Which movies you’ve seen most closely followed the book, in content and experience? I’ll save mine for later.
Which movies you’ve seen most closely followed the book, in content and experience?
I’ll save mine for later.
136 Answers
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Honestly not one adaptation comes to my mind …
I can think of two. One the author himself declared perfect. The other only had one section of dialogue that differed from the book.
@Peter which movies?
@Mathylde I’ll post those after people have a chance to answer themselves.
@Mathylde Posted below.
The Maltese Falcon and The Silence of the Lambs
Blackhawk Down
Lord of the Rings was fairly true to the book trilogy wasn’t it?
Mostly. If anything abbreviated.
Shutter Island
The adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. It starred Gregory Peck. This movie is riveting as, of course, is the book.
I’d forgotten that one. Three I can think of now that I’ve seen.
Misery….Stephen King
Hunger games
LOTR
The Silence of The Lambs
No Country for Old Men
The Road
Shutter Island
Life of Pi,
…to name a few.
I was just wondering YESTERDAY if Shutter Island had ever been a movie. Was it as good and creepy as the book?
Yes! I just read the book about a month ago and immediately bought the movie and saw it, like exactly after finishing the book. Very accurate adaptation. I would dare say the movie was even creepier.
@Kimberlee Starred Leonard DiCaprio
Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo play the Marshalls, and Ben Kingsley plays the Warden.
James and the giant peach
The Life of Pi was surprisingly good. The Harry Potter movies stay true to the books, even if they have to omit some content…
Harry Potter
The Princess Bride
Ooh! One of my favorites. Never read the book.
A lot of it is word for word with the movie, but still one of my absolute favorites! I highly recommend reading it!
I like the movie better than the book.
The Green Mile…. By Stephen King
The Help
Room by Emma donoghue. The book solely the perspective of Jack(the kid), the movies shows the 3rd person perspective (readers). Making it a brilliant different experience reading the book and watching the movie. It met my expectations. (*never had high expectation watching movies from books)
Rebecca
Holes
The green mile by Stephen king
The Hunger Games is my favorite adaptation.
they’re close to the books? I loved the movies and the books are on my TBR list
I think they’re very close. Some people disagree, but I think they did an exceptional job.
Gerald’s Game
I thought Fried Green tomatoes was darn close! Love her books
Interesting. I loved the movie. I thought it was a perfect film. Saw it at least three times in theatres.
When it came out I recall many in the gay community objecting to it. I guess they thought it downplayed the nature of the relationship of the story too much. Some people don’t appreciate incremental victories.
The Help
And, I don’t know if this counts because it’s not a movie but, Big, Little Lies.
Is it a TV adaptation? I’d count that.
@Peter yes. It was a series on HBO. It was fantastic!
A Time To Kill
Oliver twist
Which version? 😉
I don’t know those things. I just watch films
One of my favorites is Gettysburg, based on “The Killer Angels” by Michael Shaara. It only had one little part that differed from the book. My only complaint was that it wasn’t bloody enough, made the horror seem too glorious.
Silence of the Lambs was pretty close. Just a few things different really
@Sydney that’s what I was going to say ?
My other favorite is “Angela’s Ashes,” though it is so hard to watch I have only watched it once.
Frank McCort said he thought it the perfect adaptation of his book.
Even though the movies leave out a lot, The Harry Potter series is my favorite movie adaption
Misery Stephen King
Harry Potter …they did a good job
A Monster Calls
That was an evocative and emotional movie. Glad to know it captured the book. I don’t know if I’d be able to read it. Books grab so much deeper.
Not a movie but I thought season 1 of Game of Thrones was very close to the 1st book
Still have to read it. I lovevthe series, though I think it declined a bit when it got ahead of the books.
First thing I read by George R. R. Martin was “Nightflyers”, and it’s in my Top 10 short fiction, right in with Kipling’s “The Man Who Would Be King”.
The movie was crap. I hope the new series will do it justice.
I really liked the books, but they left the books way behind a long time ago. It’s like when Joffery lived longer than he should have and Cersei had a bigger part.
Totally agree that the books and series parted company quite early in but the 1st season I thought was spot on. Still loved both the book and series
The 1995 miniseries of Pride and Prejudice, the Winona Ryder version of Little Women. And I know not everyone agrees with me, but I thought they did a good job on The Hunger Games movies.
Me Before You it was perfect, they had to cut things out obviously but it really stuck to the novel.
Yes!
The Life of Pi
I’m gonna have to read the book I guess, as many people as are naming it. The movie is among my favorite ever. About as perfect as a movie gets.
House of Sand and Fog
“Trash” a Brazilian movie did it too close that I liked the movie better than the book.
