Films From Books

Good films can be made from books, despite the default stance that the process is always a let down. Here's my list of good films from books:

1. The Big Sleep, dir. Howard Hawks. Terrific Raymond Chandler detective novel made into a cracking movie with Bogart and Bacall.
2. Bladerunner, dir Ridley Scott. PKD's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is thoughtful, discursive, meandering. Scott substitutes tension, action and more human(?) interaction. Good book, good film.
3. Picnic at Hanging Rock, dir. Peter Weir. Moody, atomospheric book, moody atmospheric film that wasn't a disappointment.
4. Bridge Over The River Kwai, dir David Lean. The big screeen really opened out this book, and added spectacle to the power struggle and character development, without sacrificing anything of Pierre Boulle's novel. And here's a good trivia question - what other Pierre Boulle book became a well-known film? Planet of the Apes! Believe it or not!
5. And I'll sneak in a short story adaptation: The Man Who Would Be King. Kipling's story is stirring, and John Huston's film rises to the challenge, without Kipling's imperialist overtones. Sean Connery and Michael Caine are superb.

Two more: <i>Cape Fear</i>, the 1962 version with Robert Mitchum, based on John D. MacDonald's <i>The Executioners</i>, and <i>An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge</i>, based on an Ambrose Bierce short story.

Oh yeah, Cape Fear. Good book, very good film.