When films are adapted from books, more often than not, I tend to find the books a lot more enjoyable. So I have skipped watching a lot of films in the hope of reading the books later.
So what are some great films not adapted from books? Or what are some films that are significantly better than the book they were adapted from?
- Pulp Fiction
- Donnie Darko
- The Big Lebowski
- The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
- In Bruges
- The Matrix
- Monty Python and the Holy Grail
- Ocean’s Eleven
- Indiana Jones original trilogy
- Get Out
- Bladerunner (a book, apparently)
- Bladerunner 2049
- 28 Days Later
- American Beauty
- The Usual Suspects
- Gladiator
- Schindler’s List (also a book??)
- Saving Private Ryan
- There Will Be Blood (dammit, a book!)
Gonna get pedantic here:
Blade Runner is based on “Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep” by Philip K Dick.
There Will Be Blood is based on “Oil” by Sinclair Lewis.
Both were acclaimed in their own right before the film adaptations.Okey dokey then… carry on!
Completely fair!
Also Schindlers List was a book first
2001 Space Odyssey might be an interesting candidate here, just because of the way in which the book and film were more or less born together and diverged in their own separate ways, though the genesis of the whole thing was apparently in a short story by AC Clark that I know nothing about.
Fargo. Even the “true story” that it’s based on never happened.
I might say Spirited Away is a good example. I don’t know how many Ghibli films are based on books if at all, but that one in particular fits the bill.
On a similar vein, many western animated films are not based on a book. Examples that come into mind are The Incredibles and Toy Story (Pixar), Lilo and Stitch (Disney), On the Road to El Dorado (DreamWorks). I’m sure there’s more…
Memento. Technically was an unpublished short story rewriten for the screen.
Some Wes Anderson stuff: isle of Dogs, Grand Budapest Hotel (loose influence), Royal Taenbaums
M (1933)
Short Term 12
Shawshank is based on a short story too
Interrogation (1989)
Funny Gaes (1997 version!!!)
A lot of Powell and Pressbruger’s stuff… Red Shoes, Colonel Blimp
Coen bros stuff-Fargo (strongly recommend this), O Brother Where Art Thou (inspired by Homer, but a bit different from the book lol), Big Lebowski
Just a few to start you with. I basically pulled some fine examples across cinema history. I ignored a lot of great silent stuff, especially the comedy. If you reply to this one day, I’m sure I can follow up with more refs!
Great films not adapted from books - most of David Lynch’s work would count here: Mulholland Drive, Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, Lost Highway, Inland Empire, and Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (though that’s a prequel to the TV show, obviously)
Rambo - First Blood
BOOGIE NIGHTS. An original screenplay, although inspired by some real people and incidents.
Or what are some films that are significantly better than the book they were adapted
One of my favourite books, High Fidelity. I think I am in the age range and demo it was written for, so much rings true. When I heard there was a film coming out I was so excited, and then I read it was being moved from London and re-set in Chicago, and my heart sank.
Boy was I wrong. John Cusack was great, Todd Louiso was histerical, and it was Jack Black’s breakout performance. (I honestly am not sure he has been funnier since)
And the Chicago setting 100% worked, better than London would have
Hot Rod
Star Wars is interesting in that it’s a big franchise IP that isn’t an adaption of a book or comic
Yea, in the case of Star Wars, there’s a lot of borrowing from old ideas and mythological forms as well as the samurai and western genres that I’m not sure it entirely counts … it probably sits in its own little category of sort of fairy tale literature brought to film, which is an achievement in its own right.
Free Guy, just for being the first original IP in I don’t even know how long
Monuments Men is arguably way better than the book. The movie humanized the content and made it more approachable.
Edge of Tomorrow is based on a japanese book or Manga (I forgot which came first) called All You Need is Kill.
The manga was good, but the movie adaptation was just much much better. The mimics were designed differently and the plot differed enough to make a significant boost.
I’ve seen the movie and really liked it, I’ve also read the manga and liked it. I wouldn’t say there is a better one, but they are very different, both satisfactory in their own ways and the cultural differences really show in both formats.
V for Vendetta is a great movie and is better than the graphic novel.
I like both a lot, they’re both very much a product of the times, places, and people that created them.
The movie being very much a reaction to Bush-era US politics through the perspective of the Wachowskis, and the comic a reaction to Thatcherism through Alan Moore’s eyes
There are definitely parallels to be drawn between the two contexts, and the same overall story with some tweaks works well for both.
Being a millennial in the US, the movie definitely resonates with me a little more deeply, but my inner anarchist wishes they kept a little more of Moore’s vision intact, though V just giving a lecture on anarchy in the middle of the movie probably wouldn’t translate well to the silver screen.
