My mission was to list films that aren’t the obvious “go to” movies
in a “best book to film adaptation” compilation. I sought to put some
lesser recognized movies in the limelight.
Writers have a lot to overcome when it comes to adapting a novel,
comic book, historical text, play, or even a TV movie to the big screen.
What material should they remain faithful to? Where can they take
license to revamp the story? Is there any way to please everyone who
liked the original material in the first place?
That final question is the big one. If a story is deemed worthy to
cross over to film, there’s more than likely a huge readership – or at
the very least a cult following – of the original material, and no,
there’s no way to please an entire loyal fan base.
These 10 films have done it better than most, and in many cases, took
major creative license by changing a significant amount of the original
material to make the movie work. These films epitomize a rare feat in
book to film adaptions: the movie version was so good, audiences on the
whole didn’t bother about their loyalty to the original work. Simply
put, these films stand alone.
By the way, this was a really hard list to put together. My mission
was to list films that aren’t the obvious “go to” movies in a “best book
to film adaptation” compilation. Yes, there are some undeniable,
classic films on this list _ and others that could have made it – but I
sought to put some lesser recognized movies in the limelight to get
their due praise.
10. Stand by Me (1986)
Based on a Stephen King novella called The Body,
Rob Reiner’s dark ode to nostalgia and the love/hate camaraderie young
men form during adolescence still stands as a great film. Screenwriters
Raynold Gideon and Bruce A. Evans deserve a lot of credit, as they
capture King’s tendency toward morbid humor as four young teens embark
on a trek to find a dead body. Kiefer Sutherland deserves recognition
for his portrayal of the psychotic “older kid” (Ace Merrill), and the
film earns accolades for its potency in capturing the picturesque era of
the late ’50s.
9. JFK (1991)
Oliver Stone’s JFK
is the ultimate conspiracy theory movie because it includes every
conspiracy theory about the JFK assassination ever concocted. Stone and
Zachary Sklar’s adaptation of two dense historical texts (Jim Marrs’ Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy, and Jim Garrison’s On the Trail of the Assassins)
about a niched subject takes an impossible cluster of contradictory
ideas and presents them in a way that actually make sense. Yes, the film
is over three hours long, but it packs in all the permutations of the
JFK assassination theories into one movie, so it wasn’t ever going to be
short. Plus, if you weren’t already aware, this film offers definitive
proof that Gary Oldman was born to play creepy guys in his scene
stealing portrayal of Lee Harvey Oswald.
8. Sin City (2005)
A case where the original author penned the screenplay, Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez took four stories from Miller’s Sin City graphic novel series (That Yellow Bastard, The Hard Goodbye, The Customer Is Always Right, and The Big Fat Kill) and
used them as scripts. Almost all the dialogue in the film is word for
word from the graphic novels, just as it should be, as the Sin City graphic
novel series stands nearly perfect when it comes to niched genres. It
nails pulp to perfection, defines the noir genre just as well as
Chandler or Hammett, and adds a sprinkle of A Clockwork Orange ultraviolence
to add ironic (if not heavily criticized) humor to the material.
Rodriguez did right by having Miller write the screenplay (though, I
imagine Miller simply handing copies of the graphic novels to the cast
and crew), and then went a step further by providing a co-directing
credit for Miller. Rodriguez quit the Director’s Guild of America
to make this happen, but he knew where credit was due, and was willing
to suffer the consequences. More than anything, the graphic novel’s
visual adaptation is what makes this film so enthralling.
7. Fight Club (1999)
Chuck Palahniuk, the author of the novel Fight Club,
has gone on record stating that he thinks David Fincher’s film version
is superior to the original work. Now… either Palahniuk is the most
self-deprecating, no-ego novelist in history, or Fincher actually
exceeded the book with his faithful film adaptation. It’s probably a bit
of both, but Fincher can thank screenwriter Jim Uhls for this high
praise. With the exception of two revised plot points – how “Jack” meets
Tyler Durden, and the ending – Uhls remains completely faithful to the
anarchic, supremely dark comedy that’s at the heart of the novel. One of
the definitive films to wrap up the 20th century, Fight Club
can be said to have inspired millions of people to read the book. I love
imagining what Palahniuk’s thank you note to Fincher and Uhls may have
looked like.
6. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
The
powerhouse Walter Huston/Humphrey Bogart double cross, adventure,
western, heist movie based on the novel by B. Travern stands the test of
time and is a go-to movie of inspiration for some of the world’s best
filmmakers (Spielberg for Raiders of the Lost Ark and Paul Thomas Anderson for There Will Be Blood
to name two big ones). Director and actor John Huston directed the
movie and penned the screenplay, proving that vision and practical
production skills – combined with a great literary work – can add up to
spin an iconic film that redefines the original story, arguably giving
it more clout than it ever had before.
