Best and Worst of Books Made Into Movies

Books are constantly being made into movies. What are some of your favorite book-to-movie adaptations? Least favorite? Any books you'd love to see on the big screen? Go ahead and count TV shows like Outlander or The Handmaid's Tale too.

I thought Gone with the Wind stayed very true to the book. Even though it's about a year long, it's wonderful. I get a lot of flack for this one, but I loved the first Harry Potter movie. I thought it stayed super true to the books and captured magic and childhood wonder perfectly (even if some of the child stars were a little slack at the time). Normally, I could think of a bunch of movies based on books that I'm not a fan of, but now that I've put myself on the spot I've only got one: The Golden Compass. It just didn't live up to the book at all.

 

The Princess Bride is one of my all-time favorite movies. I had the vague idea that it was a book first, but I didn't read it until many years later. If I remember correctly, the movie was pretty in line with the book, but Goldman was on set so that's one to make sure.

A fair number of the YA adaptations were duds, though I think that's more on studios trying to churn them out. The City of Bones movie was awful. I think I only made it about 30 minutes into it.

 

The Princess Bride is golden! I didn't know it was based on a book when I first saw it. It was a very nice surprise to find that out later on.

Same, Jordan! I don't even know if I made it thirty minutes in. The Other Boleyn Girl also did an atrocious job of putting the book onto the screen. It was so bad. I have a feeling the new Lord of the Flies movie is going to be terrible too. I like that people are trying to put a feminist spin on movies, but really...it just isn't the same story with all females.

 

Obligatory "Lost in Adaptation" link here: Lost in Adaptation
What makes a great books doesn't always make a great film though. The Princess Bride book and film are really different in the details, but they are both great. The Godfather film cut the weaker parts of the book and one subplot got dropped completely.

Terry Pratchett's TV films were pretty good, but I hated the Going Postal one. They softened Adora Belle Dearheart and made her completely ineffective. In the book she chooses Moist's plan instead of hers to save something of her father's work. In the film, her plan fails utterly and she's forced to. She just looks like a nasty ineffectual bitchy person instead of a cold calculating planning type. Admin, I want a head exploding smiley! NOW!

Please...?

 

There was so much controversy surrounding The Golden Compass when it came out. Phillip Pullman is a professed atheist and the book was supposed to have overtones of that concept without involving divine intervention. I totally loved the whole Golden Compass series and I enjoyed the movie as well.

 

To Kill a Mockingbird - It's an incredible book and the film with Gregory Peck is all time classic. If anyone wants to see how to take a great book, adapt it to film and make it just as strong, this is a must see example.

Lord of the Rings was an adaption that went from good to silly - but was overall ok,

The Hobbit was one that went from bad to worse to why am I watching this . A wonderful book totally ruined.

 

Jessica, I will have to check out that video. Thanks for sharing! I've never seen any Terry Pratchett films. Now I feel like I'm missing out.

Donna, I think the controversy set my expectations high. I was expecting to see something more hard-hitting I guess. That's an unfair way to judge it, so maybe I should give it another watch.

Terry, Totally agree with all of your opinions! I did enjoy LOTR overall, but they really didn't do The Hobbit justice.