I’m generally not one to partake in memes on the blog (especially not two in a row), but I figure that since I’ve been writing about movies pretty much non-stop for the past month, it might make a good palate cleanser before I get obsessed with another topic.
Anyway, a few days ago, the Guardian listed the 50 best movie adaptations of books. Aside from the rather odd snubbing of the Lord of the Rings movies, a few people have started marking the list with what they’ve seen and read. Michael Hanscom and Jason Kottke have done so, and so will I (each line is tagged with a B if I’ve read the book, and an M if I’ve seen the move):
1. [BM] 1984
2. [B] Alice in Wonderland
3. [M] American Psycho
4. Breakfast at Tiffany’s
5. Brighton Rock
6. Catch 22
7. [BM] Charlie & the Chocolate Factory
8. [M] A Clockwork Orange
9. Close Range (inc Brokeback Mountain)
10. The Day of the Triffids
11. [M] Devil in a Blue Dress
12. [M] Different Seasons (inc The Shawshank Redemption)
13. [M] Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (aka Bladerunner)
14. [M] Doctor Zhivago
15. Empire of the Sun
16. The English Patient
17. [BM] Fight Club
18. The French Lieutenant’s Woman
19. [M] Get Shorty
20. [M] The Godfather
21. [M] Goldfinger
22. [M] Goodfellas
23. [M] Heart of Darkness (aka Apocalypse Now)
24. [BM] The Hound of the Baskervilles
25. [M] Jaws
26. [M] The Jungle Book
27. A Kestrel for a Knave (aka Kes)
28. [M] LA Confidential
29. [M] Les Liaisons Dangereuses
30. [M] Lolita
31. Lord of the Flies
32. [M] The Maltese Falcon
33. Oliver Twist
34. [M] One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
35. Orlando
36. The Outsiders
37. Pride and Prejudice
38. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
39. The Railway Children
40. [M] Rebecca
41. The Remains of the Day
42. [M] Schindler’s Ark (aka Schindler’s List)
43. [M] Sin City
44. The Spy Who Came in From the Cold
45. [M] The Talented Mr Ripley
46. Tess of the D’Urbervilles
47. Through a Glass Darkly
48. [BM] To Kill a Mockingbird
49. [M] Trainspotting
50. [M] The Vanishing
51. Watership Down
Not so bad, but nowhere near as impressive as Sameer Vasta, who has both read and seen 34 items on the list (with only 5 that he hasn’t read or seen). Like everyone else who has done this, I have no idea why the top 50 adaptations actually contains 51 items…
50 Best Book-to-Film Adaptations
Remember that article in The Guardian that I linked to earlier this week that outlined the top 50 book adaptations into film? Well, turns out that article has spawned a new meme, which at the time of typing this, already has Michael, Jason, Mark, and C…
That’s interesting.
The ones that I’ve both seen and read:
2. Alice in Wonderland
7. Charlie & the Chocolate Factory
8. A Clockwork Orange
13. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (aka Bladerunner)
17. Fight Club
21. Goldfinger
23. Heart of Darkness (aka Apocalypse Now)
37. Pride and Prejudice
38. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
43. Sin City
48. To Kill a Mockingbird
Others I’ve seen and read:
Thinner, Slaughterhouse 5, War of the Worlds, Memento (Memento Mori), The Haunting, And Then There Were None, Frankenstein, Dracula, The Invisible Man, All of the other Bond movies that were books, A Series of Unfortunate Events, and too many others to name.
The 50 Best Books to Movies and Me
Since I’m drawing all my inspiration from Mark at Kaedrin, here is my take on the Guardian’s best 50 book to movie adaptations: 1. [BM] 1984 2. [BM] Alice in Wonderland 3. American Psycho 4. [M] Breakfast at Tiffany’s…