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It's crazy how much the movie has overshadowed the book, to the point where I bet most people aren't even aware of the book even if they've seen the film. The W
by boomboomsubban 5y ago
It's crazy how much the movie has overshadowed the book, to the point where I bet most people aren't even aware of the book even if they've seen the film. The Wikipedia page is a great example. How many adaptations get the URL with no addendum, while the original novel gets _(novel)?
- smackeyacky 5y agoI don't know if you've read it, but if you haven't it's a pretty odd choice to make a movie out of. It's closer to pulp than it is literature. Not that there is anything wrong with that, you can't live on michelin star restaurants and can get by with the occasional big mac combo meal, but given how feted the movie became, the novel is somewhat underwhelming.
- gumby 5y agoIt’s unambiguously a pot boiler, intended as a beach read. In fact I encountered the paperback, a couple of years after it was issued, at someone’s beach house on a shelf full of potboilers (Michener, Susann, etc). 11 year old me was scandalized by the sex scene in the first chapter.
- cm2012 5y agoI'm not sure I'd agree it's that pulpy. The cultural and family dynamics in the book are interesting to explore.
- jeffnv 5y agoThe movie is a Coppola masterpiece. The book feels much more like a Quentin Tarantino. Definitely a fun read.
- wyldfire 5y agoI haven't read "The Godfather" but the films are truly fantastic. That said there are several other examples of adaptations that outshine the original - "Shawshank Redemption", "Bladerunner", etc. Among recent productions there's many readers who say "Station Eleven" was better than the source material.
- firebones 5y agoNaw, King's novella "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption" was totally solid in its own right before the movie. Same with "The Body" and its earlier subsequent "Stand By Me". Both of those from "Different Seasons".
- skeeter2020 5y agoBladerunner is a good example. I found the book unreadble (both dated and just plain not very good) but the movie stands up today.
- dmitriid 5y agoI made the mistake of reading Interview with a Vampire. Yuck. How they managed to make a great movie out of that is beyond me.
- d4rkp4ttern 5y agoInteresting how different opinions can be. I loved "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep", as well as the Bladerunner movie!
- jwilk 5y agoOther examples of adaptions with suffix-less Wikipedia articles: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forrest_Gump https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forrest_Gump https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fight_Club https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fight_Club
- boomboomsubban 5y agoThe poor Forrest Gump novel doesn't even get a nod before the article. You need to go to the disambiguation for it.
- msla 5y agoI've read the Forrest Gump novel, and that's about what it rates.
- thaumasiotes 5y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrek https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrek
- jwilk 5y agoThe title of the book is slightly different (so the other article didn't need a qualifier either): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrek%21 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrek%21
- walrus01 5y agothey almost made a movie out of Survivor, until shortly after 9/11 something that has a catastrophic suicidal plane crash in it became a no-go zone for movie studios. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivor_(Palahniuk_novel) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivor_(Palahniuk_novel)
- sonofhans 5y agoThe movie is in the running for greatest American movie made; so much of it is so very good, and so many things went exactly right. The book, as others have said, is a pulp potboiler; no serious critic would place it on a list of 1,000 best novels. Funnily enough, Die Hard is similar. It’s a great action movie, legendary and timeless. The book on which it’s based is awful. It’s so rare that this happens, when usually it’s the reverse — a great book is made into a bad or mediocre movie. The true exceptions — great books made into great movies — seem vanishingly rare to me. Off the top of my head I can only think of a few: Lawrence of Arabia (from The Seven Pillars of Wisdom), The English Patient, The Name of the Rose. Apocalypse Now from Heart of Darkness, perhaps?
- d4rkp4ttern 5y agoAs another example of good book + good movie: Roadside Picnic (book by Stugarski Brothers, movie by Tarkovski). I loved the Three Body Problem trilogy, remains to be seen how good he series/movie will be.
- colineartheta 5y agoI had to re-read your comment originally because I thought you were naming more great movies but poor books lol excellent choices! Agree with all three.
- mynameishere 5y agono serious critic would place it on a list of 1,000 best novels. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/jan/23/bestbooks-fiction https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/jan/23/bestbooks-fict... ... Lush Life by Richard Price The Godfather by Mario Puzo V by Thomas Pynchon ... I don't know why everyone has to crap on that novel every time the movie comes up. Much of the movie is a straight copy from the book, including plenty of word-for-word dialogue reuse. The book does have a couple of subplots that are embarrassingly bad, though--almost as if Puzo felt the need to tack on some halted novellas he had in his drawer.
- sonofhans 5y ago
- dudul 5y agoKind of easy to overshadow a book that is so poorly written. I've heard rumors that Coppola was pretty discouraged after reading the book and had no clue how to make it into a good movie.
- LAC-Tech 5y agoSee also: Fight Club A Clockwork Orange Planet of the Apes