June, I haven't read the book but did see the movie of Boy in the Striped Pajamas on a plane trip. Harrowing is right.

I agree that books are almost always far and away better than the movies. My exception is Dr. Zhivago. The book had so much politics, and it skipped from place to place so frequently (and with those difficult Russian names) that I found it difficult to follow; but I absolutely loved the movie.

When I was a kid and teenager I often saw film adaptations before I read the books. I was seldom disappointed with reading a book afterward because the book filled in the holes of the film, so to speak. Occasionally, though, I wound up bewildered because the film bore only slight resemblance to the book. (Back then I don't think the adapters were particularly careful in following the books; even worse than now, I think.) I had the same problems with Doctor Zhivago as Carolyn: I adored the 1965 film but it took me thirty-something years to finish the book. Another good film from a novel that I find nigh unto unreadable is Cool Hand Luke. Donn Pearce wrote the novel and supposedly helped write the screenplay...I'm still trying to puzzle out that discrepancy.

June, I've always liked the version of The Great Gatsby with Redford and Farrow; but do you know that when it came out in 1974, it received critical drubbing and was a box-office dud? I think it is more appreciated now than it was then.

Personally, I can tolerate all sorts of film examinations of classic books (e.g., the ten or so adaptations of Jane Eyre; Wuthering Heights; The Three Musketeers; Dracula. I really enjoyed The Last of the Mohicans (with Daniel Day-Lewis), but I could never get through ANY of Fenimore Cooper's stories.

I'm still disappointed with the film of my beloved I Capture the Castle. I should never have watched it. Same with To Kill a Mockingbird.

I don't see many new movies these days. I read the books and don't bother with most films.

I do have some special movies that I feel did well with adaptation.
Mystic River;Paris Trout(with Dennis Hopper). There are many more I know.

I did so enjoy the book "Love In The Time Of Cholera", I believe that the movie was a real bummer.
I also loved the movie Dr.Zhivago, I have not read the book, mainly because of the politics involved and the looong names. I would like to see the original movie of Wuthering Heights with Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon,in my movie guide it has 4 stars!!

I find movies to be excellent at capturing my attention and interest in wide ranges of subjects that might not normally appeal to me. I often then read the book that inspired the movie and other books too on the subject.
Yes, there are of course bad movies and movies that will never portray the book but I love movies as much as books and don't think of it as an "either or" thing.
Don't plan on seeing the Time Traveler's Wife, ever.
Here is a small list of movies and the subjects that fascinated me:

Band of Brothers- I went on on to numerous books on WW2 and read all of Stephen Ambrose's books. Still captured by the subject, Dick Winters, etc.

Schindler's List- Thomas Keneally book led to all sorts of books and movies about the Holocaust

A Beautiful Mind- Sylvia Nassar book. Still interested in geniuses, prodigies and that sort.
Little Man Tate is in the same vein although no book

Braveheart led to all sorts of Robert the Bruce biographies and histories of Scotland

Girl with a Pearl earring- much preferred the book to the movie but C. F. is always a joy to watch

Little House on the Prairie- I read the books first, of course, growing up, but I still adore them! And the saccharine tv series has led many to read the wonderful books too.

A Room with a View- wonderful book and movie- saw the movie first then read all Forster's books.

June, Creation is a movie I wanted to see but it missed our small country cinema. It is based on Annie's Book by Randal Keynes the ggg son of Charles Darwin and tells the story of the short life of his much loved eldest daughter. The film also deals with his journeys and discoveries aboard HMS Beagle and his writings and thoughts and the conflict of ideas between CD and his wife Emma (I have 'Emma Darwin' by Edna Healey on my TBR pile).
You in the US will be unable to watch this movie as no distributor has been willing to take it on. Apparently it is considered too controversial for 'religious America' where (according to a Gallup poll) only 39% of the population believe in the theory of evolution.
Is this a sad state of affairs. . . or what?

Here is a link that might be useful: Annie's Book

Vee, I doubt that the distributors don't want Creation because it's controversial -- if it were controversial enough, they would be tripping all over each other to win the distributorship. More likely, they think it doesn't have box office allure; in other words: too much story and talk, and not enough explosions and special effects.

I'm not sure how to read the Gallup poll you cite, Vee. Is it supposed to mean: a) that 39% of the total American population believe in the theory of evolution; or b) 39% of the 'religious' population of America believe in evolution? -- with 61% of each group not believing or having no opinion. The sampling or interpretation/extrapolation of the sampling seems skewed to me; rather like saying 61% of Britons believe in fairies, and "is this a sad state of affairs...or what?"

