Gwnewch y pethau bychain

I’m waiting for the movie…

According to the UK newspaper The Guardian, here is a list of the Top 50 book to film adaptations of all time (a list, oddly enough, containing 51 items). Note which ones you’ve seen the movie of and/or read the book for. For films with multiple adaptations, any film adaptation counts.

[MB]	1984
[MB]	Alice in Wonderland
	American Psycho
[M]	Breakfast at Tiffany’s
	Brighton Rock
[B]	Catch 22
[MB]	Charlie & the Chocolate Factory
[M]	A Clockwork Orange
	Close Range (inc Brokeback Mountain)
[M]	The Day of the Triffids
	Devil in a Blue Dress
[M]	Different Seasons (inc The Shawshank Redemption)
[MB]	Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (aka Bladerunner)
[M]	Doctor Zhivago
	Empire of the Sun
	The English Patient
	Fight Club
	The French Lieutenant’s Woman
	Get Shorty
[M]	The Godfather
[MB]	Goldfinger
[M]	Goodfellas
[MB]	Heart of Darkness (aka Apocalypse Now)
[MB]	The Hound of the Baskervilles
	Jaws
[MB]	The Jungle Book
	A Kestrel for a Knave (aka Kes)
	LA Confidential
[MB]	Les Liaisons Dangereuses
[MB]	Lolita
	Lord of the Flies
[MB]	The Maltese Falcon
[MB]	Oliver Twist
[M]	One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
	Orlando
	The Outsiders
[MB]	Pride and Prejudice
	The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
	The Railway Children
	Rebecca
[M]	The Remains of the Day
[M]	Schindler’s Ark (aka Schindler’s List)
[B]	Sin City
[M]	The Spy Who Came in From the Cold
	The Talented Mr Ripley
[MB]	Tess of the D’Urbervilles
[MB]	To Kill a Mockingbird
	Trainspotting
	The Vanishing
[MB]	Watership Down

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9 Comments

  1. No Princess Bride!?!

    That’s one of the best adaptations out there!

    • Re: No Princess Bride!?!

      I don’t disagree, but I didn’t make the list. 🙂

      One of the things I love about Top-X lists of *anything* is arguing about what they left out, and about what got put in that doesn’t belong.

    • Re: No Princess Bride!?!

      my first thought too! and blade runner definitely does *not* make my list -- the film sucked!

      • Re: No Princess Bride!?!

        I like Princess Bride as well and agree it is a good adaptation. I also think the HP movies have done a very good job of staying true to the book overall (too true in some cases say my friends who haven’t read the books)

        I used to think Blade Runner sucked -- but friend kept saying to me “no no! You have to see it on a big screen!!!” and finally I did. You know what? They were right! Or at least I thought so. I like it quite well now, cinematically it was lovely on the big screen. But it REALLY lost something on video.

        YMMV 😉

        • Re: No Princess Bride!?!

          Hm -- okay, he may be right; I have no way of telling. But what struck me forcibly when I saw it on video was that, had I not read the book, I would have had absolutely no idea what was going on.

          I agree about the HP movies too -- they did a brilliant job. (In the other direction, my vote goes to Yes Minister, Tron and ET -- superb novelisations all)

          • Re: No Princess Bride!?!

            If you can *find* it, check out the non-directors-cut version. It’s my personal opinion (and not one shared by many, but hey-) that the directors cut *ruined* that movie.

          • Re: No Princess Bride!?!

            I want a hybrid version. I want rid of the happy bus ride at the end of the original but I quite like the voice over.

  2. You know, the movie of “Lolita” was almost unbearably dull.

  3. I was going to mention the Potter flicks, but someone beat me to it. 😉

    I’m minorly disappointed to not see Jurassic Park on the list, laugh if you must. Personally, I thought they did quite the decent job making the book into a movie (excluding the special effects, mind you).

    The other other two books/movies could fall off the planet, should’ve never been written/produced, IMHO.

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