Books Whose Film Adaptations Were Better Than The Source Material

The phrase, “The book is better than the movie,” is so commonplace, that the mere mention of these words will often draw moans from the average non-reader or easily annoyed theatergoer in nothing flat. It’s almost a cliche at this point. Chances are that books, video games, comic books or other adapted source material will always be held in higher regard than their movie counterpart for whatever reason.

Maybe it’s unfair to compare books and movies though. Despite both being artistic mediums, they differ greatly in their presentation of material to the intended audience. Books draw in their reader with a power that movies do not possess, and that’s the power of the reader’s imagination. Outside of the prose and description they’re provided with, the reader controls everything else that filters through their mind. Imagery, music, colors, landscapes, characters, it’s all up to the interpretation of the reader. So, it’s unavoidable that readers are more than likely going to be disappointed when they see their favorite books turned into movies, because the films will hardly ever match the expectations or preconceived images they entered the theater with.

But there are instances where film adaptations eclipse their source material by producing a superior product that actually improves upon the original. I don’t mean to imply that books in such cases are poorly written. In fact, I love some of these books. They’re well crafted, have won awards and captivated millions. But for whatever reason, the cinematic versions illicit certain emotions that were never extracted when reading the texts and in the process create a more fulfilling experience.

Here are some examples:
Jaws (Peter Benchley)Peter Benchley’s Jaws was a successful and well received book. It is however, not as well received as Steven Speilberg’s movie of the same name, a movie that is credited with creating the modern blockbuster. Jaws is a perfect movie in my opinion. The cast, the score, the mood, the cinematography, it is all executed exceptionally well. Benchley’s Jaws, while well written and certainly suspenseful, has a certain bleakness in its characters that the movie does not possesses. The characters of Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) and Chief Brody (Roy Scheider) hate each other in the book. Brody’s wife cheats on him with Hooper and there’s a lot of added drama that distracts from the whole shark smorgasbord that happens to be going on in the background. As a result, the characters are highly unlikable, which is a sharp contrast to the movie version, where even Quint, the crazed Ahab archetype, is likable in his roguish manner (mostly because Robert Shaw was an amazing actor). So, when it comes down to it, I’ll take John Williams iconic score and a grey animatronic shark over curling up with Benchley’s paperback.

City of God (Paulo Lins) – Paulo Lins’ City of God is a dense, complex novel that introduces many characters and perspectives at an almost breakneck speed. The movie wisely condenses these narratives down and while still presenting a glut of characters and perspectives itself, it manages to make everything easily digestible to the viewer. The book is very well written and profound at times, but has enough viewpoints to rival an E.L. Doctorow novel. And I’m not a huge fan of books that require scribbling flow charts on napkins to keep up with the characters. I do like this book a lot though. The movie, however, I like a lot more as it happens to be one of my favorites of all time. I struggle to remember too many other movies that were the emotional gut punch this movie was. Brilliant stuff.

Lord of the Rings (J.R.R. Tolkien) – Don’t get me wrong, I love Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, I do. But Tolkien’s somewhat bland prose (at least compared to modern fantasy writers like George R. R. Martin) is trumped by the world that Peter Jackson created for his epic three part adaptation. Jackson did many wise things with his movies. He chose a cast of mostly unknowns and low profile actors. He slightly modified the timelines of events for the three books, placing some things that happened in Two Towers in Return of the King and vice versa. The result was a more fluid narrative that improved upon the sluggish pace of Tolkien’s final book.

Honorable Mentions

I feel like there are also a number of movies which are solid adaptations that live up to their source material, but do not really surpass them. Shutter Island is one example. It’s a book that is skillfully written and consequently, skillfully directed. Scorsese’s adaptation of Dennis Lehane’s thriller is faithful enough to not displease fans and tense enough to stimulate moviegoers. I also think some of the Harry Potter movies draw even with their source material (I know there are plenty of people who would argue with me on this, but I believe The Prisoner of Azkaban and The Goblet of Fire were pretty close to matching Rowling’s novels).

I’d be interested to see if the ratio of favoring the book over the movie changes when someone sees the movie first and then reads the book. Have you ever found yourself doing it in this order? Were you disappointed when you read the book? Do you have any movies that you think are better than their book counterparts? If so, what are they?