Movies better than the book

I wish I could have made a bet on whether BW would reply to a reference to The Natural on this thread.
I'd have bet everything I owned, but I don't think I'd have made much. The odds were pretty high.

 

To be honest, I've never read the book that inspired Bladerunner, but it's hard to imagine it could be better.

 

A controversial selection:

All The President's Men.

Discuss.

 

Well, see, you got me there because I never read the book. Just heard all about the weird turns it took, especially at the end, and agreed with that person's account that it must suck donkeys.

 

Can I have some of what you're smoking? There's no way any sane person can say that with a straight face. Malamud's book was far superior to the movie. The movie's ending was pure Hollywood spectacle. The book's ending was better.

 

Schindler's List?

 

The movies dropped:

- Frodo saying "Oh No! Gotta take the ring out of here! . . . in a few months."
- Stopping for tea multiple times when leaving the Shire. Didn't create th general feeling of menace that the movie did.
- Tom Frackin' Bombadil. Was about to put the book down for good until my wife said, "Just skip to the chapter called Strider."
- Aragorn's whining after Boromir bought the farm.
- The Scouring of the Shire, an anti-climactic set of hoo-ha that added nothing other than Tolkien's desire to represent his hatred for technology and love for nature.

Plus, the entire series can be watched in only 11 hours. Try slogging through the book's oh-so-English style in three times that.

 

Perhaps if you don't like to read, or don't have the patience for reading.

The book was an excellent book. The movie was an excellent movie. Not sure the movie was better.

 

The book's really good. I recommend it. A very short, quick read, too.

The thing is, it's much darker than the movie. I wouldn't say it took any "weird" turns -- I won't spoil it, if you don't know -- but the ending certainly isn't "hero hits home run into the light fixtures" that made the movie so memorable. But it's a damn good story, a fine ending and the book holds its own when compared to the movie.

 

Wow. I absolutely love those movies, but there is a reason the books have been recognized as the best of the 20th century countless times.

 

Obviously, both were great, but I think the detail of the book just gives it the edge, as far as really understanding their processes.

 

There's an interesting passage in Roger Kahn's "Boys of Summer" where some of the Dodger players are passing around the newly released "The Natural" novel on an off day. One player (I forget which) exclaims "he lays three girls in that book and describes the hair on each one's snatch."

And he does. Still ... Roy Hobbs is a morose piece of shit in the book. Kind of like Barry Bonds, come to think of it ...