When films are adapted from books, more often than not, I tend to find the books a lot more enjoyable. So I have skipped watching a lot of films in the hope of reading the books later.

So what are some great films not adapted from books? Or what are some films that are significantly better than the book they were adapted from?

  • theragu40@lemmy.world
    11·
    3 years ago
    • Pulp Fiction
    • Donnie Darko
    • The Big Lebowski
    • The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
    • In Bruges
    • The Matrix
    • Monty Python and the Holy Grail
    • Ocean’s Eleven
    • Indiana Jones original trilogy
    • Get Out
    • Bladerunner (a book, apparently)
    • Bladerunner 2049
    • 28 Days Later
    • American Beauty
    • The Usual Suspects
    • Gladiator
    • Schindler’s List (also a book??)
    • Saving Private Ryan
    • There Will Be Blood (dammit, a book!)
    • niktemadur@lemmy.world
      13·
      3 years ago

      Gonna get pedantic here:

      Blade Runner is based on “Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep” by Philip K Dick.
      There Will Be Blood is based on “Oil” by Sinclair Lewis.
      Both were acclaimed in their own right before the film adaptations.

      Okey dokey then… carry on!

  • maegul (he/they)@lemmy.mlEnglish
    81·
    3 years ago

    2001 Space Odyssey might be an interesting candidate here, just because of the way in which the book and film were more or less born together and diverged in their own separate ways, though the genesis of the whole thing was apparently in a short story by AC Clark that I know nothing about.

  • Mothra@mander.xyz
    3·
    3 years ago

    I might say Spirited Away is a good example. I don’t know how many Ghibli films are based on books if at all, but that one in particular fits the bill.

    On a similar vein, many western animated films are not based on a book. Examples that come into mind are The Incredibles and Toy Story (Pixar), Lilo and Stitch (Disney), On the Road to El Dorado (DreamWorks). I’m sure there’s more…

  • jeffw@lemmy.world
    41·
    3 years ago

    Memento. Technically was an unpublished short story rewriten for the screen.

    Some Wes Anderson stuff: isle of Dogs, Grand Budapest Hotel (loose influence), Royal Taenbaums

    M (1933)

    Short Term 12

    Shawshank is based on a short story too

    Interrogation (1989)

    Funny Gaes (1997 version!!!)

    A lot of Powell and Pressbruger’s stuff… Red Shoes, Colonel Blimp

    Coen bros stuff-Fargo (strongly recommend this), O Brother Where Art Thou (inspired by Homer, but a bit different from the book lol), Big Lebowski

    Just a few to start you with. I basically pulled some fine examples across cinema history. I ignored a lot of great silent stuff, especially the comedy. If you reply to this one day, I’m sure I can follow up with more refs!

  • SanguinePar@lemmy.world
    3·
    3 years ago

    Great films not adapted from books - most of David Lynch’s work would count here: Mulholland Drive, Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, Lost Highway, Inland Empire, and Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (though that’s a prequel to the TV show, obviously)

  • wilberfan@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    3 years ago

    BOOGIE NIGHTS. An original screenplay, although inspired by some real people and incidents.

  • 💡dim@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    3 years ago

    Or what are some films that are significantly better than the book they were adapted

    One of my favourite books, High Fidelity. I think I am in the age range and demo it was written for, so much rings true. When I heard there was a film coming out I was so excited, and then I read it was being moved from London and re-set in Chicago, and my heart sank.

    Boy was I wrong. John Cusack was great, Todd Louiso was histerical, and it was Jack Black’s breakout performance. (I honestly am not sure he has been funnier since)

    And the Chicago setting 100% worked, better than London would have

    • PerCarita@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      2·
      3 years ago

      I was truly, genuinely, surprised at how much I enjoyed the philosophy of Free Guy. At first, I thought it was just a feel-good movie, popcorn flick, but I was happy to be able to go to the cinema during Covid, middling, middling, middling, and, lo, by the end the movie had completely won me over. IT IS ABOUT HOW WE FEEL ABOUT OUR LIVES, regardless of our place in the cosmos.

      I wished it had gone deeper into the ethics of creating conscious AIs, but that would have been too much to ask for that kind of movie. That same year I watched Dune in the cinema, and I kind of like them both. Almost equally, but in different ways. About 6 months later, I went back for The Matrix Resurrections and was sorely disappointed. Free Guy should have been The Matrix 4.

  • Chef_Boyargee@lemmy.world
    21·
    3 years ago

    Monuments Men is arguably way better than the book. The movie humanized the content and made it more approachable.

    • Fondots@lemmy.world
      4·
      3 years ago

      I like both a lot, they’re both very much a product of the times, places, and people that created them.

      The movie being very much a reaction to Bush-era US politics through the perspective of the Wachowskis, and the comic a reaction to Thatcherism through Alan Moore’s eyes

      There are definitely parallels to be drawn between the two contexts, and the same overall story with some tweaks works well for both.

      Being a millennial in the US, the movie definitely resonates with me a little more deeply, but my inner anarchist wishes they kept a little more of Moore’s vision intact, though V just giving a lecture on anarchy in the middle of the movie probably wouldn’t translate well to the silver screen.