by Ana-Maria Comanescu

Created on: April 09, 2009

A majority of movie scripts is adapted from either books or stage plays. Most frequently, they don't live up to the level that the book or play had established, and that has led to the common idea that the movie will always be worse than the book.

However, I have found two examples that can be considered exceptions to the rule. The first one would be "Big Fish".

The book was written by Daniel Wallace and made into a movie in 2003 by director Tim Burton. It's about a father who tells his son the wonderful story of his bizarre life adventures, while his skeptical son tries to figure out where the lies end and the truths start. Personally, I loved the film but I didn't like the book at all. The book has some fascinating ideas, but I thought it was poorly written and if I hadn't seen the movie first, it wouldn't have caught my attention at all. What I found really amazing about the movie was the warmth it gave away and how the bonding between Edward Bloom and his son slowly grows strong. Also, the Burtonesque imprint is clearly visible, making the movie shine with quirkiness, from the tall top-hat of Amos Calloway to the queer and unsettling visit to the witch.

The other example is not a film that I like more than the book, but one that I love just as much, and that would be "A Clockwork Orange", written by Anthony Burgess and adapted into a film in 1971 by director Stanley Kubrick. The story is set in an "ultraviolent" future, following the life of Alex DeLarge, a young delinquent who undergoes the Ludovico treatment for behavior correction.

The book is simply stunning, written with a blatant roughness and an impersonal, almost cool overlook of the downfall, even though the narrator is Alex himself. However visually descriptive the book is, the movie brings it to a completion level, with amazing backgrounds such as the Korova Milk Bar or the ground floor hallway of Alex's building. The most memorable scene that can be found here and that's not present in the book is the rape scene, where actor Malcolm McDowell randomly improvised the "Singin' in the Rain" song. Also, the ending differs, but it's a major spoiler for those who don't know.

All in all, what I find to be a great script adaptation is in the rare and lucky case of a common vision of the storyline between the writer and the director. Two appropriate examples would be "Big Fish" (2003) and "A Clockwork Orange" (1971).

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