Favorite movie based on a great book

[Knuckle Dragger]

Not to the original intent of the OP but worth mentioning, imo.

This is coming back to theaters on 9/1 and 9/4 in some locales.

https://www.fathomevents.com/events/tcm2019-lawrence-of-arabia-1962?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIqfaSgdaT5AIVzluGCh3o5wgGEAAYASAAEgJFUvD_BwE

I've seen it a number of times but, since it came out the year of my birth, never in the theater.  It should be magnificent on the big screen.

It was originally shot in 70mm.  From the mid 50s until about 1970 there were a very few (maybe <100) films shot in 70mm filmstock.  70mm Eastman or Fuji stock are both rare & bloody expensive.  It requires special, big, heavy duty cameras, dollies & trollies, huge, heavy & hideously extravagant lenses (although not the infamous Zeiss f 0.7 multi-million dollar lens that Kubrick borrowed from NASA for just one candle-lit scene in Barry Lyndon - if that'd been a 70mm format lens it would've been valued in the tens of millions!), and of course that marvellous old super-large, powerfully illuminated projection equipment.  Then there is of course Tarantino's deliberately trashy & somewhat masturbatory Hateful Eight as well, done I'm assuming on something of an indulgent whim, and mostly printed & projected worldwide instead on crappy 35mm and of course digital.

There's a very few rare cinemas with suitable (65mm & 70mm) projection equipment still installed.  If you have the opportunity, these screenings are utterly awesome.  As mentioned, there's precious few left.  3 in Melbourne (Astor in St Kilda, Sun in Yarraville, & Village Rivoli in Hawthorn), & 3 in Sydney (Hayden Orpheum in Mosman, Event in the City, & Ritz in Randwick).  That's all in Oz.  Don't know how other places fare, but I gather there's quite a few (20 odd total) still in major European cities.  I love going to watch some of these 70mm epics (in every sense of the word) when visiting my sister in Melbourne.

With almost 4 times the print size of standard 35mm, these few flicks become an extremely powerful visual cinematic experience.  Lawrence unfortunately lost its audio master soundtrack sometime in the last 60 odd years, which had to be reproduced as part of the overall negative restoration done sometime in the 1980s.  You wouldn't know.  They've done a superb job.

Those who claim that "celluloid is dead" need only attend a 70mm screening, if not of David Lean's masterpiece, then maybe Chris Nolan's Dunkirk or an alternate classic such as South Pacific, West Side Story, Ben-Hur, 2001, Baraka or Samsara to fall in love with "proper" cinema all over again.

[larrys]

The Harry Potter movies were pretty faithful to the books. I read all of the books, after my then teen aged daughter was done with them. The Green Mile, Christine, and The Shawshank Redemption, all written by Steven King. Another vote for Farley Mowats' Never Cry Wolf. I read that as a teenager, and was fascinated by his descriptions of life in the great white north.
Larry

[Siamese]

Ditto on To Kill a Mockingbird.

At least for me, the movie is better than the book. 

[Sheepdog]

A very young Don Johnson made a sci-fi film called, "A Boy and His Dog" in 1975. It was based on a Harlan Ellison novella of the same name. Post apocalyptic and dark, but funny and clever at the same time. It follows the book well. Pre-digital...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5BDxqhI9qDw

Also, "Being There," which features Peter Sellers, Shirley MacLaine,and Melvyn Douglas (among many other notables). It's based on the Jerzy Kosinski novel of the same name. Well written and acted, this 1979 film enjoyed a great deal of critical acclaim. It was one of Sellers' last films. Great dialog...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FcPQ9gww_qc

[rocker59]

What I want are movies that stay at least somewhat true to the book , where the screenwriters and director know the story and have some respect for that story .

 Dusty

Gone to Texas / Outlaw Josie Wales.

True Grit - both movies (1969 and 2010) are good in their own ways.

Woe to Live On / Ride with the Devil.

