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Five AVERAGE books adapted into BETTER films

17th December 2018

Do you like it when a book you’ve really enjoyed reading becomes a great film too? Or would you like the original art form to be untainted by the big screen? Or which films have you enjoyed watching that have been adapted from books that you haven’t already read? Do you like to read the ‘book of the film‘ first, or are you happier seeing the book brought to life, before going back to read the story that inspired a movie?

In the third of our series, we’re indebted to TripFiction member Andrea Stoeckel for the inspiration to look at five AVERAGE BOOKS adapted into BETTER FILMS.

1. The Bridges of Madison County – set in IOWA

BOOK  – by Robert James Waller

A man. A woman. The heat of an Iowa summer. And the brief encounter whose passion will last a lifetime.

‘We all dream of the chance meeting, that moment when we feel we are really living. Waller shows us that it can happen, with compelling assurance’ (Sunday Telegraph)

FILM – released in 1995. Nominated for 1 Oscar and 2 Golden Globes. Directed by Clint Eastwood. Five AVERAGE books adapted into BETTER filmsStarring Clint Eastwood, Meryl Streep & Annie Corley.

The path of Francesca Johnson’s future seems destined when an unexpected fork in the road causes her to question everything she had come to expect from life. While her husband and children are away at the Illinois state fair in the summer of 1965, Robert Kincaid happens to turn into the Johnson farm and asks Francesca for directions to Roseman Bridge. Francesca later learns that he was in Iowa on assignment from National Geographic magazine. She is reluctant seeing that he’s a complete stranger and then she agrees to show him to the bridges and gradually she talks about her life from being a war-bride from Italy which sets the pace for this bittersweet and all-too-brief romance of her life.

Through the pain of separation from her secret love and the stark isolation she feels as the details of her life consume her, she writes her thoughts of the four-day love affair which took up three journals. The journals are found by her children after the lawyer was going over Francesca’s will and all the contents which produces a key to her hope chest in the bedroom which contained some of hers and Robert’s things.

The message they take from the diaries is to what you what you have to do to be happy in life. After learning that Robert Kincaid’s cremated remains were scattered off Roseman Bridge and that their mother requested that she too be cremated and her ashes to be scattered off Roseman Bridge, the children must decide whether to honour their mother’s final wishes or bury her alongside their father as the family had planned.

2. The Horse Whisperer – set in MONTANA

BOOK – by Nicholas Evans

In the still of a snow-covered morning in upstate New York, a girl out riding her horse is hit by a 40-ton truck. Though horribly injured, both thirteen-year-old Grace Maclean and her horse Pilgrim survive. But the impact on their lives is devastating.

Grace’s mother Annie hears about a man called Tom Booker, a ‘whisperer’ who is said to have the gift of healing troubled horses. Abandoning her job, Annie sets off across the continent with Grace and Pilgrim to find him. Under the massive Montana sky, all their lives are changed for ever.

FILM – released in 1998. Nominated for 1 Oscar and 2 Golden Globes. Directed by Robert Redford. Starring Robert Five AVERAGE books adapted into BETTER filmsRedford, Kristin Scott Thomas & Sam Neill.

It is a cold winter night. Grace and her best friend Judith go for a ride with their horses, but a terrible accident changes her life forever. A truck hits them, Judith and her horse are killed, while Grace and her horse Pilgrim are seriously injured, both physically and mentally.

In an attempt to bring Pilgrim back from his traumatised condition, Grace’s mother Annie takes them to Montana in search of Tom Booker. Tom is a renowned “horse whisperer”, a cowboy with the ability to “communicate” with horses. In the land of the Wild West Annie will change the way she sees life forever, as the wise cowboy slowly heals the souls of Pilgrim and Grace…

3. The Graduate – set in CALIFORNIA

BOOK – by Charles Webb

As far as Benjamin Braddock’s parents are concerned, his future is sewn up. Now he has graduated from college, he will go to Yale or Harvard, get a good job and enjoy a life of money, cocktails and pool parties in the suburbs, just like them.

For Benjamin, however, this isn’t quite enough.

When his parents’ friend Mrs Robinson, a formidable older woman, strips naked in front of him and they begin an affair, it seems he might have found a way out. That is, until her daughter Elaine comes into the picture, and things get far more complicated.

FILM – released in 1967. Won 1 Oscar and nominated for 6 other Oscars. Directed by Mike Nichols. Starring Dustin Five AVERAGE books adapted into BETTER filmsHoffman, Anne Bancroft & Katharine Ross.

Ben Braddock has recently graduated from college, with his parents now expecting great things from him.

