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The best books do n’t always make the good movies . For all the overlap between the two , photographic film and literature are fundamentally different culture medium that must adopt different tactics to recite the same story in effect . In ecumenical , books use the written word to help reader see the thoughts and motive of their role , while movies must accomplish the same through visuals and duologue alone , or else risk bore audiences with expository narrative .
Oftentimes in adapting a book for the bounteous silver screen , theater director have no choice but to change the source material to suit the new medium . But some go further than others in this compliments , resulting in film adaptations that are almost totally divorced from their original author stuff in content , character , and report . In some case , change are made with ripe reason , while in others , they ’re just a path to lazily conform with audience expectations at the disbursal of the account . Whether for respectable or ominous , these are the movie adaptation almost unrecognizable from the books that inspire them .
A Clockwork Orange
For his film adaptation ofA Clockwork Orange , Stanley Kubrick remained relatively close to most of author Anthony Burgess ’s narrative of gang force and capital punishment in a dystopian future … but left out the original novel ’s final chapter – an omission that exchange everything , and in Burgess ’s view , making it " leisurely for readers of the playscript to misunderstand what it was about . "
In the book , our brainwashed friend Alex rediscovers his free will but becomes bored by the radical - violent gang activity that once amused him , implying he will mature into a more peaceful lifestyle .
But because Kubrick adapted the film from an American publication of the novel which left out the final chapter , the film ends with Alex stir up in his infirmary bottom and fantasizing about using his rediscovered free will to resume his sometime ways of rape and murder . So instead of ending on a note of buyback , the filmA Clockwork Orangeends with a statement on the setose nature of free will that many group have accused of glorifying furiousness over the years – much toBurgess ' chagrin .
The Shining
Another Stanley Kubrick adjustment that did n’t thrill the original book ’s author , the 1980 moving picture version ofThe Shiningwas released to fair reply , but has since become roughly as influential as the Stephen King novel that inspired it . Too defective it also neglects to explore many of the Scripture ’s most outstanding root . Jack ’s alcoholism and tedious descent into madness are mostly brushed away , as Jack Nicholson portrays a patriarch who seems quick to crack from his first minute onscreen .
The plastic film also pretermit some of the book ’s most memorable repugnance setpieces that might have appeared silly depicted onscreen , include tantrum wherein hedging , an lift , and a hosepipe come in to life . A specter called the Dogman is almost whole gone , replace by a guy cable in a bear suit visit for only a few s in one scene , manifestly performing unwritten sexuality . In the book , Jack dies in a furnace blowup rather than by freeze . at last , and perhaps most crucially , there was no " Here ’s Johnny ! " line of credit in the book – that was all Jack Nicholson .
Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
Both the live natural action - animate filmWho Framed Roger Rabbit?and the book on which it was based ( style insteadWho Censored Roger Rabbit ? ) are hump parodies of honest-to-god detective stories featuring a co - mingling cast of humans and ' cartoon – but the similarities just about end there . Gary Wolf ’s account book features many of the cinema ’s independent fictional character , but finds them follow a enigma all dissimilar from the film , one wherein the titular Roger Rabbit – just as annoying in the book , but nowhere near as entertaining – is murdered just after designate a case to heavily - boiled protagonist Eddie Valiant .
Judge Doom , Eddie Valiant ’s late brother , Marvin Acme , Benny the Cab , and every sketch maven visual aspect are all constituent added specifically for director Robert Zemeckis ' version . Also , toon in the Word of God bit principally in comic strips rather than invigorate shorts , and speak using genuine word bubbles , which actually come into play for the book ’s central enigma – which , again , tolerate almost no resemblance to the film ’s storyline .
How the Grinch Stole Christmas
How do you make a feature of speech - length film from a 64 - page illustrated tiddler ’s book ? In the case of the live - actionHow the Grinch Stole Christmas , director Ron Howardmanaged it by inventing a painful time of day - long prologue , filled with gratuitous backstory and Jim Carrey ’s most bouncing overacting to date , to take what the Good Book does in just one descent : " Every Who down in Who - ville liked Christmas a lot . . . but the Grinch , who lived just north of Who - ville , did not . " barely a presence in the book , the Who atomic number 16 are feature much more conspicuously in this version , but only to be depicted as a competitive , consumerist society off - putt in both appearance and demeanor .
Other attempt to conform Dr. Seuss ' beloved stories to feature article - length have come out similarly mangled – most notablyThe quat in the Hat , which is less a movie and more a collection of failed Mike Myers bit , andThe Lorax , which replaces the ledger ’s equivocal end with a happy one that handily cave the haunt subject matter of environmental responsibility .
Re-Animator
Director Stuart Gordon adapt a little - know H.P. Lovecraft novelette titledHerbert West – Reanimatorfor his feature film film debut , but opt to cast out most of the original ’s serialized plot . Gordon use the canonic context of use of Lovecraft ’s tarradiddle – mainly , its two primary characters and the concept of reanimation – to evidence his own gruesome level about the horrific consequences of cheat death with science . Most memorably , he did so using plenty of blood - spit special gist made using hard-nosed techniques he had picked up as a theater film director .
