MC Wednesday Inventory: Adaptations of Fidelity and Transformation

[dreamdead]

So for this week let's approach the sometimes icky topic of film adaptations. What are your (1 or 2) favorite film adaptations that adhere faithfully to the original text source and (1 or 2) favorite adaptations that thoroughly transform and appropriate that source? What appeals in the fidelity and/or transformation of these filmic texts?

[Ezee E]

FOLLOWS:
-Closer - word for word, I believe... But Mike Nichols directs the hell out of this, on top of getting fascinating performances. That's something that I find to be kind of rare out of movies based off theatrical plays.
-A Clockwork Orange - from what I remember, it followed the book fairly close??? It's been ten years since I read the book, but it uses the language, the world, everything brilliantly. Both are fascinating.

Let me ponder over the transformation side.

[Skitch]

Off the top of my head...

Follows: Fight Club
Transforms: Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns Pt 1 & 2

[MarcusBrody]

Off the top of my head...

Follows: Fight Club

I thought that Fight Club was more effective as a movie than a book. The book read like a screenplay to me. I'm not a huge fan of Palahniuk though.

For me:
Follows: (I'll think about it)
Transforms: Apocalypse Now

I read Heart of Darkness with high expectations. Despite liking the writing and the philosophical underpinning, it somehow didn't wow me as I expected. The visceral nature of Apocalypse Now, though, pulled me into the similar story and its themes much more effectively.

[Izzy Black]

Faithful: Sátántangó (Tarr, 1994), The Watchmen (Snyder, 2009)
Transformative: Pola X (Carax, 1999), Ran (Kurosawa, 1985)

[Izzy Black]

Not sure how to classify some of these. Are Pickpocket and A Man Escaped adaptations?

[Pop Trash]

Follows: Stand by Me, The Exorcist (for the most part)
Transforms: The Shining, The Sweet Hereafter

[Skitch]

I thought that Fight Club was more effective as a movie than a book.


That may be, but I thought it followed the book extremely well.

[Skitch]

Transforms: The Shining

Great call, and I agree.

[MadMan]

I think that the Lord of the Rings trilogy followed the books incredibly well. Also I think of Fight Club as being mostly following rather than being a transforms, as the movie kept most of the material from the book.

[Winston*]

Trainspotting is a pretty great example of transforming in the sense of streamlining and giving a cinematic structure to a sprawling unfilmable book. La Confidential too.

[Winston*]

The Godfather removes all the awful bullshit from the novel while maintaining the core story / relationships.

Frankenstein / Bride of Frankenstein for transforming.

[D_Davis]

Paul Verhoeven will get two nods for transformative adaptations with Total Recall and Starship Troopers, both of which I like better than their book counterparts.

Linklaker gets a nod for a faithful adaptation with A Scanner Darkly, although I don't think it works very well as a standalone film.

[Dead & Messed Up]

I'll pick one of each, I guess. I have a real appreciation for how Zack Snyder (mostly) faithfully translated Moore's Watchmen to the screen. I know many didn't, but I thought he made the images sing, wrangled some terrific performances (Haley, Crudup, and Morgan chiefly), and although the themes were somewhat diluted from the comic, they still resonated with me.

Jaws the film is so superior to the novel that it's almost painful to bring up the association at all. Benchley's book takes huge chunks of time away from the shark to focus on city politics (the mayor's in deep with the mafia) and sexual liaisons (Brody's wife bangs Hooper). Gottlieb's script takes out the things that do not work with surgical precision and retains and expands on everything that does.

[Izzy Black]

I'll pick one of each, I guess. I have a real appreciation for how Zack Snyder (mostly) faithfully translated Moore's Watchmen to the screen. I know many didn't, but I thought he made the images sing, wrangled some terrific performances (Haley, Crudup, and Morgan chiefly), and although the themes were somewhat diluted from the comic, they still resonated with me.
Agreed.