The Creation film will probably wind up on American television eventually. It sounds interesting to me. But then, personally, I don't know anyone who doesn't believe in evolution -- I'm around too many scientists, I suppose. :-)

Here are some films which I thought captured well the essence of the books they were derived from:

The Reader
Romeo & Juliet (Zeffirelli)
Tess
The English Patient
Atonement
Damage
The Comfort of Strangers
The Sheltering Sky
Brokeback Mountain (from a short story)

Frieda, I must disagree with you about "To Kill a Mockingbird." I loved both the book and the film.

I completely agree with Carolyn about "Doctor Zhivago." The movie worked for me but I found the novel unreadable. I never was able to get through it.

I miss the Merchant-Ivory team of directors ( A Passage to India, the Wings of the Dove, A Room with a View, et al.)

Frieda, I took the 39% as being those Americans who believe in the theory of evolution. Whether or not they were 'religious' was not made clear from the article in the Daily Telegraph, a paper, as you know, not given to flights of fancy or sensationalism.
'Is this a sad state of affairs?' is my comment on the powers-that-be (in the movie world) seemingly being unwilling to risk showing the film in US locations for fear of upsetting the 'Religious Right'.
Below is a table from Gallup. And yes I know these charts can be skewed by slightly altering the questions asked.
You would be surprised the number of people in England who believe in fairies; especially on a Saturday night. :-)

Here is a link that might be useful: Gallup Poll

Some good books to good movies, that I can recall.
The Pelican Brief
The Boys' From Brazil.
Stepford Wives .
Witches of Eastwick (Jack Nicholson was great)
House Of Spirits
Cider House Rules
Cold Mountain
East Of Eden

There are soooo many.

Vee, thanks for the link to the Gallup poll. Whew! It will take me a while to assimilate it.

As for "the sad state of affairs": I understand now. I tied it to the wrong paragraph. :-)

Woodnymph, yeah, I realize that I'm in the minority about the film of To Kill a Mockingbird. I figure my love of the whole book makes me too critical of the adaptation, which picks out and gives emphasis to a particular part. Which reminds me:

June, if you watch the Olivier/Oberon Wuthering Heights, don't expect to see the whole story -- you will only get part of it. Otherwise, it's a quite fascinating interpretation: telling, I think, of what adaptors of the 1930s thought was important and what subsequent audiences have taken in.

Woodnymph, I saw The English Patient film first, and then read the book. While the "essence" of the book might have been captured in the film, the two are so different! I like the film better. Another essence capturer, I think, is The French Lieutenant's Woman.

Oh gosh, yes, the Polanski-directed Tess is superb, I think, and very faithful. Actually I like nearly all of the film versions of Hardy's books, particularly Tess and Far from the Madding Crowd -- Alan Bates will always be my Gabriel Oak.

I also liked most of the Merchant-Ivory productions. I certainly like their adaptations of Forster, though I find Forster's writing insufferably Edwardian. I do like some Edwardian writing but Forster's was even more uptight than most. Knowing his bio and the times, I can understand why he wrote the way he did but the priggishness still exasperates me.

Speaking of another Forster -- Margaret Forster, that is -- and Alan Bates: I adore the 1966 adaptation of Forster's Georgy Girl. I loved that book so much as a teenager that I determined I was to live in London.

When this subject comes up, I always have to mention two of my favorite short story adaptations: John Huston's "The Dead" (from Joyce's Dubliners) and "Babette's Feast" (from Dinesen's Anecdotes of Destiny).

June, you're right: there are so many good films that owe their genesis to a book.

friedag,Re Wuthering Heights, I am really quite happy to remember the book. Our ABC TV played a two part series on it, it opened two thirds of the way thru the so I just dropped out.
English Patient, I liked the movie, seeing it before the book, I did not even finish the book.
Woodnympth2,I have read The Reader, I feel that the movie would really be good.I also read Brokeback Mountain (I do so like Annie Proulx) it was included in selection of her short stories, she sure does know how to capture the west..
Her' Post Cards' was made into a movie I believe, a great book.

Another great book for me was 'Cold Comfort Farm', a movie of this has been made also, this I would like to see.

