Many novels find their way into adapted screenplays and are then introduced to a new audience on the big screen. Some of them, however successful, are a pale representation of the novel from which they are spawned. With the apparent success of “World War Z”, Just Cool Stuff, takes a look at other hit films that were hardly like the novels they were spawned from.
Max Brooks’ hit novel is a gritty, in-depth examination of the world as it has evolved in the aftermath of a global zombie invasion. In the novelization, the United Nations sends an agent into the field to gather stories and events that occured prewar, during, and postwar. Through this mission, we discover the heroism of individuals, the cruelty of nations, and the panic of the planet at large when we realize that, in spite of our technological advances, were not prepared. It maps out every facet of a global virus outbreak and how we, as humans, step up to the challenge and overcome our deepest fears.
World War Z keeps the global pandemic setting and turns the commissioned U.N. agent into the one man that can find the cause and cure for this outbreak. JCS’ Bryan Dunn will be posting a review and will enlighten us to how great of a separation from the novel this movie really is.
Jaws is a movie that has globally given pause to anyone who has set foot in the ocean and mentally caused them to hear John Williams’ bone-chilling two-note intro to this film. Peter Benchley’s horrifying tale of a man eating shark that invades the sleepy island of Amity, was a cinch to become a movie. It was Steven Spielberg’s vision and direction that launched his career and forever tormented beach-goers. The climax of the film sees the gore-laden demise of shark hunter Quint, the near death of oceanographer Hooper, and the now iconic scene of police chief Brody, lying prone on the sinking mast of The Orca, exclaiming “Smile you sonovabitch!” seconds before the bullet from his M-1 Garand perfectly strikes the oxygen tank in the shark’s mouth and exploding, send bits of the massive shark spewing into the air. It’s a bloody, albeit happy ending to the film that never occured in the novel. The novel paints a more troubled portrait of Chief Brody’s marriage, one that involves Hooper as one third of a love triangle, Quint is much more hardened and bad ass and has a Captain Ahab quality to him, and the legendary shark leaves us to wonder; “Will it EVER be safe to go back in the ocean?”
Jurassic Park and it’s subsequent follow-up, The Lost World demolished records on both the silver screen as well as the New York Times Best Seller list. When it came time to convert Michael Crichton’s novel into a screenplay, Spielberg once again took some liberties as well as scenes from both novels. Leaving out certain dinosaurs could be forgiven solely on the T-Rex paddock escape scene.Replacing the gruesome demise of DNA thief Dennis Nedry and, not only shrinking the Dilophosarus down to adorable proportions, but leaving the scene to our imaginations was pushing it. The straw that broke the velociraptor’s back was when he chose to off fan favorite Robert Muldoon. Did we love the film in spite of these changes? Of course. Would the movie have made a bajillion dollars more if the aforementioned scenes had been included? Who knows? All I know is that the movie would have been much cooler if Muldoon had gone on a raptor killing spree and Nedry had wound up with an armful of his own innards!
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