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[Supermercado]

So I finished the book last night and decided to watch the movie because it'd been a while since I'd seen it and I wanted to compare to the book. I can basically sum it up in one word: "Wow." Totally different. I know that books and their movie versions are usually pretty different but the differences between the book and the movie were huge. The British were totally left out of the movie, for one thing. The Soviet sub destroying itself and the American helicopter being destroyed were left out. An F-14 (although it wasn't an F-14 in the footage used in the movie) never crashed into the deck of the Enterprise. As I recall, Jack Ryan was never aboard the Dallas at all. Borodin never onced talked about Montana as far as I know... and in the book, he didn't get shot! What's the deal with that?

I could go on, but I'll leave it at that. I know stuff had to be cut for brevity and all but damn, they cut some important things. Who else has seen the movie and read the book and has thoughts?

[elmono311]

I don't think any of the Clancy movies are true to the books

[Supermercado]

Probably not. I'll find out soon enough, though, I suppose. I'm going to read all of them and watch as many of the movies as I can. I think I've got several of them.

I was just surprised at how different THfRO was from the book. Like, Jurassic Park, for instance... it's been a while since I've read the book or watched the movie, but weren't those two somewhat similar at least? In the case of THfRO, it seemed like there were more things different than there were the same. Sometimes it was like the only things the same were the character names, ranks, and the ship names. And not even those were all the same. The Soviet ambassador was a totally different character and he did all of his talking with the National Security Advisor, where in the book, he talked with the President while the National Security Advisor was there as an aide to the President. There was no President at all in the movie. They totally changed the last sequence as well. Instead of having the Dallas and the Pogy escort the Red October from the SC coast to Norfolk, they had only Dallas there as the Red October went to Maine. The Konavelov was there as it was in the book, but that ship wasn't destroyed by one of its own torpedoes. It was destroyed when the Red October broadsided it.

k, I've gone and done it again... talking at length about the differences when there's probably only a couple people here that are going to know what I'm talking about, haha. Oops.

[elmono311]

As many movies as you can? There's only four, buddy

I re-read Jurassic Park sometime last year. Most of it is similar, but there were changes of course. Genarro did not die in the initial T-Rex attack. There was another guy on the island. I forgot his name. But he's the one who died. Genarro, in fact, managed to fight off either a dilophosaurus or a velociraptor, forgot which. Henry Wu also stayed on the island and met a gruesome death at the claws of a raptor. There was also a baby T-Rex in the book, which was later put into the movie Lost World

Now there's something where the book and the movie are nowhere near the same. I believe the only things the same between movie and book is Sarah Harding and Isla Sorna. Nothing else is the same. Based on the book The Lost World by Michael Crichton my ass.

[Supermercado]

Well, yeah, there's only four, but if I don't have them, I can't very well watch them, can I?

[elmono311]

I have all of them except Clear and Present Danger

[Supermercado]

I think I might have them all. I'd have to check to be sure, though.

[disnut8]

Supermercado, you're going to be sorely disappointed with the book versus movie version of the one with the South American drug cartel.  Can't think of the name of the book right at the moment.  The movie has Willam Defoe in it.  It's an awful adaptation.

Lots of books and their movie counterparts don't even vaguely resemble each other.  I could go on and on about Stephen King novels that have been made into horrible movies.  That's why King holds on to the rights these days.  Two classic films from King novels that actually got it right were "Stand by Me" and "Shawshank Redemption".  "The Shining" was horrible, "Carrie" OK, "The Dead Zone" absolutely boring, even the TV movies "It" and "The Stand" were different from those epic novels.

[Catfish]

I believe that's Clear and Present Danger

[elmono311]

I would have loved to see them attempt to do The Stand word-for-word. I've seen the size of that huge novel.

[disnut8]

I would have loved to see them attempt to do The Stand word-for-word. I've seen the size of that huge novel.

It would have taken years.  Hell, Larry Underwood and Rita Blakemoor's horrific journey out of New York via the Lincoln Tunnel would give anyone nightmares if it was done right.  Case in point, though.  Rita Blakemoor isn't even in the mini-series.  She ends up dying of a drug overdose.  Larry freaks and then meets up with Nadine Cross.

The original published version of The Stand was cut down and it was still huge.  The uncut version is much, much better and fills in a ton of gaps.

[LostArtofRolando]

The Stand is one of my fave books ever! For those of former West graduates, remember when we used to have an open campus for finals (freshman year)?  I read the entire uncut version of the book during and between Finals that week.  I literally had maybe 4 hours of sleep that week because i couldnt put the book down.
  THis isnt a book to a movie, but the closest adaptation i have EVER seen between source and movie is Sin City.  That movie was so FRIGGIN awesome.  The first 5 minutes started off a tad slow, but then BAM, it never really stopped.  The dialogue in that movie WAS the comic book line for line.  It did sound a bit cliche or stretched at times, but i have to give them credit for sticking to the original stuff.  Awwww jeah, i cannot wait until that movie comes out on DVD.  Maybe i'll try and get my dad to go see it with me again.