[Ezee E]

I rewatched it yesterday. 25th Hour is just a by-the-numbers mobster book essentially. The movie gives each of its characters more life then the book wishes it could ever do.

Shutter Island essentially does the same thing.

[dreamdead]

I can definitely get behind Jaws as one that transforms the material. While I would have welcomed some complications to Schneider's wife's character, the overall narrative structure of that film is so much more powerful and primordial than the novel.

I'd mention Requiem for a Dream as a faithful adaptation. There's a few switches to the narrative, but the overall strength of the film is iterated first in Selby's novel

[Kurosawa Fan]

Faithful: High Fidelity

Transformative: Apocalypse Now, Ran

[Raiders]

Faithful: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The House of Mirth - These two are faithful in a plot and setting sense, but even moreso they are exceptionally rigorous exercises in translating to a visual medium the feel, scope and flow of the prose of the respective authors. Watching them almost felt like reading a humorless and suffocating le Carre passage or the icy, meticulous, prosaic work of Wharton. Gorgeous films, through and through.

Transform: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - My mind immediately went here. The books are overstuffed with more forgettable details and asides than necessary for a whole slew of books. The films, Parts 1 and 2, are direct and to the point, depicting a coming of age story that started in earnest with Cuaron's entry but flourished under Yates, streamlining the story to a focused narrative on Harry's relentless struggles, alienation, temptations, whisked away from one location to the next with no time to breath and culminating in a visual siege worthy of the best of cinema. It doesn't transform the story or characters, but Yates and the writers focus the book to what matters: Harry. No subplots, no blurry, unfocused final battles; just a boy and his wand in the midst of his crumbling childhood.

[dreamdead]

Faithful: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The House of Mirth - These two are faithful in a plot and setting sense, but even moreso they are exceptionally rigorous exercises in translating to a visual medium the feel, scope and flow of the prose of the respective authors. Watching them almost felt like reading a humorless and suffocating le Carre passage or the icy, meticulous, prosaic work of Wharton. Gorgeous films, through and through.


Many ecstatic yeses on Davies's film. That remains one of my favorite adaptations, though I still slightly wish that someone other than Ackroyd had the cad role. He always takes me out of the experience a bit. Otherwise, that ending remains just as devastating on screen as it is on the page.

Also, for transformative: Children of Men. Completely overhauls much of the symbolism and design.

I hope to read Paprika here in the next year, so that should be interesting to get a better sense of what Kon changed...

[bac0n]

Faithful - No Country for Old men stuck to the book almost verbatim.

Adaption - Strange Brew. Don't think Shakespeare had flying dogs and jelly donuts in mind when he wrote Hamlet.

[Ezee E]

Ah yeah, good call on Cormac McCarthy. No Country For Old Men and The Road both stay pretty damn close. It's just that No Country is infinitely more filmmable then The Road. The Road is something that doesn't seem like it could be adapted perfectly. They tried, and it got close, but certainly didn't match the power of the book.

No Country... That movie amazes me every time I watch it.

[MadMan]

I'll pick one of each, I guess. I have a real appreciation for how Zack Snyder (mostly) faithfully translated Moore's Watchmen to the screen. I know many didn't, but I thought he made the images sing, wrangled some terrific performances (Haley, Crudup, and Morgan chiefly), and although the themes were somewhat diluted from the comic, they still resonated with me.See I loved Snyder's adaption, even though I do agree that at times he failed to channel the comic. I don't think we will get a more faithful or better adaption of the graphic novel anytime soon.


Jaws the film is so superior to the novel that it's almost painful to bring up the association at all. Benchley's book takes huge chunks of time away from the shark to focus on city politics (the mayor's in deep with the mafia) and sexual liaisons (Brody's wife bangs Hooper). Gottlieb's script takes out the things that do not work with surgical precision and retains and expands on everything that does.Jaws wins for me the title of "Crappy/mediocre book turned into great movie" award. Okay maybe the book doesn't suck, but compared to the movie its a failure imo.