At his “Homecoming” party, Mrs. Robinson, the wife of his father’s business partner, has Ben drive her home, which leads to an affair between the two. The affair eventually ends, but comes back to haunt him when he finds himself falling for Elaine, Mrs. Robinson’s daughter.

4. The Godfather – set in NEW YORK CITY

BOOK – by Mario Puzo

The story of Don Vito Corleone, the head of a New York Mafia family, inspired one of the most successful movie franchises ever. It is in Mario Puzo’s The Godfather that Corleone first appears. As Corleone’s desperate struggle to control the Mafia underworld unfolds, so does the story of his family.

The novel is full of exquisitely detailed characters who, despite leading unconventional lifestyles within a notorious crime family, experience the triumphs and failures of the human condition.

Filled with the requisite valour, love, and rancour of a great epic, The Godfather is arguably ‘trashy’ in literary terms, but still a definitive gangster novel.

FILM – released in 1972. Won 3 Oscars and nominated for 8 other Oscars. Directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Starring Marlon Brando, Al Pacino & James Caan.

The Godfather “Don” Vito Corleone is the head of the Corleone Mafia family in New York. He is at his daughter’s wedding, as is Michael, Vito’s youngest son and a decorated WW II Marine.

Michael seems uninterested in being a part of the family business. Vito is a powerful man, and is kind to all those who give him respect but is ruthless against those who do not. But when a powerful and treacherous rival wants to sell drugs and needs the Don’s influence, Vito refuses to give it.

What follows is a clash between Vito’s fading old values and the new ways, which cause Michael to do what he was most reluctant to get involved in. A mob war against all the other mafia families ensues, which could tear the Corleone family apart.

5. About a Boy – set in LONDON

BOOK – by Nick Hornby

Set in London in the 1990s, this is Hornby at full throttle.

Will is in his mid 30s, comfortably well off and no children by choice. His discovery that he can meet women through single-parent groups allows him access to single women. Enter Marcus, 12, precocious and a tad nerdish, with a Mum who mollycoddles him a little too zealously.

The two pair up and an unlikely friendship builds up between Will and Marcus’ Mum.

FILM – released in 2002. Nominated for 1 Oscar, 2 Golden Globes and 2 BAFTAs. Directed by Chris & Paul Weitz. Starring Hugh Grant, Nicholas Hoult & Toni Collette.

12 year-old Marcus Brewer lives with his chronically depressed single mother, Fiona Brewer. Both Fiona and Marcus beat to their own respective drummers. Marcus will do whatever he can to make his depressed mother happy, even if it causes himself grief. As such, he realises that he is perceived as different than most kids, as even the self-professed weird kids don’t want to hang out with him.

Meanwhile, 38 year-old Will Freeman is a slacker who has lived comfortably off the royalties of a song written by his deceased father, and has never had to work a day in his life. He is a solitary man who places himself as the first and only priority in life. He comes across the idea that dating single Mums might meet his selfish carnal needs.

It is in this capacity that Will meets Marcus, and Marcus’s Mum….

Well, what do YOU think? Do you agree with these choices? Which books do you think were adapted into better films? We’d love to hear your thoughts below.

Other posts in our BOOKS adapted into FILMS series:

Five GREAT books adapted into five GREAT films

Five GREAT books adapted into five DISAPPOINTING films

Andrew for the TripFiction team

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Comments

  1. User: Bev Bookless

    Posted on: 21/12/2018 at 7:23 am

    I generally enjoy the book more than the film. I saw An English Patient before reading the book. I enjoyed the film and it inspired me to read the book, which I loved. I have to disagree with Andrea on The Horse Whisperer. I thought the book was very good and was disappointed by the film. I wonder whether where and when you read a book has an impact upon your impression. I read The Horse Whisperer on a much needed family holiday in Corsica. What do others think?

    Comment

  2. User: Kathleen Jowitt

    Posted on: 18/12/2018 at 3:46 pm

    I regretted having read ‘Casino Royale’ before seeing the film (the Daniel Craig version, not the spoof!) – I rather felt the book had spoiled the ending for me!

    Comment

  3. User: Nicki

    Posted on: 17/12/2018 at 8:23 pm

    I loved the audio version of About A Boy when I listened to it a few months ago. I’ve got a copy of the DVD and can’t wait to watch and compare the two.

    Comment

  4. User: barbara baer

    Posted on: 17/12/2018 at 4:55 pm

    Totally agree with last three, Godfather over all, but Madison County and horse Whisperer remain mediocre in any genre. About a Boy was a fun, witting film. Hugh Grant can pull off just about anything.

    Comment