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Have you ever read a book, then seen the movie...


Ceinwenn

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and liked the movie better?

 

I've had 2 that I liked the movie better than the book. They were:

Death Train by Alistair Mclean & the movie stared Patrick Stewart & Pierce Brosnan

The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy & staring Sean Connery in the movie

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Brokeback Mountain is one of my favourite movies of all time. I adore it, but the book left me feeling underwhelmed.

 

The book The Devil's Advocate is awful - some of the worst writing I have ever seen (and it is only my dogged refusal to give up on any book I start that stopped me giving up on this one). However, the movie with Al Pacino and Keanu Reeves is not at all bad.

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Ooh, tough question.

 

Perhaps The Shawshank Redemption (from Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption). I thought the story was excellent, but the movie is just brilliant.

 

Ooh Kylie, that's a good one - the movie was brilliant! Better than the book, imho

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Brokeback Mountain is one of my favourite movies of all time. I adore it, but the book left me feeling underwhelmed.

 

That's interesting! I read the book then saw the movie. In the book the story choked me so much that as soon as I finished the last page I immediately went back and read the whole story again. Mind you I love the film too.

Edited by Kell
fixed quote. ;)
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I read 'Atonement' before I saw the film and I thought the film was as good as the book.

 

'The Shawshank Redemption', I read 'Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption' bfore the seeing the movie and both of them are brilliant, both favourites of mines :blush:

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I've read books then seen the film, but books are always better because it is what you imagine not anyone else's portrayal and it is so descriptive. I can lose myself in a book but not a film. Usually a book has more to the story too.

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Oh that is so true about Sex and the City. The characters in the book are just horrible, and (fortunately) totally unrecognisable from the characters they became in the tv show. I know quite a few people who read the book because they were fans of the show - so far, I have not met anyone who actually liked the book.

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Oh that is so true about Sex and the City. The characters in the book are just horrible, and (fortunately) totally unrecognisable from the characters they became in the tv show. I know quite a few people who read the book because they were fans of the show - so far, I have not met anyone who actually liked the book.

 

I have never met a person who likes the book either :blush:

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I didn't mind the book. You have to remember that often when something is "based on a book" they only take a small part, and idea or theme or a character. So if you expect the book be about the four girls the series was, of course you are in for a bitter disappointment! After all, they changed the entire ending of Cat On A Hot Tin Roof for the movie!

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Da vinci code. The movie was at least over in an hour and a half.

 

LMAO!! That is one book I refuse to read! I just have this thing where I refuse to read a book that has been hyped like that to the point of everyone I know reading the book just because the think they might be missing out on something if the don't read it. I refuse to follow! I am not a sheep!

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At least you have a reasonable reason, Ceinwenn. I can't stand people who blatantly refuse to read something because it's bad. How would they know? They haven't even tried.

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I read 'Atonement' before I saw the film and I thought the film was as good as the book.

 

I thought the film was good too, but that the end result in the character of Briony was watered down in the movie.

In the movie they go out of their way to make it seem that she is taking full responsibility, while in the book she is still making up stories, writing a book with a happy end for Cecelia and Robbie when in truth there wasn't a happy end. And the story is to be published after her death, so few will ever know the real story until she is not able to answer for it.

 

 

I love "Anne of Green Gables" and the series, but I did find it a little long winded at times, while the movie, which I grew up on and could play back by memory, I believe, has few faults... Except for the third installment, which was absolute hypocrisy!

Edited by Kell
fixed quote code. ;)
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As for the actual topic... (I'm very low on caffeine, I have no filtering system.) ... I don't really compare the book and the movie that much. I can say I liked the book more (like with The Devil Wears Prada) or the movie more, or that the book/movie was good/bad. But in general I try to judge each as their own. They're telling me a story. A book tells it one way, the movie another. If possible I try to judge them as two different things, really.

 

Besides, there are always limitations to both ways of telling the story. With movies you have to cut away something that the book can spend time on, because of time limitations, or because you cannot explain things in such a detail, but on the other hand you can have the visual hints and the sounds, that the book has to spell out. It's quite different hearing the music in Jaws and reading "there was some excitement-inducing music playing on the background". They both have their benefits and drawbacks, so there's no way they can tell the same story the same way. And why should they? When you're making a movie from a book, you're interpreting. And when you're watching a movie, you're watching the interpretation of the director, and in turn interpreting his story. When you're reading a book, there's the writers story and your interpretation of that story. So they're bound to be different and you cannot expect the book and the movie based on it to have an equal impact on you simply because they're, let's face it, the different story.

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I think that's a good way of looking at it, ii. If more people did that, they wouldn't be so disappointed by the adaptations they see! I try to go easy on movies that have been made from books because I know I'd be disappointed otherwise.

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Thank you, Kylie. I'm rather proud of myself, I seem to have some reasonably good ideas very early (okay, it's 9am, but it's still early!) in the morning while having my first coffee... Weird, really. Maybe I should try school work at this early hour. Not.

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I tend to do things the other way round and watch the film first. Like ii says, time constraints mean that aspects are inevitably dropped from the book in movie adaptations, so that when I then go and read the book after seeing the film, there are still surprises to be had. :blush: This way I can enjoy both the film and the book as seperate things (unless one or the other just happens to be awful - LOL!).

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