[rocker59]

Oh Brother where art thou?
 
Loosely based on the Odyssey, and a hoot.

Yep, that's a good 'un !!!

Homer's Odyssey, Mississippi style!

[yogidozer]

True Grit - both movies (1969 and 2010) are good in their own ways.
Only chance the 2010 remake had was due to Jeff Bridges. Great acting in every movie he's been in.

[rocker59]

Gone With The Wind
In Cold Blood
Breakfast at Tiffany’s
LA Confidential
No Country for Old Men

I really like these.

The 1967 film "In Cold Blood" is intense.  Robert Blake and Scott Wilson were really good in this movie.

Another is the 1973 movie about Charles Starkweather, "Badlands", starring Martin Sheen.  Several books preceeded the movie about this killer's 1957 spree across Nebraska and Wyoming. 

[rocker59]

True Grit - both movies (1969 and 2010) are good in their own ways.
Only chance the 2010 remake had was due to Jeff Bridges. Great acting in every movie he's been in.

Only chance?  The cinematography was fantastic.  Great costuming.  The young lady, Hailey Steinfeld did a great job.  I love Bridges, but thought he struggled with delivering some of the dialogue effectively/believably.

[LowRyter]

Great book and movie. The casting was perfect, all the way down to the Paul Lazarro character.

General, I can see that you are connoisseur of good movies. 

Do you still want a Doomsday Machine?   

[LowRyter]

Oh Brother where art thou?
 
Loosely based on the Odyssey, and a hoot.

My favorite Cohen's movie.  And there's a lot of good ones.   It is based on the Odyssey.   Even an Oracle and Cyclops



C'ya in the funny papas' boys'

[Sheepdog]

I'm also a fan of the "True Grit" films, but the Jeff Bridges version was more true to Portis' book. I also enjoyed the occasional authenticity of "The Outlaw Josey Wales." In the cap and ball days if you wanted more cartridges, you carried more guns...reloading took a while.

[adaven]

Re: The Odyssey - to get closer to the original experience, from an oral tradition - you can buy the Fagles translation (easily found used (guzzi content)), then on YouTube there is Ian McKellen (Gandolf) reading the story to you. A great story, great modern translation, and Ian McKellen gets all the words right, with style. Almost as good as having Homer in your living room.
However, the sleep issue may come into play.

Since I am essentially illiterate I liked the shmoop.com/odyssey/ summary for an outline of the story in the current local vernacular, made it a little easier to grasp when I got confused and eased the transition into actually thinking.

Also:

True Grit - Bridges version was more enjoyable to me. Mattie Ross made the movie, Bridges was often hard to understand, as if he had marbles in his mouth, but was a better Rooster than John Wayne. The closer the movie is to Portis' book the better it will be.

[rocker59]

I'm also a fan of the "True Grit" films, but the Jeff Bridges version was more true to Portis' book.

Other than the ending scene, how so?

I found this interesting comparo online:
https://auxiliarymemory.com/2011/01/04/true-grit-by-charles-portisbook-versus-movies/

[yogidozer]

Only chance?  The cinematography was fantastic.  Great costuming.  The young lady, Hailey Steinfeld did a great job.  I love Bridges, but thought he struggled with delivering some of the dialogue effectively/believably.

So if Alec Baldwin played the part, it would still be good? But I agree, Hailey Steinfeld was awesome in her role.

[Two Checks]

The Killer Angels/Of Gods and Generals.


Those 70mm movies look good but transportation and storage costs were out the wazoo. Plus the 70mm projectors were basically a huge 8 track tape player. Wore the film eventually.
The digital format is so much more hassle free and astronomically cheaper to present.
And anyone can do it. No film breakage, etc.

[oldbike54]

 My biggest problem with the True Grit story is that John Franklin Cogburn was never a US Marshall , or any kind of lawman . He was really an outlaw who fought with law enforcement . Kind of disappointing .

