THE DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD: MOVIES BASED (SOMETIMES VERY LOOSELY) ON BOOKS

We're down to the wire, folks.  Less than a week to our meeting.  I've been working on Bean's bonus book - THE MAZE RUNNER - which is the inspiration for this post.  THE MAZE RUNNER movie was recently released on DVD.  I have only seen the previews, but it looked like an interesting movie.  In fact, I hadn't heard of THE MAZE RUNNER book before I saw previews for the movie.  I'll probably rent it and watch it with Bean after I finish the book.  However, as Baron knows all too well, movies based on books are very difficult for me.  By very difficult I mean that I have to try to suppress the urge to shout at the TV, "THAT'S NOT HOW IT WAS IN THE BOOK!!!"  And I usually fail in my effort to suppress said shouting.

The thing is, I can't stop myself.  After I've read a really good book, I really want to see it come to life on the screen.  I've imagined all the characters, settings, and scenes in my mind while reading the book, and it is perfect!  Unfortunately, most of the time, I have set myself up for total disappointment.  There are a few exceptions to this rule.  The first Hunger Games movie was pretty much spot-on except for the omission of one important detail (no spoilers).  The first two Harry Potter movies were cast PERFECTLY and were quite similar to the books (except for maybe the basilisk), but were unfortunately followed by an EXTREMELY disappointing third movie and pretty much every movie after that.  I love the book PRIDE AND PREJUDICE and both movie versions that I have seen.

I mean, I understand when some minor characters or sub-sub-plots have to be eliminated for time reasons.  But what really, really irks me is when the movie takes out valuable, perfectly written scenes, but then adds in things that are totally irrelevant.  You already have wonderful material to work from.  Why the need to "add" to it?  I think the answer lies in the egos of Hollywood directors.  It simply isn't "artistic" enough for their liking to take a perfectly good story and just film it.  They have to put their own spin on it.  Blah!  I'm feeling a shouting spell coming on just talking about it.

Two factors that seem to give book-based movies a better shot at not being yelled at by me are order and time-lapse.  If I have watched a movie before reading the book on which it is based, I don't have unrealistic expectations even if I watch it again after reading the book.  The reason for this is probably two fold.  First, the characters and settings I have seen in the movie influence how I imagine these things when I read the book, whereas, when I haven't seen the movie first, I start with a blank slate.  Second, if I liked the movie well enough to read the book on which it was based, clearly it must have been a pretty good movie in the first place, even if it ends up differing somewhat from the book.

The second factor, time lapse, comes into play when it has been so long since I read the book, that I can't really remember all the little details, so I don't notice how many things have been changed in the movie.  However, this only works for minor things.  Some movies shamelessly change whole characters and plots.  "Based on" is sometimes used very, very loosely.

An example of a book/movie that benefited from both of these factors was The Princess Bride.  I watched the movie when I was a kid, and recently read the book.  I highly recommend them both!!  Of course, it probably helped that the author of the book also wrote the screenplay.  Which begs the question: why doesn't that happen more often??  I mean, who could better write the screenplay than the author?

So, what about you, Novel Spirits?  Am I alone in my disdain?  What are some of the best/worst book-based movies that you've read and seen?  Do you all embrace or avoid movies based on your favorite books?  Or, like me, are you helplessly drawn to them like a moth to a bug zapper, unable to stop yourself even though you know you are about to inflict nothing but pain on yourself?  Let me know in the comments!  Can't wait to see everyone on Sunday!