5. Midnight Cowboy (1969)
John
Schlesinger’s buddy movie between a naive, Cowboy culture
obsessed gigolo (Jon Voight as Joe Buck) and a gimpy, homeless con man
(Dustin Hoffman as Ratso Rizzo) is a classic. Waldo Salt’s adaptation of
the novel by James Leo Herlihy would set the tone for films in the
1970s – bleak, cynical, and critical of society. That said, Midnight Cowboy
is one of the most inspiring stories written for the screen: a tale
that defines the importance of the person-to-person bond in times of
total, unforgiving struggle. Salt’s version of Herlihy’s novel is beyond
daring, given the time period. Salt had a lot of pressure from the
studio to water it down, and even possibly make the Joe Buck role
friendly (a la Elvis Presley). But once Schlesinger came on board, there
was no way the studio could touch the script. When the film was
released, the Motion Picture Association of America didn’t know what to
do with it, so it was saddled with an “X” rating, but still went on to
win Best Picture, Best Director, and best Adapted Screenplay (it’s the
only X-rated film to win an Oscar in any category). The film rating was
changed to “R” in 1971.
4. 12 Angry Men (1957)
There’s a large group of film aficionados who are fanatical about 12 Angry Men,
Sydney Lumet’s film about a jury of 12 totally pissed off male jurors
who just can’t agree on the guilt or innocence of a young, supposed
murderer. For whatever reason it took me a long time to get around to
watching this one, in spite of its “classic” status, but the reasons
this movie earns so much attention were abundantly clear as I watched
it. The story takes place in one room, in real time, and it never gets
boring. In fact it gets more interesting as it goes. A rare film on this
list not adapted from a book, the script was adapted by Reginald Rose,
based on his own teleplay of the same title. One of the best elements of
this film are the characters – the jury is comprised of wholly
different personalities. Some jurors are assholes, some are congenial
guys, and some are just kind of invisibly there. But they all get angry
at some point or another. There’s a lot more to be said about this film,
but you should just see it for yourself, it deserves your full time and
attention. I’ve met film nerds who are just as obsessive and nuts about
this movie as they are about Star Wars. No joke.
3. All the President’s Men (1976)
In a year dominated by original screenplays (Network, Taxi Driver, Rocky, to name a few), Alan J. Pakula’s Watergate extravaganza was certainly the standout adaptation of the year. Much like JFK,
screenwriter William Goldman had to synthesize innumerable amounts of
conspiracy theories, but at least had a solid Bible to go by: the Washington Post‘s
sprawling, whistleblower account via the journalistic sleuthing by Carl
Bernstein and Bob Woodward that exposed Nixon’s deception to the
American people. The sheer importance of the story makes this movie a
must-see, though its relevance when it was originally released – just
two years after Nixon’s resignation – is hard to comprehend. This film
put a face on what had coaxed Nixon to leave office rather than stand
trial, and while the American public knew Woodward and Bernstein’s
names, Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford’s performances helped give some
satisfaction to what had actually transpired and who the men really
were. Goldman’s ability to weave an intricate, almost film noir, script
out of fact makes this film a solid, historical text for future
generations to study.
2. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
I had to throw a Kubrick film on this list (I bet you thought it was gonna be A Clockwork Orange!), and yes, this is the one I feel is most worthy to make the cut. Strangelove is based on the Cold War, nuclear age thriller novel Red Alert by
Peter George, and when the novel originally caught Kubrick’s attention,
he and George attempted to adapt it as a true thriller. Upon getting
further and further into the script, they found that (for whatever
reason) the subject matter would be far more interesting if approached
from the absurd, comedic end of the spectrum. Enter co-writer Terry
Southern, and the true Strangelove was born. This is
a rare example of what I mentioned in the preface: a film whose original
material was critically hailed to begin with, and even when totally
changed and reconceived, it maintained and even grew its audience. Dr. Strangelove is a masterwork, the satire film to define all others.
1. The Graduate (1967)
For
the record, when I compiled this list, I didn’t realize I
had three Dustin Hoffman films on here, but I wasn’t going to remove one
just to avoid that. The guy’s just that good, and so are all of these
films. Director Mike Nichols’ sophomore follow up to Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (another
adaptation, almost equally highly-regarded as this one) struck a
cultural chord with America that turned into a phenomenon. Calder
Willingham and Buck Henry’s adaptation definitely did wander outside of
the confines of Charles Webb’s novel, namely by adding more wit,
personality, and nuance to the script than included in the book. Not to
mention the casting choice of Hoffman for Ben Braddock, who was
described in the book as a blonde, boyish, tall, surfer chap. Obviously,
Hoffman was none of these things, but still won the part, and we still
all buy his performance. It definitely changed the inflection of the
overall story somewhat (as he wasn’t as conventionally attractive as the
book version of Ben), but again, this arguably added a more distinct
personality to the story.
Written by Michael Schilf for The Script Lab.