I saw the movie “Dune” back around 1986. I thought it was very good but was surprised how many people thought it was bad.
I got to noticing those who hated the movie had invariably read the book.
I hated Gatsby. The book bored me, and the movie was over-the-top.
By far the best literature to movie transition ever has to have been the short story “The Body” by Stephen King which translated onscreen to “Stand by Me”. Excellent literature, excellent movie both of which told the same coming of age story.
I enjoyed the book very much and I think the first movie version was true to the book. I haven’t seen the second movie version so I can’t comment on it.
We saw “The Giver” quite by accident. We both quite liked it. Among numerous question the move asked were freedom vs equality and it was as strong as Orwell or Bradbury. We were the oldest people there by 40 years. However, you could hear a pin drop, the audience was glued to the screen.
The Great Gadsby was an okay 20s 30s book but his potboiler Pat Hobby stories were more enjoyable. If depressing.
I watched the movie Great Gatsby until rap music came on.
It lasted 5 seconds.
Read the Forrest Gump book after having seen the movie. The book wasn’t nearly as good. Kind of stupid, in fact.
I haven’t read or seen the recent The Fault in Our Stars, but most teenagers I know preferred the book. The fact that they preferred reading was amazing in itself.
I read ‘The Giver” the year it came out, so it has been a long time ago and I don’t really remember a lot of details. It was a thought-provoking book; I remember that much.
The movie was very well done with great acting, and the theme of totally controlled non-biological families—a Marxist society, was good.
I will say the only two things that bothered me in the WHOLE film, was the picture (flashback) of Mandela-—the evil Communist—as if he were a Saint. AND the Vietnam War flashback-—their “picturing” of a “horrific war” scene was of Vietnam with a US soldier killing a young Vietnamese woman (of course)... It wasn’t of WWII and the US freeing countries in Europe or of WWII German atrosities, no, it was to denigrate OUR military, the most moral military in the history of wars. So typical of Leftists.
WORST movie adaptation EVER, “The Fountainhead”.
The more recent Atlas Shrugged trilogy is doing a good job but the cast changes and long production lags have weakened the impact.
Dune was a great book and a lousy movie.
Garp was ok as a movie but a far better read.
The only books I’ve read that did really well on film were the Clancy novels.
Even my kids know to read the book first! My son just asked me to read The Giver which moved him (as a teen) and disappointed him as a film. The Outsiders falls into this too. I wouldn’t know about much of the basis for recent Hollywood box office success but I would always seek out the book first.
Jaws.
Book was very good.
Movie was killer and better in nearly every way.
The genius there was understanding cinema is a completely different medium - and Benchley with Carl Gottlieb rewrote much of the book for the screeplay and trimmed much of the character fluff (such as Matt Hooper’s sex romp affair with Brody’s wife) to focus on the monster story.
The Wizard of Oz and Who Framed Roger Rabbit movies were both improvements over the books upon which they were based. Roger Rabbit was a *major* improvement.
Then you have “To Kill a Mockingbird,” which was an awful book turned into a steaming pile of PC tripe.
I thought the Giver was a hohum children’s book.
The film was much better.
Sometimes both the book and the movie are excellent. Wizard of Oz and Gone With The Wind are two good examples.
I have read that many consider “Great Expectations” to be the best novel ever. The 1950s era movie was really good. I saw one a few years ago which actually had little in common with the book and it was pretty bad.
After reading “Catch 22”, there was no way I would even attempt to watch the movie.
Don’t know if it is still around but I can’t see how they could adapt that book into a movie.....
MAYBE a TV series, spread out but too much was ‘going on’ to properly present it in a 2 hr movie...
Naturally, just my opinion.....