 Dusty

[Moto]

Loosely based on the Odyssey ? Well , yeah , kinda like History of the World part 1 is based on the writings of Tacitus 

 Dusty

 

Well, Herman Melville is my favorite writer, I guess, as he should be for all motorcyclists.

No Melville movies have impressed me like Billy Budd, which I found better than the novelette. So I nominate it:

Billy Budd. 1962. Dir. by Peter Ustinov, w/ Terence Stamp unforgettable as the title character.

Moto

[2dogs]

Never give an inch/Sometimes a great notion based on Keseys great book.

Henry Fonda,directed by and starring Paul Newman

[pebra]

The French Lieutenant's Woman, a great novel by John Fowles, has a surprising twist to the story.
The film (Meryl Streep, Jeremy Irons) is simply wonderful and has a surprising, although quite different, twist.

[adaven]

My biggest problem with the True Grit story is that John Franklin Cogburn was never a US Marshall , or any kind of lawman . He was really an outlaw who fought with law enforcement . Kind of disappointing .

 Dusty

Well...it is a work of fiction. But even so, in the Jeff Bridges version, as well as the book, the whole U.S. Marshall thing was kind of a ruse that he was getting away with. Narrowly (if even) inside the law. I would guess that for the U.S. Marshalls in AR and OK in that time period, that was more commonly the case.

[rocker59]

My biggest problem with the True Grit story is that John Franklin Cogburn was never a US Marshall , or any kind of lawman . He was really an outlaw who fought with law enforcement . Kind of disappointing .

 Dusty

That, and "Frank" was born in 1867 and wasn't yet alive when Quantrill was raiding Kansas.  The author may have borrowed some atributes of John Franklin "Rooster" Cogburn for his character, like the name, but the historical figure is not the "Rooster" of the True Grit story.

[rocker59]

the whole U.S. Marshall thing was kind of a ruse that he was getting away with. Narrowly (if even) inside the law. I would guess that for the U.S. Marshalls in AR and OK in that time period, that was more commonly the case.

Riding alone out of Fort Smith into Indian Territory to dispatch outlaws during Judge Parker's time was a job for hard men.

[jq]

The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter

The Godfather

[LowRyter]

Riding alone out of Fort Smith into Indian Territory to dispatch outlaws during Judge Parker's time was a job for hard men.

hang 'em high

[Sheepdog]

Other than the ending scene, how so?

The locations were wrong and the John Wayne version really glossed over the seedier side of the story. At that point in the Duke's career, fans had certain heroic expectations...Holl ywood was happy to oblige.

[LowRyter]

I agree the Coen's and Bridges' movie was better. 

But I saw the original again and think John Wayne did a great job, even Oscar worthy.  It was surprisingly good considering Wayne's legacy and being made in 1969.  Yes, the ending was saccharine, his character wouldn't see Matti again, and Wayne couldn't jump a horse over a fence considering his age and health.

[adaven]

Riding alone out of Fort Smith into Indian Territory to dispatch outlaws during Judge Parker's time was a job for hard men.

Yup, lots of tough guys.

[rocker59]

The locations were wrong and the John Wayne version really glossed over the seedier side of the story. At that point in the Duke's career, fans had certain heroic expectations...Holl ywood was happy to oblige.

If by "locations were wrong" you mean "filming locations were wrong", then I agree.  Even as a kid seeing it at the theater, the 1969 version's beautiful Rocky Mountain landscapes made me go, "hmmm..."

But, the names were correct in the script, and the 2010 version filmed nowhere near Fort Smith, or The Winding Stair Mountains, but the landscapes did seem a little more believable.  A little more.

The Okie Campout is held smack in the middle of the area where the events in the book/movies took place.  The Winding Stair was a notorious hideout for scofflaws back during those days.

 

[oldbike54]

 Was wondering when someone was going to point out the fact that where we have the Okie is where the story took place 

 Dusty