The Movie Was Better

Usually, when a book is turned into a movie, folks proclaim that TheBookWasBetter. However, there are some exceptions; here are is a list of films that (according to WikiZens) are better than the printed works the movie was based one.

Note: This list should not include a) movies which were subsequently novelized (in other words, a novel was written based on the screenplay and the film is the original work), nor b) movies and books both derived from a third source. Why not? If a story is told in words, then translated to film, trying to remain faithful to the original, the movie most likely will lose something in the translation. The converse is also true; cinematography doesn't always translate well to print. I can't imagine how boring would be a book adaptation of Scrubs or Ally McBeal. I suspect the quality of each, literature and film, comes from how well the producers of each wield their crafts.

I think the point is that quality nearly always goes downhill when you translate a story from one medium to another, and the interest here is in exceptions.

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• ThePrincessBride: the author of the book, WilliamGoldman, also wrote the screenplay.
  • Disagree - the book is brilliant. Even the duel between the ManInBlack and Inigo is better in the book.

• BladeRunner: book DoAndroidsDreamOfElectricSheep by PhilDick; movie by RidleyScott?
  • disagree - the movie is fantastic, but the book touches on some key "Dickesque" subjects that the film glosses over.

• TheHuntForRedOctober?. The TomClancy book has some technical sections that really drag, but the movie is IMO one of the best technothrillers of all time, with a killer cast and some really excellent filmmaking. Not to mention some hilarious one-liners: "Give me a ping, Vasily. One ping only, please." "A Russian doesn't take a dump without a plan, son." etc.
  • My sense of humor must be away without leave -- what was funny about "one ping only"?

• DreamCatcher? by Steven King. The movie's faster pacing tightened up the story when the book wandered. However, the Hollywood ending should be drawn, quartered, shot, stabbed and burned.

• FightClub: strangely enough, the movie actually seemed to have a deeper exploration of the subject matter at hand.

• TheGreenMile?: The book was published in serial form, and I thought the pacing suffered from it.