Books v Movies and "Endless Love"
I read a truly phenomenal book just recently and I'm surprised to say that it's Scott Spencer's "Endless Love," the very same "Endless Love" that inspired one of the worst movies and one of the worst songs of all time. I'd read another Spencer book, "Ship Made of Paper," that was pretty good but, having seen "Endless Love" in high school, I just didn't see how it was possible for the source material to be worthwhile. At all. I was wrong. The book is an amazing thing, a harrowing chronicle of a love that never dies and how much that sucks. It's perfectly structured, beautifully told story with a 30-page love scene that is like nothing I have ever read. Brave, crazy...wow.
So here now is my list of the five worst film adaptations I have ever seen:
1. "Endless Love" - in the book, Jade (the Brooke Shields character) does not have a present-tense scene until 2/3 of the way through. If only the movie had followed suit.
2. "Scarlet Letter," the Demi Moore version - the one with Robert Duvall's meat-hat, an Indian invasion and a happy ending, all of which seemed cool with Demi, who said that nobody ever read the book anyway.
3. "The Fugitive" - A John Ford version of Graham Greene's great The Power & the Glory, starring Henry Fonda as Greene's Whiskey Priest. Except this priest doesn't drink whiskey. Or philander. Or have doubts and fears. Or anything that made Greene's character so great. In the movie, he's just Jesus redux. I'll admit my prejudice: I think John Ford is catastrophically overrated, but this is still a terribly missed opportunity.
4. "The Great Gatsby" - It makes sense that you could never make a movie that was anywhere near as good as the novel, but did it have to be this bad? Miscast, poorly written, dreadfully photographed, way too long..it missed the point, over and over.
5. "Day of the Locust" - pretty much the exact same criticism as Gatsby. Great book - tough, short, nasty - made into an overlong movie with inexplicably gauzy photography. Damn shame.
So here now is my list of the five worst film adaptations I have ever seen:
1. "Endless Love" - in the book, Jade (the Brooke Shields character) does not have a present-tense scene until 2/3 of the way through. If only the movie had followed suit.
2. "Scarlet Letter," the Demi Moore version - the one with Robert Duvall's meat-hat, an Indian invasion and a happy ending, all of which seemed cool with Demi, who said that nobody ever read the book anyway.
3. "The Fugitive" - A John Ford version of Graham Greene's great The Power & the Glory, starring Henry Fonda as Greene's Whiskey Priest. Except this priest doesn't drink whiskey. Or philander. Or have doubts and fears. Or anything that made Greene's character so great. In the movie, he's just Jesus redux. I'll admit my prejudice: I think John Ford is catastrophically overrated, but this is still a terribly missed opportunity.
4. "The Great Gatsby" - It makes sense that you could never make a movie that was anywhere near as good as the novel, but did it have to be this bad? Miscast, poorly written, dreadfully photographed, way too long..it missed the point, over and over.
5. "Day of the Locust" - pretty much the exact same criticism as Gatsby. Great book - tough, short, nasty - made into an overlong movie with inexplicably gauzy photography. Damn shame.