Is the Movie Ever Better Than the Book?

Friday, March 25, 2022

For Oscars month, we asked readers Is the movie EVER better than the book? More than sixty respondents were eager to share some strong opinions!

You may be surprised to hear that the breakdown between The book is always better and Sometimes the book and movie are different but equally good was just about 50-50. Clearly Library folks love their books, but there's a lot of love for the cinema here too.

Among movies considered to improve on their source material, a whopping 6 people (almost 10% of respondents) mentioned The Godfather. (One person qualified "except III.")

Left: The Godfather by Mario Puzo, 1969
Right: The Godfather, 1972, dir. Francis Ford Coppola

Three people preferred the 1939 film of Gone with the Wind over Margaret Mitchell's 1936 bestseller:

Left: Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, 1936
Right: Gone with the Wind, 1939, dir. Victor Fleming (etc.)

Two people cited Jaws as one they'd rather watch than read - "because of the visuals," someone mentioned:

Left: Jaws by Peter Benchley, 1974
Right: Jaws, 1975, dir. Stephen Spielberg

And two people said the same of another visually arresting film, The English Patient:

Left: The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje, 1992
Right: The English Patient, 1996, dir. Anthony Minghella

The rest of the film-vs-book submissions follow. Agree? Disagree? Have another to add? Get in touch on Twitter or Facebook. Happy reading and/or viewing!

Left: Angels & Demons by Dan Brown, 2000
Right: Angels & Demons, 2009, dir. Ron Howard

Left: The Bridge Over the River Kwai by Pierre Boulle, 1954
Right: The Bridge On the River Kwai, 1957, dir. David Lean

Left: The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller, 1992
Right: The Bridges of Madison County, 1995, dir. Clint Eastwood

Left: Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding, 1998
Right: Bridget Jones's Diary, 2001, dir. Sharon Maguire

Left: Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín, 2009
Right: Brooklyn, 2015, dir. John Crowley

Left: A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess, 1962
Right: A Clockwork Orange, 1971, dir. Stanley Kubrick

Left: Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier, 1997
Right: Cold Mountain, 2003, dir. Anthony Minghella

Left: The Conformist by Alberto Moravia, 1951. (The contributor remarks that perhaps the translation they read wasn't ideal.)
Right: The Conformist, 1971, dir. Bernardo Bertolucci