Top Ten Tuesday: On the Silver Screen

The Broke and Bookish hosts Top Ten Tuesday, and I look forward to it every week.  This week's topic has me particularly excited: Top Ten  Book To Movie Adaptations.


10.  The Witches based on Roald Dahl, The Witches:  I loved this movie so much as a kid.  I thought it was just the right amount of scary.  And, of course, I love all books by Roald Dahl, but this was one of my favorites (and Matilda).





9. No Country for Old Men based on Cormac McCarthy, No Country for Old Men: This isn't my favorite McCarthy book (as you might see in my review here), but I think the movie is really great, and I was remarkably impressed by how well the movie stuck to the book, which is a little bit cinematic anyway.






8. Rules of Attraction based on The Rules of Attraction by Brett Easton Ellis:  This isn't my favorite Ellis book, but it is my favorite Ellis movie.  I think it is really fun and totally captures the essence of the book.  I also saw the movie before reading the book, which is a really disappointing experience for me usually.  It's much better the other way around.

7. Blade Runner based on Philip K. Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep:
Here is a case in which the movie definitely leaves out a lot of the things that I thought were great about the book - all that stuff about empathy for instance -but it is still uniquely brilliant.  Love them both.  And I am going to cheat and also include:
Minority Report based on the short story, "The Minority Report" also by Philip K. Dick:  Philip K. Dick's work is adapted for the screen quite a lot, and this is another of my favorites.  It's pretty different than Blade Runner, but is again, also pretty different from the original story.

6. Silence of the Lambs based on Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris:  This is a case where I think that the movie is way better than the book.  I read the book when I had mono in high school, otherwise I might not have picked it up and then I would have felt conflicted about including one of, if not the best serial killer movie of all time on the list.

5. Precious based on Push by Sapphire: This is a raw book and a raw, but touching movie.  I read this book for the first time in a class about female coming of age literature.  I would recommend it for those not weak of stomach (which I think is the theme of my list).





  4. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas based on Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by
Hunter S. Thompson: The scene in this movie where they go to Circus Circus is so iconic for me, and I am fascinated by Las Vegas anyway.  The book is a lot like the movie, but Thompson is such a great character in his own story and his voice is impressive, so it is worth reading anyway.  There is a documentary narrated by Johnny Depp that I would highly recommend if you are at all interested in Thompson; it's called Gonzo.

3. Primal Fear based on Primal Fear by William Diehl: This one is kind of more obscure, but this was the first thriller I ever read (also when I had mono in high school) and the first time that I really realized how brilliant Edward Norton was.

2. Mean Girls based on Queen Bees and Wannabees by Rosalind Wiseman:  This is the best movie ever based on a pop sociology/ self-help book that is totally nothing like the movie.  I really really love Tina Fey and I think this movie is amazing and hilarious, and Lindsay Lohan used to be so cute.

1. American Psycho based on American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis:  Christian Bale, you are so very talented.  Thank you for bringing to life the unbelievably creepy, yet totally normal Patrick Bateman.  Thank you for making this movie, and bringing this book to life.  I sound really creepy right now, like I really love this book.  I actually did a lot of work on this book in graduate school, and there are places in this movie, where the book comes to life and becomes more interesting than it is on the page.  This is particularly the case in the business card scene for anyone who has seen it.




Here are some movies I wanted to include, but didn't because I haven't read the books:
Clueless based on Emma by Jane Austen
Fight Club  based on Fight Club  by Chuck Palahniuk
The Shining based on The Shining by Stephen King

This ended up being a very dark and pretty masculine list, but those were my reading tastes for many years while I was studying violence and literature in graduate school.  So be it.  Anyway, I could get ol' Hawthorne on here, because Scarlet Letter movie renditions tend to be terrible (especially that one with Demi Moore, oh my).  I did think Easy A was pretty funny.