There are of course reasons why novels and
their adapted screenplays never match up well when judged by linear standards and often match up in no way at all. People inherently
approach novels and movies in a different way; simplistically: novels with patience and movies
without. We expect a movie to be fast and linear and horizontal. We expect a
lot to happen at once.
For a theatrical adaptation to be
completely faithful to its novel it would have to run from 15 to 30 hours long
and put every viewer to sleep. Books and movies are apples and
oranges.
But then there are the novellas: briefer and simpler in terms of themes and ideas and applicable to more direct translation into a visual story of a couple hours length. And what
famous author writes a damn fine novella?
Stephen King for one.
39. Stand By Me (1986, USA)
Wil Wheaton, River Pheonix, Corey
Feldman, Jerry O’Connell, Kiefer Sutherland
Is it because the movie – like the song, is a resonant anthem of
friendship and that friendship is perhaps our most coveted external asset? Perhaps
secretly so? A relationship model which often engenders more trust or longer
endurance then that of the presumed-superior love-relationship/marriage model?
The performances here are superb, in large part due, some insiders claim, to the bang-on
casting of four boys with real-life personalities exactly like their characters.
Director: Rob Reiner (The Princess Bride)
Budget: $ 8,000,000
IMDB rating: 8.1
The four novellas in Different
Seasons were in fact written at different times across many seasons. They lacked typical horror elements and for a long time appeared to have no home in
the publishing world until King, with all of his acquired clout and renown,
simply brought them together as one book. And what a tome it was: In addition
to The Body: he included Apt Pupil, a more sinister youth
adventure also adapted to film in 1988 to far less fanfare than Stand By Me; and
a winter’s tale called The Breathing
Method and finally, rather spectacularly: a tale fated for much fame, about
friendship and survival within a federal prison, called Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption:
40. The Shawshank Redemption (1994, USA)
Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman, Bob
Gunton,
What heresy might I be hanged for if I dared compare William
Shakespeare with Stephen King! Let me confess right off that I’ve never enjoyed
a single Shakespearian sentence, and rarely comprehended one. I am not personally
aware of him being any kind of genius. I’m only aware that he had a very big voice in his day, and thus speaks
for his era.
Does King perhaps do the same? Without precedent he has literally owned an entire genre for half a
lifetime, yet looking at his writing one seems to find no genius there either.
Could it be that the genius of these writers lies in honesty? People everywhere
seem to look upon King like they would a plane crash: "Ew! How does he come up with all that weird and macabre stuff!
What an imagination!"
I suggest to you that King is simply a fearless man; unafraid of his
imagination or to admit how wild the human imagination truly is. Thus, unlike
the rest of us, he does not fetter himself.
I read every book King released for a couple decades before the habit trailed
off. I loved the Shawshank story and the movie too but I’ll be damned if I can
pinpoint why! On the Internet Movie Database website, more than one and a half
million viewers have contributed to an average Shawshank score of 9.3 stars out
of 10! That is almost unfathomable!
Writers: Stephen King, Frank Darabont
Director: Frank Darabont (The
Green Mile)
Budget: $25,000,000
IMDB rating: 9.3
41. The Shining (1980, USA/UK)
Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny
Lloyd, Scatman Crothers
And here’s the exception! The full-length novel which was somehow very successfully
transformed into film despite the necessary story modifications. But really, how
could it miss with such a deeply insightful visual artist as Kubrick and
wickedly crafty casting! Nicholson was born to play a madman. Duvall personally
suffered through the project and was given little mercy; in fact was apparently
provoked into further losing her shit in order to transform her authentically
into the eerie fragile basket-case which further imperilled poor little Danny
Torrence; portrayed by the unusually deep-minded six-year-old Danny Lloyd who in
this extraordinary debut was carefully coddled with blinders so as to not grasp
the kind of story he was so effectively helping to create. He later portrayed a
young G. Gordon Liddy in a TV movie before deciding at age eight that acting
wasn’t for him! I doubt the true nature of his Shining experience had been
revealed to him by that point but it was probably a very wise decision
considering our society’s tremendous skill at ruining the humanity of young
stars! Let’s face it: Destroying climate and destroying young celebrities are probably
our two areas of collective expertise. High five...
Am I rambling? Surely no one is reading this because surely you have
all seen this masterpiece already! Even I have seen it a few times and I normally
avoid horror flicks at any cost!
Writers: Stephen King, Stanley Kubrick, Diane Johnson (Le divorce)
Director: Stanley Kubrick (A Clockwork Orange)
Budget: $19,000,000
IMDB rating: 8.4
And now, this important message from veteran musician Ry Cooder:
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