In fairness, a very rare instance of a novel written by a great screenwriter, who then wrote the screenplay.
No fairness applies. If you say it can't be done, then it can't be done.
Everyone's getting spanked but me.
Willow ,'The Killer In Me'
Buffista Movies 7: Brides for 7 Samurai
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§ ita § - Apr 20, 2011 6:50:20 am PDT #14148 of 30000
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
DavidS - Apr 20, 2011 6:53:51 am PDT #14149 of 30000
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
No fairness applies. If you say it can't be done, then it can't be done.
I applied the fairness standard, and qualified it with "very rare." So, not-never, but hardly-ever.
But I really don't believe in that dictum. I just think it's easier to adapt a short story or novella to a film - it's a matter of narrative length really. You can make a great miniseries out of a novel (Fassbinder's Berlin Alexanderplatz). Or a great series of movies (cf., LotR).
le nubian - Apr 20, 2011 6:57:20 am PDT #14150 of 30000
"And to be clear, I am the hell. And the high water."
I wonder what "great" means. For example, the 3rd Harry Potter book is one I liked as a novel, but the film version was FABULOUS. Incredibly evocative of the book. They left some things out, but kept all of the right elements in.
If all the adaptations of the HP books had been that good, I would not be complaining (esp with book 6, how dreadful).
Kathy A - Apr 20, 2011 6:59:33 am PDT #14151 of 30000
We're very stretchy. - Connie Neil
To Kill a Mockingbird--great book, great film.
lisah - Apr 20, 2011 7:05:35 am PDT #14152 of 30000
Punishingly Intricate
When this professor made that statement LOTR movies were far in the future. I'm not sure about Princess Bride. I'm pretty sure it had been released.
I'd like to think he made the statement to generate discussion in the class but I don't really remember that happening. Although I do remember rolling my eyes at him.
I wonder what "great" means.
Well, the professor in question used Gone with the Wind as his primary example so...(which, granted, it is a pretty bad book, in my opinion, but I don't think it's that great of a movie either)
§ ita § - Apr 20, 2011 7:06:18 am PDT #14153 of 30000
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
More Hunger Games casting:
- District 1 tributes: Jack Quaid and Leven Rambin
- Effie: Elizabeth Banks
Daisy Jane - Apr 20, 2011 7:07:14 am PDT #14154 of 30000
"This bar smells like kerosene and stripper tears."
You can make a great miniseries out of a novel (Fassbinder's Berlin Alexanderplatz).
That's next up in my queue!
Uhm, after I tackle Under the Cherry Moon and Lost in La Mancha.
lisah - Apr 20, 2011 7:07:21 am PDT #14155 of 30000
Punishingly Intricate
To Kill a Mockingbird--great book, great film.
See! it would have been so easy to shoot him down but I really don't remember anyone bringing that up. It was over 20 years ago, though, and I don't have the best memory in the world.
Toddson - Apr 20, 2011 7:09:54 am PDT #14156 of 30000
Friends don't let friends read "Atlas Shrugged"
A lot, I think, depends on how you define "great".
erikaj - Apr 20, 2011 7:20:04 am PDT #14157 of 30000
"already on the kiss-cam with Karl Marx"-
Yeah. "great fun," which, imo, GWTW still is, though exposure to politics and history have tarnished it from my "Twihardesque" devotion at, like 13 or so. But it's not Great, as in "I was changed after viewing this," such as, say, The Wire or Perseopolis or "The Godfather(okay book, amazing film)