Comments on: Books and Movies

By: Fiona

Fiona — Sat, 26 Jun 2004 14:29:02 +0000

I say that if you greatly enjoyed a book, don’t see the film, as your own imagination is infinitely more powerful than a few sound effects.

By: Dean Esmay

Dean Esmay — Mon, 14 Jun 2004 11:45:46 +0000

I am generally of the philosophy that you should try to forget the book if you see the movie version, for the very reason you say: it so rarely measures up to what’s in your head.

And yet, and yet, when it seems to me that if the writers and director truly love the book, they can usually do it justice. Peter Jackson’s a good example and, in the area of light fantasy anyway, the best movies made from comic books have been by directors who clearly loved the comics (e.g. Spider-Man).

Someone who’s genuinely trying to bring an author’s work to the screen rather than trying to put their own spin on it will generally do the best job if you ask me. Although they tried hard and failed with Dune, at least they tried.

By: C.S. Froning

C.S. Froning — Wed, 09 Jun 2004 23:00:53 +0000

I’ll name a movie that I liked as well as the book, despite some changes to the characters and story: Coppola’s Dracula. It is marred by a truly awful performance by Keanu Reeves, though he is more than made up for by Tom Waits’ portrayal of the poor inmate, Renfield.

Anyway, the film drops the whole violation of a pure woman theme in favor of a love story between Dracula and Mina Murray, but I accepted that. The movie had great visuals and an over the top treatement, which is really the only way to deal with a vampire story.

By: Melanie

Melanie — Wed, 09 Jun 2004 16:56:38 +0000

Seeing as you are a book lover like myself, I wanted to tell you about a fantastic site. Check out http://www.bookcrossing.com. it is incredible. Let me know what you think of it. I just can’t seem to get into the Harry Potter books AT ALL. I must be the only human alive to say this. Melanie

By: kevin

kevin — Wed, 09 Jun 2004 00:03:28 +0000

Like you, I rarely enjoy movies if I’ve read the book. I really get into books and have a vivid imagination. The movies rarely live up to the images already in my mind. LOTR was a rare and wonderful exception.

I enjoyed the first two potter movies. They weren’t “as good” as the book, but enjoyable. I did not enjoy the third as much. Not that it was a bad movie. If you’ve never read the books and only knew the movies, it was a better movie than the others. It had to leave so much out, though, and so much of what was left out was what I really loved in the original story.