Book-to-Movie Adaptations that are Actually Good - Aryan Sachdev

Taking a break from my normal book reviews, here are some instances where a movie accurately encapsulates (or improves) the novel it is based upon. Normally, when someone is confronted with the idea that there was a movie adaptation of their favorite book, they automatically think that the movie remake will always be worse. However, Forrest Gump would prove them wrong.

If you haven't watched the movie yet, Forrest Gump is a movie about a man with an IQ of 75 with good intentions. We are taken through the life story of Gump, through his ups and downs, but he always stays optimistic about anything happening to him. However, the book was very disappointing and only remotely enjoyable if you had already watched the movie. The actors, including Tom Hanks, Elvis Presley, etc, and the director, Robert Zemeckis, brought this subpar novel to the screen in an amazing fashion.

The second novel I'll be talking about in this blog post is Jaws. Again, this book was rather unremarkable, thrilling while reading it, but nothing memorable. However, the film was immediately a hit in cinemas and became a classic in homes and as a basis for horror/thriller films to come. One main reason that so many people enjoyed it was the buildup of suspense throughout the plot. The director, Stephen Spielberg, insisted that the shark shouldn’t be seen for the first hour of the film, but instead wanted to show remnants after the shark had visited specific areas. This exponentially increased the cinematic experience, something the book couldn’t do.

Even though most movie remakes are disappointing, there are a special few that enhance and improve on the novel’s plot and characters. 

Hope you enjoyed this blog post,

-Aryan Sachdev

Comments

  1. LisaApril 19, 2021 at 12:34 PM

    Nice post! I like how you did the opposite of what most people do and talked about bad books with good movies rather than good books with bad movies. I also like how you referenced specific aspects of the movies that made them better. It was really interesting. I haven't read the book, but I agree that the movie "Forrest Gump" is really good. Overall, great job!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Evan W.April 22, 2021 at 9:40 AM

    I had no idea Forrest Gump and Jaws were originally books. I think it's quite strange that these seemingly unremarkable books got such talented adaptations. Also, I'm not sure if it's just me but your text wrapping isn't working so the text just goes out of the box to the right side of the screen.

    ReplyDelete
  3. NateApril 24, 2021 at 4:53 PM

    This post was very interesting to read. I think the majority of people don't know Jaws and Forrest Gump were original books, including me, so shedding some light onto this and actually showing there is good movie adaptations was a great idea. One thing, I do not know how but your words just did not decide to stay in the box and kept going to the right. Besides this great post!

    ReplyDelete
  4. ShreeyaApril 30, 2021 at 2:59 PM

    I'm noticing a lot of comments about this, but I too didn't know these two stories were originally books. I've only watched Jaws, so I agree with it being really good, but I've only heard of Forest Gump's greatness. I really like how you took the typical 'Book to Movie Adaptations Suck' argument and completely turned it on its head.

    ReplyDelete
  5. WilliamMay 12, 2021 at 9:09 AM

    Great post. Book-to-movie adaptations really have a bad reputation in my humble opinion, so it's nice to see some love for those that are actually good.

    ReplyDelete

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