The celluloid rise the novel ’s storyteller into a in full - fledge character , lend a distaff lead , and keep only one of the original story ’s options , the university – probably a move to surmount down the write up to suit Gordon ’s $ 900,000budget . With the wide-cut scope of the book , Herbert West himself has a more unmistakable character discharge , while the movie depicts him as an ice - cold mad scientist from the get - go . The decisiveness jibes well withRe - Animator ’s overall note , which is both stomach - churning in its terror and gut - wear out in its cartoonish excess .
Short Cuts
Raymond Carver write spare short stories of lonely man and adult female live in the Pacific Northwest . Director Robert Altman reinterpreted his ample bibliography into a straggle three - hour film about the interconnect lives of men and women live in Los Angeles . Essentially , Altman was enliven by Carver ’s works to make one of his signature ensemble films , this time follow 22 freestanding characters through narration that only once in a while intersect .
ThoughShort Cutswas inspired by nine Carver storey and one poem , only two of the movie ’s many plot of land stick out any noticeable resemblance to his short level – one concerning a pair of grieving parents , and the other a fishing trip near deflower by the discovery of a idle physical structure . There are of course thematic law of similarity between the two , but Carver fans hoping to find at least a few of their favorite write up woven into the film are in for letdown .
Adaptation
When screenwriter Charlie Kaufman struggle with adapting the non - fiction bookThe Orchid Thieffor the screen , he pivot slightly to write a film about a screenwriter , also name Charlie Kaufman , shin to adjust the non - fiction bookThe Orchid Thieffor the filmdom . In the hand of director Spike Jonze , Adaptationis a fashionable journeying into the psyche of a author and through the pratfalls of his originative process , worsened by the formulaic expectations of modern Hollywood .
ButThe Orchid Thiefis in there somewhere , too . Meryl Streep plays the Bible ’s author Susan Orlean in a subplot that distil the book ’s news report as best it can – blossom forth only in Kaufman ’s judgment , at first . Orlean at firstrefusedto approve such a surreal spoof on her floor , but later said , " I love the movie now . What I admire the most is that it ’s very unfeigned to the book ’s idea of life and fixation , and there are also insights into things which are much more subtle in the book about longing , and about disappointment . "
The Lawnmower Man
Lawnmower Man Hobbit and Forrest Gump - movie adaptation completely different from the books.jpg
The Lawnmower Manis the laziest adaptation of them all because it ’s hardly even one , having been named after a Stephen King short narration with a alike subject thing just for the sake of broaden the flick ’s appeal . King ’s 1975 story about a lawn - mop , ritualistically - homicidal satyr hardly has enough plot for an entire film , but the film ’s author Brett Leonard and Gimel Everett were n’t writing about that when they penned a wholly separate screenplay titledCyber Godabout the mind - expand power of a newly - engineered form of virtual realness .
Cyber Godonly becameThe Lawnmower Manwhen New Line Cinema , realizing they held the rights to King ’s story , decided to comprise it all of one scene so they could subsequently advertise the picture show as Stephen King’sThe Lawnmower Man . King successfullysuedfor the usance of his name for a film with no meaningful similarities to his original account , which , accidentally , had been adapted more faithfully into a short moving-picture show five years earlier .
The Door in the Floor
John Irving write books that are hard to adapt – the poorly - paced filmThe World According to Garpbeing the choice object lesson . In general , his books are typically too sprawling in scope and tale construction to translate into pic without some serious trim . Irving knew that when he himself adaptedA Cider House Rules , but Tod Williams conduct an even more ultra glide slope in adaptingA Widow for One Year .
The Door in the Floorfaithfully retells only about a fourth part ofA Widow for One Year , narrowing the orbit to a single summer wherein a teenage intern engage in an affair with his employer ’s wife , who has become too engaged grieving her at rest Logos to incline to her remaining daughter . Though in the novel , all this serves as backstory for the grown - up daughter ’s life as an author , it make for an cozy and affecting tale on its own , thanks in part to leading carrying out from Jeff Bridges and Kim Basinger .
I Am Legend
I Am Legendwas actually the third adaptation of Richard Matheson ’s post - apocalyptic soft-cover classic , but only the first to utilize the novel ’s name for its retelling . properly from its carbon - written matter opening night scene , the Will Smith vehicle look like the 1971 versionThe Omega Manin its construction , reverse its opening scene almost wholly and turning the main character from a gamy - collar worker to a scientist with previous noesis of the zombie / vampire plague that destroyed fellowship .
This version does slight other than inject some unnecessary action and28 Days ulterior - style antagonists with the novel ’s cookie - cutter plot line of a last adult male on globe living out his days in the barren until a woman by chance shows up . The film make a larger departure from both the Good Book and the original screenplay in its third act , which finish with Smith ’s character sacrifice himself to keep a cure – a far cry from the alternate , drab ending , in which he realize that the lusus naturae he fear reckon him as a monster hunting them .
Who Framed Roger Rabbit Bob Hoskins
Who Framed Roger Rabbit Bob Hoskins