Gone with the wind. Still major differences tho
That was kind of like putting 50 pounds of story in a two pound sack. I’ve often said all these men in the 50s to the 90s trying to write the great American novel, and Martha Mitchell already wrote it.
The first season of The Magicians is soooo accurate to the books. Then the second season just ruins it xD
Lord of the Rings
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Hunger Games
The first season of True Blood to the first book of the Sookie Stackhoise series
Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klaus
John Dies At The End
Silence of the Lambs
The Pelican Brief
The Secret life of bees
Zoo the worst was Bones on tv only thing the same was her name
Lonesome Dove
Yes! FYI—that book was so good, my ex and I read it out loud. Each chapter stands as a short story.
Okay—comments reminded me of a third favorite. “The Man Who Would Be King.”
Not a movie, but Poldark was pretty close (Season 1 and first book).
Current or original from the 70s, or both?
@Peter oooh…I haven’t seen the original! I’ll have to check that out. I was speaking of the current one.
I have dated myself. Masterpiece Theater usually follows the books pretty closely.
The Matchmakers Playbook is nearly identical!!! ?
Silence of the Lambs was pretty accurate. Also Jack Ketchum The Girl Next Door
Thornbirds and Shogun were good if I remember correctly. It’s been a while.
Both Richard Chamberlain—mini-series king of the 1980s.
Broke a million women’s hearts when he came out.
Never saw Thorn Birds—Shogun was great, for TV of the day. Time to remake it in HBO mode.
Both books were good. I read all of James Clavell’s books.
I read Shogun. I want to read the rest in order. If you’ve ever read the classic Japanese epic Musashi It picks up historically about the point Shogun ends.
The next book Clavell’s wrote was Tai Pan.
The movie, Gone Girl, was almost as thrilling as the book.
The Perks of Being A Wallflower ❤️
The Martian was fairly accurate to the book
Loved the movie. I’ve had my head in so much nonfiction related to studies and research that I have not been able to read all the novels I’d like, and missed that one. Another for the list.
Hubby and I were talking about there last night. I loved the book and we went to the movie as soon as it came out. I thought it did VERY well in representing the book with a fw minor changes. It can’t have been an easy movie to film but I thought Matt Damon did and awesome job.
The Green Mile by Stephen King
That one seems quite consistent.
I really thought a LOT of that experience was down to Tom Hanks and the other actors. They all did an excellent job (to include the mouse) in portraying King’s message in the book
I also enjoyed the 1994 TV mini-series for The Stand. It’s a huge (AWESOME) book so I was really happy that they took their time and did a really good job representing it on TV.
@Linda I also thought The Stand adapted well. I prefer the original 1980 version of the book, but I recommend people read both just to see how much changed in society in 10 years.
When The Stand was first on TV the Dan Quayle potato spelling incident was still fresh. I made a poster that said “M-O-O-N, that spells Quayle.”
@Peter : Good one!!!
I must admit this is the only movie that followed the book. None other can equal it and yes I believe the chosen cast contributed a lot.
The Harry Potter films, come real close to the books
The Last Unicorn. I know it was an animated film but it followed the book to a T and I loved it!
On The Road by Jack Kerouac!! Fairly close 🙂
Princess Bride.
Love that movie, never read the book
It is the script of the movie, with tiny little changes that are necessary. The movie folks were smart enough to realize that you don’t mess with genius!
TFIOS
Okay—I need that one spelled out.
The fault in our stars
@Sama Got It!
Cold Mountain
Did you know that’s an opera now, too?
No, did not! Wouldn’t that be interesting! Who wrote it?
@Ruth I don’t remember. I heard about it a couple of years ago on NPR, and it surprised me how well suited it was to the clips they played.
I just looked it up. It’s by Jennifer Higdon, premiered in 2015. I guess it could make a decent opera.
@Ruth A woman composer no less! That must bring a fresh perspective.
I’m not a HUGE opera fan but it is nevertheless, pretty neat.
Jane Austen’s Persuasion 1995
Stand by me
I grew up in a small New England town, and I felt like I was reading/watching something out of my own life. Minus the body.
Flipped, Fight Club, HP, Lotr
The Godfather and Catching Fire
Godfather! Thank you! And it took half of the second movie to tell the story. I really consider it one of the great 20th century novels, but I consider influence as important as literary style. Engaging reading even when you know the story.
@Peter agree! I’d watched the films twice when I picked up the book and it was still very absorbing.
From Russia With Love
Revolutionary Road.
Princess Bride was pretty close.
Fatherland was fairly close to the book. So was 1-3 of the Harry Potter books.
The English Patience.
The book thief
“Me before you” some small changes/things left out but overall a really beautiful movie adaption of the book. c
I think Robert Wise’s 1971 adaptation of Michael Crichton’s “The Andromeda Strain” was damn near perfect.