Heh! June, Cold Comfort Farm has been an oft-discussed book here at RP. It seems that many Americans don't appreciate its satirical quality -- it is, after all, peculiarly English in 'humour' and sensibility. Americans probably don't recognize what is being parodied, the sentimental but gloomy novels that were popular in the UK during the first decades of the twentieth century (Mary Webb's Precious Bane being one example). Frankly, I didn't know what to make of it the first time I read it -- it was so over the top and silly. But a couple of long-time RP posters (one English, one Welsh) pointed out their delight in the wordplay and how they recognized exactly the sort of folk the Starkadders are meant to portray. I reread the book and caught a glimmer of the funniness; but it wasn't until I saw the film with Kate Beckinsale as Flora Poste and Stephen Fry as Mybug that I really caught the hilarity. It's quite an endearing film, I think, and "something nasty in the woodshed" is a catchphrase that I've found very useful.

I just thought of what I think is another superb adaptation: Enchanted April. I read E. von Arnim's book years before and I remember liking it, but for some reason it didn't really affect me much until I saw the movie. Even my DH enjoyed it (his taste usually runs to action/adventure and thrillers). Well, actually there's another film that he surprised me for liking: Fried Green Tomatoes -- he even teared up during one part! I also liked Fannie Flagg's book from which it was amusingly and poignantly adapted.

My DH is not much of a fiction reader, but he did read Ken Follett's Eye of the Needle, as he says, "from cover to cover, twice." I enjoyed it as well, and we both think the film with Donald Sutherland as "The Needle" is dandy suspense, no matter how many times we watch it. I want to live in that house on Storm Island!

friedag, Thanks for reminding me of "something nasty in the woodshed" oh what an ususual book, I just loved it.

I shall book the DVD if possible with my local outlet, plus The Reader, it will be interesting to see how the movie handled the main discovery in the novel.

The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth is my favorite example of a wonderful book made into an equally wonderful movie. Like Eye of the Needle, it is always suspenseful even while knowing the ending so well.

While lifelong fans may not agree, I think The Lord of the Rings trilogy was excellent. I read the books just before the first movie was released and thought Peter Jackson did a fantastic job with the movies.

Oh,yes, Vee! Even Conan Doyle believed in fairies :-)
My favourite book/screen adaptation is "The Godfather" I always watch it for 'just a few scenes' when it gets shown on TV and somehow I get sucked in again to the end!

I agree that most people who love to read aren't as happy with what ends up on the big screen, but there have been a very few that I felt ended up being even better than the book!

Empire of the Sun (though the book was wonderful, too, and it was a personal history of the author!)
Atonement
The World According To Garp (much better than the book to me)
Angela's Ashes (loved the book also)
The Letter, starring Bette Davis, written by Somerset Maugham

Stand By Me (as good as..)
Shawshank Redemption (as good as..)
The Right Stuff (as good as..)

Just a handful I can think of off the top of my head, but I agree, when you consider the good books which were "made into movie" that have bombed beyond redemption, it's sad.

I loved The Cider House Rules but have never read the book, must put it on "the list".

I've gotten a bunch of movie/book suggestions off this thread - how wonderful! I love a good movie as much (just differently) than I love a book that touches me.

carolyn ky, I know that you will not want to read the book "Boy In The Striped Pyjamas", mainly because you know about the ending. However it was a very 'warming' read for me as it moves into the main child characters mind, he has a great imagination.
A magical read right until the ending.

I believe that the author wrote it for younger readers.

mylab,
Try to obtain a copy of 'Cider House Rules' great movie, however it is impossible to include all of the wonderful characters and situations of the novel.

I enjoyed The Boy in the Striped Pajamas movie although the ending, of course, was profoundly sad.

Ok, I confess this is nothing like the caliber of the books mentioned here, but I found that Stephen King's IT was a phenomenal book, and a good movie - until the end. The end was terrible - beyond terrible. But I've heard that Stephen King doesn't like most of the movies of his books. Having said that, Kathy Bates and James Caan were wonderful in Misery.

For me, I don't think I've ever enjoyed a movie more than a book. In fact, they're normally a huge let down. I've heard Wuthering Heights is a great movie, but I loved the book so much that I don't want to taint it with a movie. I saw some of The Prince of Tides, and it looked good - but Nick Nolte and Barbra Streisand just weren't right for me.

And after sobbing for hours over A Walk to Remember, I'm not about to even try the movie! :)