Books I love in their movie form...

It's been a busy couple of weeks for me since Christmas. But after watching "Ramona & Beezus" last night, and being somewhat disappointed by the meshing of four books into one movie, I figured I have enough thoughts for at least two blog posts. Here is the first...

Books I love in their movie form.
1. The Last Picture Show (1971)
2. Rebecca (1941)
3. The Godfather (1972)
4. The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
5. East of Eden (1955)
6. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
7. Of Mice and Men (1993)
8. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)
9. The Shining (1980) ... despite the fact that this version isn't as true to the book as it could be.
10. Friday Night Lights (2004)

There are more. But I figure 10 is probably good.

Now, there are some cases where good filmmakers can turn a great book into a good movie. Kubrick immediately comes to mind. But Hitchcock does well with film adaptations, too.

You'll also notice three John Steinbeck novels made into movies on my list. Why? Because Steinbeck wrote some really good shit that translates well into films -- especially my one anomaly, "Of Mice and Men."

The 1993 version with John Malkovich as Lenny and starring Gary Sinise as George, is leaps and bounds better than the old black and white version, simply because of what you could do in cinema in 1993 versus what you couldn't do prior to 1967.

Malkovich really brings Lenny to life in this film, but especially in the fight scene with Curly and the scene in which he accidentally kills Curly's wife. It's a very realistic film that is very true to the book but really makes it just pop on the big screen. It should be noted, however, that "East of Eden" and "The Grapes of Wrath" were equally impressive -- despite being made anywhere from 40 to 50 years prior to this remake. Of course, the impressiveness for "The Grapes of Wrath" has a lot more to do with John Ford and Henry Fonda... but...

I call "Of Mice and Men" (1993) my one anomaly, though, simply because the majority of the books that were made into movies that were actually good were often times done well before I was born and nine times out of 10, prior to 1960.