Bibliofreakblog

Movies That Are Actually Better Than the Book

99.999999999% of the time, at the least, the book will beat out the movie.  I’m talking here about a movie that’s based on the book, not the other way around (yes, there are actually books based on movies–weird, I know).  Occasionally, however, there are movies that are actually better than the book.  

A month or two ago I got into a discussion at a party over this.  Truly, I can only think of three.  Can anybody think of any more?

1. The Joy Luck Club

Maybe it’s because I grew up watching this movie so often, before I ever read the book.  Throughout middle school and high school, my friend Kate and I would watch it whenever we had boy problems.  It was our favorite “guy-hating” movie.  Truly, I don’t think that I got that it was about mothers and daughters until I was an adult.

There are two main reasons why I think that the movie is better than the book in this case:

Reason #1: In the movie, one of the mothers, as a young wife in China, drowns her baby in the bathtub, sort of by accident as she is so distraught over her husband’s affair.  In the book, she goes and has an abortion.  She says that she knew this was wrong, even though it was before she moved to California and became a Christian.

Now, regardless you position on abortion–and please, I am not trying to start a debate here–I think that most people can agree that a woman going and having an abortion, which is not described or anything in the book, is not as harrowing as watching her DROWN HER BABY IN A BATHTUB.

Reason #2:  My favorite line of the whole movie, is where that same mother tells her daughter, “Losing him doesn’t matter.  It is you who will be found.”  While this scene appears in the book, the word do not.  I was greatly disappointed.  

2. Trainspotting

My sister snuck me in to see this movie when it came out (I was in 8th grade).  Then she gave me the book.  Then, before I could read it, she decided that she wanted to read it and I was too young for it, so she took it back.  It was another year or two until I got to read it myself.  I was disappointed in the book, for another two reasons:

Reason #1: The movie starts out with a bang.  Iggy Pop’s Lust for Life is thumping away (ba ba ba, ba ba ba), and the narrator’s monologue about Western Culture rhythmically pulsates along with it, and his running feet.  This happens in the book, but not until later on (and sans Mr. Pop, unless you’ve seen the movie, in which case you may add that in your head of your own accord).  This scene opens the whole tone for the movie, and I really wish the book had opened with it, too.  Whoever decided to move it to the forefront in the movie was a genius.  And usually I don’t like it when film adaptor’s mess around with sequence.

Reason #2: You know the part with the hallucinated dead baby in the movie?  All that happens in the book, except the creepy on-the-ceiling-Exorcist moment.  I mean, he sees the dead baby and all, but it’s just not the same.  Maybe I just have a thing for dead babies…huh.  How morbid am I?

I readily admit that had I read the book first, I might not feel this way.  I might think that they are, perhaps, tied.  

3. The Shawshank Redemption 

Truth be told, I have not read this book.  In fact, I’ve never read any Stephen King.  That’ my book snobbishness coming out.  I know, I know, The Stand, and Bag of Bones are supposed to be pretty good, but I remain elitist–perhaps even disturbingly so.

So here’s my reasons:

Reason #1:  Morgan Freeman

Reason #2: The thing about many of the film adaptations for King’s books, is that, well, they’re crap.  Carrie and even Misery might have been good at the time, but they’ve fallen into the category of campy now.  The Shining is still a classic, though again, and please don’t shoot me for saying so, has become a little campy.  Maybe that’s just how it goes with scary movies, and not with books.  (example: Poe is still totally creepy)  The Green Mile is a good movie, but as far as prison movies go, I prefer Shawshank, so that’s what I’m going with.  Besides, what the screenwriter, director, and actors brought to Shawshank, is nothing short of brilliant.  They took a novella, fleshed it out, and made it into one of the very best prison movies of all freakin’ time.  

Reason #3: Morgan Freeman.

So what about you guys?  Any movies out there that you would dare to say are better than the book?