Never once I have found a Movie doing justice to its Novel. May be I am insatiable in this case as I love books more than movies. Movies are time efficient way to garner information but more often than not it also limits the info as its impossible to cramp up everything in couple hours. I love books because it gives more detailed info but more than that it never restricts imagination as movies do. I can bet many guys similar from my background will see Arun Govil when anyone reminds them of Lord Ram because our early impression of Ramayan was through Ramananda Sagar's Ramayan and Arun Govil's portrayal of Lord Ram was brilliant.
But why am I talking it today?
Because today I watched “The Kite Runner” movie based on the Novel of the same name. I think the movie tried its best to do justice to the Novel but even the best try was not enough to change the views of stubborn critic like me. There were numerous occasions in Novel when I was strongly moved but I felt little sad to miss those plots or see it so shortened, that it was not as effective as it was originally.My experience with “The DAVinci Code” was even worse. The movie is so fast-paced that makes it very difficult to comprehend without reading the Novel first. My friends also share similar experiences .One of them said “The Godfather movie is loads of crap compared to the Novel”.
Its not that I have never liked a movie based on a Book. I absolutely loved “A Beautiful Mind” and “The Pursuit of Happiness” to give few good example, but the reason behind their liking is I never had chance to read their corresponding books.
Thanks for reading my opinion but what's your take?
2 comments:
I also feel the same saurav. When i read davinci code and saw the movie, movie was not upto 10% of what i have imagined about the novel.
while i have enough experiences of feelings of the magic of a book being lost ,while watching the same story over silverscreen later on, I strongly believe that the GODFATHER (1 and 2 only, 3 was complete crap alright) was the best movie ever made based on a book or best ever overall.
Mario Pujo certainly created unforgettable characters like Vito Corleone and Michael Corleone ( and many others ) ,the lines and dialogs are too good that i loved to read again and again in the book, BUT it was the sheer brilliance of Marlon Brando and even more from Al Pacino who put soul to those characters because their eyes spoke more than the words and those lines all throughout the movie.
The plot was always good but the people liked the performance more, the lines were great but audience loved the silence better.
Day after day i feel sad about the GODFATHER ranked number 2 in all time greatest movie of IMDB ranking (behind 'The Shawshank Redemption' , which in turn i think is most complete movie ever made - as the subject of GODFATHER may not be liked by everybody while 'The Shawshank Redemption' could be enjoyed by almost all kind of movie goers).
All in all, i think this one movie ( or 2 in fact, part one and two) is much more better than the book even when i rank the book very high itself ( by the way i liked the book 'the sicilian' by Mario pujo more than 'the godfather' but i hear the movie was not that great).
While its certainly hard to do justice to a book while making movie due to various factors like limited running time, presenting a story which is already heard and liked by people, the challenge to match the huge expectations of people and critics following the success of book, we still have some great movies made based on books. Some of the great movies which did justice to the book and may be even took few steps further (other than GODFATHER / and not in the order below, i can not really rate them ) could be :
1. Schindler's List (1993) : movie directed by 'Steven Spielberg' and the book written by 'Thomas Keneally'
2. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) : movie directed by 'Robert Mulligan' and the book written by 'Harper Lee'
3.Ben-Hur (1959) : movie directed by 'William Wyler' and the book written by 'Lew Wallace'
4.Gone with the Wind (1939) : movie directed by 'Victor Fleming' and the book written by 'Margaret Mitchell'
5.Great Expectations (1946) : movie directed by 'David Lean' and the book written by 'Charles Dickens'
6.One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) : movie directed by 'Milos Forman' and the book written by 'Ken Kesey'
If anybody has watched these movies or finished any book please share your views and suggest some more ... if not DON'T MISS ANY of them as they are considered the CULT CLASSICS..
have fun..
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