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Discussion » Questions » Books and Literature » Do you find it difficult to avoid comparing a movie-adaptation of a book you've read to the book?
WelbyQuentin

Do you find it difficult to avoid comparing a movie-adaptation of a book you've read to the book?

Another answerMugger recommended a book called "Beach Music." If a movie were ever made of it, I know I would compare the he** out of the movie to the superlative book.

I, for years, did the same thing to Kubrick's "The Shining." Whenever I stop comparing it to the book, I can see it is a great film. (But the made-for-TV mini-series of "The Shining" is, to me, a better film and more faithful to the novel. Woops! There I go again!)


        Image result for beach music novelImage result for novel The Shining

Posted - May 6, 2018
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Responses


  • 22891
    sometimes
      May 6, 2018 4:17 PM MDT
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  • 22917
    It happens a lot to me.
    :)
      May 6, 2018 6:44 PM MDT
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  • 5835
    A good book almost always makes a lousy movie, and a good movie almost always makes a lousy book. One tells a story with words, the other tells it with pictures.

    Consider the opening line of "The Metamorphosis" by Franz Kafka: "When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from unsettling dreams, he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin." How would you ever present that information with pictures?
      May 6, 2018 6:33 PM MDT
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  • 22917
    And Kafka is one of my very favorite authors!
    Yes!
    :)

    There are cases where I've liked both the book and the movie.
    :)
      May 6, 2018 6:45 PM MDT
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  • 10049
    I don't think I could even watch Beach Music if it were ever made into a film! 

    Okay, I'd watch it. I might even see it at the theater! 

    I always compare and the film version never quite measures up. Better off seeing the movie first, I think. 
      May 6, 2018 7:56 PM MDT
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  • 22917
    And then I sometimes get quasi-bored reading the book after the movie because I have such a good idea of where the book is going. But I've enjoyed books after the movie, too.
      May 7, 2018 8:41 AM MDT
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  • 19942
    I rarely like the movie made from a book I truly enjoy.  I imagine the characters in my mind's eye and they rarely sync with Central Casting's choices.  For example, in the book "Exodus" by Leon Uris, I would not have imagined Paul New man as Ari, a character larger than life, nor would I have chosen Eva Marie Saint, who is so bland as to not even be noteworthy. 

    The one movie I can recall was beyond faithful to the book was "Rosemary's Baby."  I was astonished at how they created the illusions in the movie that were so vivid in the book. 
      May 6, 2018 8:53 PM MDT
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  • 17404
    I agree about Rosemary's Baby.  I so loved the Levin books.  
      May 7, 2018 6:25 AM MDT
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  • 10049
    He was a master at thrillers! I might need to reread everything he wrote. 
      May 7, 2018 7:06 AM MDT
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  • 22917
    He's good, you're right!
      May 7, 2018 8:43 AM MDT
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  • 22917
    I agree, too, about "Rosemary's Baby."
      May 7, 2018 8:42 AM MDT
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  • 19942

     

    That may have been he only book of his I read.

      May 7, 2018 10:52 AM MDT
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  • 22917
    I liked "The Stepford Wives," too.
    :)

    And "The Boys from Brazil."
      May 7, 2018 2:33 PM MDT
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  • 19942
    I didn't read either of those books or see either movie.
      May 8, 2018 11:00 AM MDT
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  • 22917
    I liked the "Wives" movie better than the "Boys" movie but I enjoyed both. And the "Boys" has a great music score by Jerry Goldsmith.
    :)
      May 8, 2018 6:35 PM MDT
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  • 22917
    Oh, and I did like both the novel and movie of "To Kill a Mockingbird."
    :)
      May 7, 2018 2:45 PM MDT
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  • 5835
    To mock a killing bird:

      May 7, 2018 4:28 PM MDT
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  • 22917
    I like that.
    :)
      May 7, 2018 6:48 PM MDT
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  • 19942
    Saw that movie, didn't read the book.
      May 8, 2018 11:00 AM MDT
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  • 22917
    To me, it's really good
    :)
      May 8, 2018 11:31 AM MDT
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  • 17404
    No, I find it impossible.  ;)
      May 7, 2018 6:28 AM MDT
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  • 22917
    I think I might be at that point, too, ha!
    :)

    That's what the book cover looks like on the "Beach Music" book I have.
      May 7, 2018 8:46 AM MDT
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  • 5835
      May 7, 2018 10:39 PM MDT
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  • 22917
    You've found a good collection of play-on-words for that book.
    :)
      May 8, 2018 11:32 AM MDT
    0