From Novels to Film

Most people already agree that books are far better than films. I believe that this is so because in books there is more time to squeeze in every single idea and nuance that the writer may have in mind. Books are simply a better vehicle for the translation of the writer's ideas because they are not time limited to approximately two and a half hours.

It seems that the vast majority of films that are based on books often do a horrible injustice to the original source. But, sometimes that isn't the case. In some instances there are those book based films that actually turn out to be pretty good and they are a proud representation of their original source. Here are just a few:

Legends of The Fall was a novella that was released in 1979. It was penned by Jim Harrison and it was successfully turned into an epic, sweepingly beautiful film about the lives of a family of men living in the remote Montana wilderness. The film version starred Anthony Hopkins, Brad Pitt, Aidan Quinn, and Julia Ormond.

Bram Stoker's Dracula is one of my all time favorite books and it was made into a hauntingly beautiful film starring Anthony Hopkins, Winona Ryder, Keanu Reeves, and Cary Elwes. I liked the fact that the story strikes a proper balance between the underlying love story and the horror story instead of only focusing on the monstrous part as do most films that are based on Stoker's Count Dracula.

John Grisham writes fictional legal dramas that have been turned into very well made films. A Time to Kill, The Firm, The Rainmaker, The Pelican Brief, and The Client have all been made into films. There are some variations from the novels, as is the case with all film adaptations, but the resulting films have all managed to relate thoroughly engrossing stories.

Stephen King whom we all know and love has had many of his brilliant novels turned into films. My favorite was a novella he wrote that was published in his 1982 anthology Different Seasons. The story was called Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption. I read this particular novella as a teenager and I can remember thinking "this would make a really great movie." Years later, The Shawshank Redemption (1994), which starred Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins, came to be. This collection of stories differed from most of his other works because it lacked the horror theme for which he is most famous. From this same anthology yet another engrossing Stephen King novella, The Body, was made into an exceptionally well made film: Stand by Me (1986) which starred River Phoenix and Will Wheaton. Misery, The Shining, Carrie and Dolores Claiborne were also Stephen King novels before they were turned into excellent films.

On the whole it seems true that most film versions of books do not live up to their expectations. That is why it is always surprising when a film version of a book is just as good, or nearly as good, as the book itself. You can see from the list above, sometimes it does actually happen.