...that sticks faithfully to the story, telling it as it is in the book/graphic novel without some Hollywood flower arse pulling a fast one and slipping a coil in the U-bend of film that then spoils it for the rest of us!!!!
(sorry just heard about V)
;-
Sin City?
Rosemary's baby apparently (according to Stephen King anyways)
The Green Mile
Yep, Sin City.
Steve
The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Of course, Blade Runner didn't stick to the source material (Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?) much, but in that case it was a blessing.
Judge Dredd.
[Puts on flame-retardent suit.]
Much as I love the RINGS films, even I can see that there is an AWFUL lot of Hollywood crap shoehorned into them. Fortunately, for me, the WOW bits outnumber the shield surfing, dwarf tossing, elephant killing bits.
Catch-22?
Without any fear of contradiction - "To Kill A Mockingbird"
Clockwork Orange. The only difference is they missed out the last chapter.
So they actually filmed less of the book and didnt add anything.
Damn you, Rac! I was going to say The Green Mle!
Same writer, same director:
The Shawshank Redemption
Mike
but in that case it was a blessing.
Biting my tongue for the most part (DADoES being one of my favourite books ever), at least hinting at the replicant underground subculture would've been a plus for the film and added more weight to the fact of them casually being retired by the Bladerunners.
Ah, poor choice of wording on my part. Whilst Blade Runner pays some homage to the source material, it is essentially a completely different story, in terms of most of the plot and certainly in terms of the style.
I think both are excellent, to be honest. I just don't know how filmable the book was (thus my "it was a blessing" comment).
Kramer vs Kramer ... wait, was it a book?
I think they should make a film version of The Stars, My Destination (if they haven't already). It'd make a cracking film ...
I think they should make a movie out of the fantasy epic that's in my head ,and I'm transcribing from my brain (well, more so than anything else I've writ- as I do know where it's going more or less-;) )
"The only difference is they missed out the last chapter"
Actually, Kubrik was working from the American version of the book and didn't realise that there was a last chapter.
Apparently, the American publishers didn't like the original ending (the one that gives the rest of the story its meaning) and decided to drop the last chapter, which sends out an entirely different overall message from the one which the author intended.
So it's not just films the Americans bastardise- it's books too.
;)
The Stars my Destination is a very fine book... however i remember describing it to JEB at Bristol and making it sound really shit.
LMS, someone in your business with all the loquacious lyricality* it entails must be able to do a better job than me
thinky
*anyone know where this 2k related quote comes from..?
I think you also spoilered it to the point of it being a gargantuan waste of my time to read...
...as well as making it sound a bit shit.
;)
"Actually, Kubrik was working from the American version of the book and didn't realise that there was a last chapter."
Yeah I knew that one. I still cant understand why the yanks would have missed the last chapter out a book though. As you say it changes the entire point. Why gawd Why?
Ok, ok I get the point there are lots of filums true to the book out there.
"Actually, Kubrik was working from the American version of the book and didn't realise that there was a last chapter."
That's true, in that Kubrick originally read it in the abreviated American edition, but by the time it came to film the thing, he was only more than aware that there was an additional endinging. Burgess apparently pleaeded with Kubrick to let him write the screenplay, but Kubrick refused, and decided he preferred the original Americanised ending, which meant that Burgess always despised the film.
As for sticking closely to the book - Gilliam's adaptation of Thompson's Fear & Loathing is pretty spot on the mark. There's lot's of stuff cut out, but it perfectly captures the spirit of the book, whilst also expanding on elements of it in certain places for those already in the know.
IIRC the 1984 version of, um, 1984 sticks very faithfully to the novel. But then, isn't it completely Hollywood-free?
Yeah, but it's not nearly as good as the Rudolph Cartier/Nigel Kneale BBC version (for which Peter Cushing won the Best Actor BAFTA for his role as Winston Smith).
judge dredd. wears a helmet rides a bike.
'judge dredd. wears a helmet rides a bike.'
Except he didn't wear a helmet! See! Hollywood can even screw up something that simple!
Byron --
Any idea if that's been released on DVD? The last I heard, it was still hovering in Beeb archive limbo somewhere, and in need of the same restoration/clean-up that was used on the recent Quatermass collection release...
american psycho. a bit more comedic and not as graphic as the novel (just as well or would have been to long and lost some of it's impact) and like the book still left you wondering what the hell patrick bateman was about and why it all turned out nice in the end.
he did wear a helmet in the beginning during the blockwar when hershy was pinned down with a rookie by her lawmaster.
Brave New World is on tonight
ITV m't2400hrs.Anyone read the book?
did anyone read the bladerunner books based on the film and supposedly carrying on from where the film left off?
The TV version of The Shining which Steven King made, partially because of his dislike of the Kubrick film which messes with the book is pretty crappy whereas the film is a masterpeice...
Also the book version of Starship Troopers is a dull pompous celebration of militarism and is pretty clsoe to being downright fascist. The film doesn't change that, as such, but definately mines in for comedey gold.
(And then of course they reshot it without the irony as the FOX/Sky footage of Gulf War II)
E.T.
I've read it, Carlsborg but i can't remember having seen a film of it. Might attempt to stay up and do so
"Any idea if that's been released on DVD? The last I heard, it was still hovering in Beeb archive limbo somewhere"
Still hovering I'm afraid (unless the BBC are keeping resotration plans extrememly quiet). Not helped by the fact that some episodes are apparently lost beyond repair (though as usual there are weird foreign bootlegs lying about the place).
