For me, personally, It would be Snatch. It’s such a great movie that I could watch again and again. So many interesting characters and a unique style that sets it apart from so many other movies. There’s just that extra something in that movie
What about you, fellow Lemmites? What is your favourite movie?
The film was a near perfect rendition of the book. The only other case I can think of like that is LOTR.
So many things about that film are spot on - the casting, the direction, the music (Pixies, Dust Brothers). Again, LOTR also hit all the right notes in that respect.
I had the pleasure of meeting Chuck Palahniuk at a signing some years ago.
At the time I’d been active in an IRC chat room associated with his online writing group. The guy who ran the website for the group had written a script and got Chuck’s approval to run a contest. Buy a t-shirt for the site and you get one entry. Top prize, you get a character named after you in Chuck’s next book.
So here I am at his reading/signing and I brought two shirts to have signed. And he recognizes this means there’s stakes here.
“What’s your name?” “Pronell Mordini.” “…I hope you lose.”
And I did lose, but I still got a good story. Also my real name is really awkward and I don’t blame him one bit.
You won, today.
LOTR did make a few notable changes, but I would argue they worked in the films benefit and didn’t lose anything. for example Arwen saving Frodo is an excellent change
Translating a book to film is somewhat analogous to translating literature, particularly poetry, from one language to another. If the translation is too literal it risks failing in the target medium, whereas if it’s too idiomatic then it risks reshaping the source material.
In the case of LOTR, as you say, the changes made for a better film, while remaining true to the source material, and so were entirely justified. The Hobbit, on the other hand, was a complete travesty, partly because they practically rewrote the story.
“Translation is that which transforms everything so that nothing changes.”
– Günter Grass
I agree there’s no room in the films for Glorfindel but it’s still a shame. Also they were such a sausage fest even with Liv Tyler lol, no argument from me.
Hey, trivia, when Arwen was riding Frodo to Rivendell in flight to the ford she coaxes her horse to ride faster. Noro lim Asfolath, noro lim!
Asfolath is actually the name of Glorfindel’s horse so there’s that 🙃