plot point for plot point, but it was true to the spirit, tone, and themes. I really enjoyed it.
You’re asking two different questions.
Do you want suggestions for adaptations that do a book justice, or just adaptations that are as close as possible to slavish 1:1 page-to-screen translations?