Movies Totally Different From The Books They Were Based On

From Flavorwire:

With a few rare exceptions, most people tend to agree that the book version of a story is always better than the movie. But what about the cases when those two works are so different that they’re practically impossible to compare? We don’t mean stories where things have been tweaked a bit for the film adaptation, but rather movies that feature totally different endings, story lines, and main characters than the original book. Here are a few of our favorite examples. Be warned, spoilers ahead!

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Comments

[flodlite]

09:49 PM on 10/16/2011

Will Rodgers Jr. is claimed to have once said, " I never met a man I didn't like"..who...? Will Rodgers Jr. was a very southern advocate with strong political ties. Finish the..Who...?

[vaygollybum]

12:24 PM on 10/16/2011

Well.............when you can't sell your story on it's on merits, your use someone elses Title the fake in your own ideas.

[Jeremy Fridy]

11:01 AM on 10/16/2011

This list needed the I am Legend vs. the 3 Movie Versions, none of which are that close to the book.
The 3 Movie versions are The Last Man on Earth starring Vincent Price, The Omega Man starring Charlton Heston, and The Omega Man starring Will Smith. In my opinion, they all are descent films, but the book is better.

[Skyhawk]

02:09 PM on 10/15/2011

Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea adapted by the SyFy channel was a wash out.

[Samantha Giesige]

12:39 PM on 10/15/2011

Tennessee William's "Sweet Bird of Youth" ended VERY differently than Paul Newman's film version.

[flyjet787]

05:39 PM on 10/14/2011

The biggest disparity between book and movie in the examples above has to be "Less Than Zero". This is an incredible, dark, ethereal book, told entirely in first person. The movie is puerile nonsense that has almost nothing to do with the book (or its spirit) other than its character's names. The book gets an A+, the movie a D-.

[Rachel Lieberman]

09:58 AM on 10/14/2011

I love "Who Framed Roger Rabbit." "Who Censored Roger Rabbit" is probably one of the worst books I ever read. Especially the ending. If you're unlucky enough to have read this book, you know what I'm talking about.

[TheBaffler]

05:30 AM on 10/13/2011

Naked Lunch.

Adrian Lyne's Lolita. Not only is it artless, Lyne takes Humbert's self-serving accounting at face value.

[Satirist1]

11:59 PM on 10/11/2011

Two films come to mind:
"Bourne Identity." The book is hopelessly outdated 70s stuff almost completely ignored in the film. Justifiably so.
"Stalker" directed by Tarkovsky. Based on a story by great sci-fi writers Strugatsky. Completely reworked.

[donnyraindog]

11:10 PM on 10/11/2011

Suprised no one mentioned The Natural ,in Benard Malmuds novel Roy Hobbs takes a dive and strikes out at the end,a bit different the Redfords homerun that shuts down a city to say the least.

[quorthon]

04:44 PM on 10/11/2011

How about The Shining? It was, pace the Stephen King purists, also better than the book.

[Trickery]

03:16 PM on 10/11/2011

Rambo, how could you?! :O

[westcoast]

03:05 PM on 10/11/2011

Let us not forget the blockbuster trilogy the Bourne Identity. Other that the characters name and the begining it had nothing to do with the novel's story line.

[MIMom]

03:47 PM on 10/11/2011

The miniseries or the movies?

[westcoast]

04:40 PM on 10/11/2011

Movies...

[clearthinker16]

02:50 PM on 10/11/2011

I did know the difference about First Blood. I read the book, recommended by my father in law a long time before it became a movie. I loved the book, read it one afternoon, a snowy one in Canada.

[Mrjonz]

02:50 PM on 10/11/2011

How about "Forest Gump?" In the film he's this saintly idiot, but in the book he's a foul mouthed redneck. I could get past the first chapter.