The War of the Worlds. We've had modern adaptations and the BBC series which was so annoyingly close to the right track but veered off it script-wise (sometimes for budgetary reasons I assume) but never a truly faithful adaptation of one of the landmark books of science fiction. Just once I want to see the British army of the Victorian period being given a beating by the Martians, Thunderchild steaming in to take on the tripods etc etc. The material is so good so why has it never been done?
Great books that have never been given faithful treatment on screen
- Thread starter nightowl
- Start date
danny la rouge
More like *fanny* la rouge!
I once read, I think it was Hitchcock(?), saying that novels don’t make good films. Short stories are the written form that’s closest to the feature film, and they make better adaptations.
Bus Honeygun
This week the score draws are plentiful
Bonfire of the Vanities. A dense, wry, interwoven study of class and race in 1980s New York with all the life sucked out of it by Hollywood.
danny la rouge
More like *fanny* la rouge!
That was a terrible book.
The39thStep
Urban critical thinker
The Revolution Betrothed
mojo pixy
...שלא נמצא בשמאל
One of my favourite books from / about World War II is "The Long Walk" by Slawomir Rawicz. He was captured in 1939 by Russian troops as he fled east away from the German invasion, and after being tortured was sent to a labour camp in Siberia. Later he, along with several others, escaped the camp and travelled south on foot, through the forest, around lake Baikal, across the Gobi desert and over the Himalaya mountains, to India. They didn't all survive, and the journey took nearly 3 years, but as a true story of hope, cameraderie and endurance in the face of great danger and insane odds, it's as good as you'll ever read.
Imagine my excitement when I discover a film has been made of it. Imagine my disappointment when said film turns out to be an anti-communist screed that explicitly compares the escapees' three year ordeal of frostbite, sunstroke, thirst and malnutrition to life under communism 1946-90.
It's obscure and I don't expect another film of this book, but it certainly was a let down.
Imagine my excitement when I discover a film has been made of it. Imagine my disappointment when said film turns out to be an anti-communist screed that explicitly compares the escapees' three year ordeal of frostbite, sunstroke, thirst and malnutrition to life under communism 1946-90.
It's obscure and I don't expect another film of this book, but it certainly was a let down.
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