• Welcome to BookAndReader!

    We LOVE books and hope you'll join us in sharing your favorites and experiences along with your love of reading with our community. Registering for our site is free and easy, just CLICK HERE!

    Already a member and forgot your password? Click here.

Movies adapted from Stephen King's books

M

Marie

kickbox
What's your favorite?

The obvious answer is The Shining with scary Jack Nicholson but there have been fine TV miniseries too (I'm thinking about "The Langoliers", "The Tommyknockers" or "The Stand).

Actually, I prefer the miniseries because they last 4 or 6 hours and are generally closer to the novels!
 
I absolutely love The Shawshank Redemption from his Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption- watched it at least a half dozen times.

I also liked Stand By Me from his novella The Body.
 
The Shining is one of my fav films...

Pet Sematary, Misery, Carrie and The Shawshank Redemption
are pretty good..

loved Salems Lot when i was a kid...
 
Agreed. I would reckon Shawshank falls into the exclusive group of frankly flawless modern films (I mean those made in the last twenty-five years or so). Much as I hate to admit it, having a passionate dislike for Tom Hanks in anything made after 1989, The Green Mile was also excellent.

Courting disaster, perhaps, but I don't think The Shining is that good. Apart from anything else, it's dated rather badly. Carrie is memorable for Sissy Spacek's mesmerising performance, especially covered in pig's blood, but there are no other characters in the film, really. The mini-series of The Stand was good, but could never do the book justice, if for no other reason than it was subject to the "made for TV" criteria. The same goes for It which, if anything, was even less successful - particularly in terms of preserving the sheer power of the novel.

Stand By Me still works after all these years, perhaps because (like Shawshank) it adheres almost word-for-word and passage-for-passage to the short story it's based upon. Another reason is that, again like Shawshank, it is one of the most emotionally resonant tales King has ever written.

Tobytook
 
I don't know why but when I posted the question, I hadn't thought about "The Shawshank Redemption" and "The Green Mile". I really loved both! They were faithful to the books and of course the casting was excellent for both movies.

I didn't like "Stand By Me" that much, though... But I hadn't cared for the story much either... Not that I don't like King writing "emotionally resonant" stories but "Hearts in Atlantis" was much better in that respect (I mean the book, the four stories of it and I must say, as much as I usually like Hopkins, the film was a total failure).

I really enjoyed both "Storm of the Century" and "Rose Red", even though these have never been novels.

It is amazing how many of King's books have been turned into movies ...

"The Dreamcatcher" (with Morgan Freeman, Jason Lee and Tom Sizemore among others) will be released in 2003: I'm curious to see what they will make of it!
 
The Shining

I recall reading that Stanley Kubrick would call SK with very odd questions in the middle of the night (calling Maine from CA can do that, I suppose!). He asked SK if he believed in the supernatural. Kubrick took the book as a starting point and made his own vision of the story, so it's not really a "faithful" adaptation. The idea of the hotel being a battery, storing the evil that ocurred within its walls was diluted, in favor of "Jack goes stir crazy."

There's been a TV adaption that is more faithful, but in a way it was harder to watch because of the endangered child aspect. I haven't seen the whole thing but it was scarey.

The new version of 'Salems Lot was very faithful and quite good.

All in all, though, Shawshank outshines the rest ...

O
 
Carrie (with Sissy Spacek) is definitely my favorite. Spacek was so amazing in the movie - she made the film, really. The reason I like it over Shawshank Redemption (my second favorite) is just the story itself. Meek and abused teen wreaks havoc on her tormentors, plus I'm fascinated by telekinesis and I enjoy a good horror movie.
 
Actually, "Carrie" is definitely stronger than the book, because the book was a hodge-podge of news clippings and articles rather than a straightforward narrative. Maybe the only case where the film surpasses the book?

O
 
Oberon said:
Actually, "Carrie" is definitely stronger than the book, because the book was a hodge-podge of news clippings and articles rather than a straightforward narrative. Maybe the only case where the film surpasses the book?

O
Click to expand...

I enjoyed the format of the book. I thought there was enough narrative to tell the story well. And I like being able to deduce plot elements based on things like the clippings - it's somewhat refreshing. But yeah, the movie kicked a$$ ;)

I can think of a few novels where the movie surpassed the book. "The Princess Bride" being on the top of that list
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top