Last time that I know of that it was screened was by the BFI at the NFT.
Yeah!Give it a go and voxpop tomorra if you understand what Im talking about,coz I bloody don't :)
James Herbert-the Fog-The Rats.
Fight Club is remarkably faithful, so I've got high hopes about Survivor if it ever gets out of pre-production hell.
Are they still trying to make that? I always thought it could only really work as a notional sequel to Fight Club...
Apt Pupil
"Brave New World is on tonight ITV m't2400hrs.Anyone read the book?"
Yes. The "film" is awful.
Faithful: Harry Potter, Silence Of The Lambs.
ADE
The Brave New World film was just...bizarre.
I came in over halfway through, with the Savage already being shown around the city, and for quite a long time I didn't tweak that it was meant to be BNW. It's the only piece of American sci-fi I can think of that approaches the rubbishness of British 70's sci-fi.
#Brave New World film
Well I watch it and think theyve updatedit to bring in the modern thinking of how utopian societies are in the future,(to make it more accessable)thus possibly disregarding Huxleys idea of the future entirely.
They of course were sticking to a tight buget and wasted it.tbh.On helicopter that Huxley didnt write about and lots of other video pulse shit too. If I was not comparing Id say it was an okay 'TV'film and at least they had the audacity to name it after the book they'd obviously ripped the source material from. 5 points for cheek!
"the book version of Starship Troopers is a...celebration of militarism"
On the other hand Heinlien may have been pointing out that citizenship and being able to vote is taken all too lightly in Western democracies as a given right.
The fact that in the past people did fight and die to earn or defend their citizenship and that it should be seen as a duty to be taken seriously might be the point of the book.
The man does go to some length in the book to point out that most of his future population don't give a monkeys about being able to vote - possibly a dig at apathy among a fair number of his contempories regarding politics.
Its probably a fair indication of the strength of his work that the jury is still out on what he was actually trying to say, but from what I've read of his stuff, he was certainly no right wing fascist nut.
Back on topic, book and movie versions of The Big Sleep are practically identical, right down to lines of dialogue.
"citizenship and being able to vote is taken all too lightly"
I dunno, if you take Heinlein's "only people who've been in the military (and people who casn buy their way in) can vote)" at face value as a serious suggestion it *excludes* people from voting, rather than encouraging more involvement.
Also the people who it would include would be the rich and people who volunteer to be in the military. Now, even given that theres are some OK and cool people in the military I really wouldn't want to have anything to do with the kind of society that would be created exclusively by people from that background - it'd turn into a fascist junta in no time.
Anyway, wasn't Heinlein some kind of bat-shit crazy libertarian tax-dodger type? That's pretty much the same as being a right-wing nut but with more dope smoking.
Also in the book the main purpose of the military pre-Bugs seems to be suppressing rebellions by poorly armed aliens on colony planets using flamethrowers and mini-nukes. Very honourable and dignified, I'm sure that all societies would be better off being led by people who crush the fuzzy-wuzzies for a living.
RE: Brave New World:
I fell asleep at the bit wth the helicopter. It didn't seem like i missed much :/
brave new world, the book is better and a short read, but the guy in the film, the savage, quotes thoreau before he falls to his death
thoreau was all about, well, some of us are different so kewl
films/books...well. what makes a good book may not make a good film, i think,and if you love the film you may read the book, what annoys me is when they pretend its exactly like the book
bram stokers dracula seemed cool, then i skimmed a copy of the book which had pics from the film on the cover and said 'arse, its different in main ways'
so, a film is a film
a book is a book
I wouldn't like to see a society run exclusively by ex-military types either.
What I took from Starship Troopers was that Heinlien was saying citizenship should be earned not given. Heinlien chose to show military service as the means of earning it. Now maybe he was saying that is the only way or maybe he was saying its one way among many.
If he was a libertine, then I would have thought he wouldn't be very keen on big military as that means big government and big taxes. On the other hand the dope may have confused his thinking a bit.
The tone and style of the book does come across as a bit strange now, but bear in mind to was written in Fifties Cold War America - a lot of stuff from that time now seems absurdly one-sided and naieve.
Of course I may have read the book in entirely the wrong light - my own thinking is a bit confused at times.
And, relating to the WotW modern setting debate, would Apocalpyse Now have been better if it was set in the Congo in the 19th century, as per Conrads book?
Bet you'd sniff haughtily at a remake of Fitzcarraldo if it involved some nutty new-age DJ wanting to hold a rave in the middle of the Amazon and having the locals haul his stage through the jungle on logs. (How long, Hollywood?)
For me, placing War Of The Worlds in modern America was like having Sherlock Holmes foiling Nazis. You can forgive it because it's still Holmes, but you want gaslit London and pea-soupers, not Herr Strudelkopf getting busted by G-Men in the lobby of the Hilton.
What about Harrison Ford trying to build a giant fridge in the amazon, so he can make Caiparinas?
"Many of the natives have never seen a Mojito before!"
As quixotic jungle adventures go, that's a bit rubbish.
the Crow the first one, ok they made a slight change in the location of the murder, but the rest is pretty much stuck to the story.
psm