Better than the Book?

It’s a cop out to say the book is better than the movie. There are times when the movie is far, far better. But readers insist the book is better? Why is that? Tribalism. Or, “I read the book and you didn’t”-ism.

The first time I ran across something like this was when I was listening to a popular Type O Negative album (Bloody Kisses) after returning from Germany in ‘95. A fellow soldier heard them in New York before they were popular and called me out as a Johnny Come Lately. I explained to him that I liked their earlier album, I was on another continent when they were coming up, and nobody outside of NYC heard of them before that album. He backed down.

But this happens between books and movies. To be fair, many times the book is better. But as Orson Card says, we’re comparing apples to tomatoes…one’s a fruit, and the other is a berry we call a vegetable. Movies can’t compete with a novel’s ability to put you in the viewpoint character’s mind. We can’t feel what they feel.

One of my favorite movies is The Postman (1997), produced by Kevin Costner. It’s based on the David Brin book The Postman (1985). I enjoyed the movie, then read the book. And I liked the book until we got to a deux et machina ending. There was no Chekov’s Gun to tell is it was coming. The movie was more patriotic. It flopped at the box living in Waterworld’s shadows. But if it was re-released after 9/11, it would have been a hit. (Nod to Costner for not doing that.)

“Do you know why you can’t win? Because you don’t believe in anything.” (General Bethlehem played by William Patton, love his performance.)

“I believe in the United States.” Head butt… victory… sappy romantic wrap-up… curtain. (Costner)

But Clavell’s Shogun and Taipan were far better than the series and movie; of any version. Granted, he had nearly a thousand pages to get his thought across. But Taipan glossed over so much of the story to fit its time budget that you lost that the story was a coming of age/emerging from the shadow for the taipan’s son.

So rather than ask you which movie under-performed the book, I’m going to ask a different question. What book adaptation did you find was better than the book?