Novels-to-Movies

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Hello aruLaracan,

I have read Animal Farm and enjoyed it thoroughly. But I would not dare see the movie version of it.

Ravi Sundaram, you say it perfectly. When you read a novel - especially something descriptive like Thomas Hardy or DH Lawrence, you seep in the story. You get really involved with the charachters, you think about them, you feel for them, you wonder about them and they become your good friends. I've even dreamed about a lot of charachters. And then you see them in the movie and it is such a let down.

First of all, they don't even look like your friends. Second, the movie is so short and you don't get to know them - very impersonal - like it is happening to somebody else. In the book it is all happening to you!

I do agree that the exceptions are science fictions and other "action" stories. John Grisham and the like.

[Oldposts]

Hello
In some situations movies come out better in portraying emotions.The background score,the sets contribute to the happiness or Pathos in the story.
The deep intensity of emotions affect us physically and psychologically when described in detail by a writer.

The narration helps us draw a picture in the mind which may look very disapointing once seen on the screen.

Both media are important in their own way in communicating to the reader or a celluloid lover of the message in Question.

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Has anyone read the book Pay it Forward? I think this is an excellent book, but for some reason I enjoyed the movie more than I did the book. Also, does anybody have any suggestions on books I should read that have been made into movies? Thank you.

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(1) the bridges of madison county!!! (i haven't seen the movie yet ).
(2) the exorcist. ( i have read only a part of the book tho' i have seen the movie twice).
(3) of mice and men - the movie was (surprisingly) well made.
(4) ...

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Gone with the Wind.

I could not move beyond 50 pages of the book. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie.

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Now I want to p*ss and moan and generally b*tch about making "The Lord of the Rings" into a movie. I mean, Sam Raimi already tried with animation and look where that went? Goo-goo eyed Hobbits freakish Elves. The only saving grace of that dismality was the song "where there's a whip, there's a way!" There's a novel that shouldn't be touched. The Dune movie was heinous as well!

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Thanga et al

I agree that film as an audiovisual medium
needs a different approach for presentation.
But,Gosh,how much (too much) liberty the
Directors take in distorting the original
writing !

Years back,I saw 'The Hound of Baskervilles',
the immortal Holmes classic shot as a film.
thescariest scene being just a poisonous
spider climbing on the hand of Sherlock Holmes!
To add insult to injury,even the criminal was
changed from the original!

And see what they have done to several versions
of 'Lost World',the Sci-Fi masterpiece of
Professor Challenger Stories ,probably the
source of inspiration for Crichton-Spielberg-
Dinosaur syndrome which shook the world at the
turn of the twentieth cetury.Read the original
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and you may feel he is
turning in his grave!

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Hi Ladies and Gentlemen,

Have you all forgotten the yester years Great Movies which are all from Novels by Alister MacLean?

ICE STATION ZEBRA
WHERE EAGLES DARE
GUNS OF NAVARONE
FORCE TEN FROM NAVARONE
BEAR ISLAND
CARAVAN TO VACCARES

What about Henry Sharriere's PAPPILLON (PATTAAM POOCHI NOVEL PUBLISHED IN KUMUDHAM)

wHAT ABOUT APPOLLO 13??

pLEASE SAY SOME THING..

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tshankar

I have seen many of the movies you have mentioned and enjoyed them. Alistair MacLean
revelled in sudden twists in the plot and they were well presented in the films.Remember the final scene in 'Where The Eagles Dare' ?

'Papillone'was noted for photographing the swamps
of Guyanas.

Farther down the memory lane,I remember 'The
Three Musketeers' of Alexandre Dumas ,the film
being even more exciting than the novel.The role
of swashbuckler D'Artagnan was played by Gene
Kelly,known till then only as a dancer in MGM films, but he did even better than Errol Flynn or
Douglas Fairbanks !

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How about John Grisham?