{"id":1582,"date":"2004-08-16T10:58:42","date_gmt":"2004-08-16T14:58:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=1582"},"modified":"2024-10-27T21:43:34","modified_gmt":"2024-10-28T01:43:34","slug":"adaptation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=1582","title":{"rendered":"Adaptations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Big Stupid Tommy has a cool discussion going on:<\/a><\/p>\n

Movies that are adaptations of books have a rough time. Fans of the books will resist the adaptation. (That’s why I didn’t see “Wonder Boys” the first time around … and what an IDIOT I was!! But I had loved the book so much I resisted.)<\/p>\n

But, Tommy asks, are there instances where you like the movie better than the book?<\/p>\n

In the case of Wonder Boys, I can’t say either. Reading the book was a joy from beginning to end. And the film was fantastic. I won’t choose.<\/p>\n

I read the book Ordinary People<\/i>, by Judith Guest. It’s quite good. But – it can’t hold a candle to the movie. Robert Redford invented scenes that far surpass anything that goes on in the book (the scene where Mary Tyler Moore doesn’t want to get her picture taken with her son … the scene where Tim Hutton randomly barks like a dog at his mother) – these are extraordinary scenes. And they’re mostly behavioral, not about the WORDS. Pure cinema.<\/p>\n

I’ll have to think of more movies I liked better than the book …<\/p>\n

Just thought of another one.<\/p>\n

I read Bridges of Madison County<\/i> and could barely get through the sentimental clap-trap prose. I wasn’t surprised when I heard that the author and his “soulmate” split up a couple of years after he became so famous. Serves ya right, bub, for falling for all that soulmate crap in the first place. Also – he is a terrible writer.<\/p>\n

But I loved that movie. It was like an actor’s paradise – watching the 2 of them spar back and forth, talking, behaving, laughing, arguing … I watch it, I re-wind scenes, I lean in, I study the 2 of them … they make that very conventional sob-story into something funny, complex, believable.<\/p>\n

Loved the movie. Hated the book.<\/p>\n

Anything to add?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Big Stupid Tommy has a cool discussion going on: Movies that are adaptations of books have a rough time. Fans of the books will resist the adaptation. (That’s why I didn’t see “Wonder Boys” the first time around … and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1582"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1582"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":194992,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1582\/revisions\/194992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}