Film was better than the book...

[Reno]

Agree with first two, but read the third recently and disagree heartily.

I read the book several times as a kid, but was disappointed when the film came out. It left out many of my favourite gags and compared to what I imagined, the film looked a bit cheap. On the plus side I thought it was very well cast. Often it's what you come across first, the film or the book.

 

[Cid]

Trainspotting definitely... There are a few films which work as well as the books, just kind of taking a different side of them. Stanley Kubrick's good at that - 2001 is an excellent example, and a clockwork orange does it to an extent as well. Also iirc the film of the Shining is better than the book, but I haven't read it since I was a kid and don't remember it thta well.

 

[chazegee]

I did like the film too.

Just bought it on VHS from a closing down shop.

Very odd, film, it was hard to shove that much information in 3 hours though.

 

[Hi-ASL]

Another vote for Trainspotting in ye olde paper format.

 

[Orang Utan]

I read the book several times as a kid, but was disappointed when the film came out. It left out many of my favourite gags and compared to what I imagined, the film looked a bit cheap. On the plus side I thought it was very well cast. Often it's what you come across first, the film or the book.

but weren't you saying that the film was better than the book? I don't think so, though they are both fine pieces of work in their own way.

 

[Reno]

but weren't you saying that the film was better than the book? I don't think so, though they are both fine pieces of work in their own way.

I had a brain drain while concentrating on something at work. Not sure how I turned that one around, but yes, I prefer the book of The Princess Bride unlike with the other titles I mentioned. I'll better shut up now....

 

[8ball]

I've heard Fight Club the film is better then the book - though I've only seen the film, which is one of my all-time faves.

 

[Gromit]

Some nerds will kill me for this but although I like Phillip K Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" the film "Blade Runner" does it so much better.

 

[8ball]

Some nerds will kill me for this but although I like Phillip K Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" the film "Blade Runner" does it so much better.

Will stick head above parapet to agree there.
Though there seem to be a lot of Blade Runner haters around these parts.

 

[quimcunx]

Apocalypse Now is better than Heart of Darkness

But then I thought Trainspotting book was better than the film.

Depends whether you read and then see or see and then read.

The only time I've seen a film then read the book was also the only time I've enjoyed a film more than a book. Dracula, the one with Gary Oldman. the book is rubbish. How it managed to inspire a whole raft of films I'll never know.

 

[treefrog]

Some nerds will kill me for this but although I like Phillip K Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" the film "Blade Runner" does it so much better.

with you on this one...

 

[Gromit]

The only time I've seen a film then read the book was also the only time I've enjoyed a film more than a book. Dracula, the one with Gary Oldman. the book is rubbish. How it managed to inspire a whole raft of films I'll never know.

It was written in 1897 and many of the idea were completely orginal and dead scary to the people of that time.

It didn't just inspire dracula films but the entire genre of horror to some extent. Allthough I credit H P Lovecraft more with solidifying the genre.

 

[Chorlton]

I said something similar last night when we were watching it, but I wouldn't go anywhere near that far. It's very rare for me to see a film of a book I've already read and not be intensely irritated by it. Trainspotting is one of the exceptions, but I'm not sure it's possible for a film to be better than a top notch book. A normal length film has much less space to tell a story than a novel so it's only ever going to be enough to recount the plot adequately but with a lot of detail missing.

i endorse and agree wholeheartedly with this sentiment

 

[Calva dosser]

'Germinal'- not better but just incredibly faithful and yet accessible.

Honestly can't think of a film that is 'better' than a source book. But then even some execrable 'novelisations' are better than the film.

At least the novelisation of 'Alien' explaned why our heroine suddenly decided to go fluffy over a particularly disagreeable tomcat.