5 Oscar films based on books

Once a year the biggest and brightest of Hollywood's elite (and their mum) show up on the red carpet for the Oscars. Several of the best films fight it out to win the coveted golden statue and a guaranteed increase in box office sales. Just being nominated increases the audience for a film and if that film is based on a book, then you'll see the book enter the top 20 best sellers too. Just have a look at the top selling books right now: Twelve Years A Slave by Solomon Northup, The Wolf Of Wall Street by Jordan Belfort, Philomena by Martin Sixsmith and A Captain's Duty by Richard Phillips amongst others have all entered the higher reaches of the chart since their film adaptations have been released and nominated. Always on the cultural pulse I have yet to see a single one of these films (I saw The Hobbit at the cinema last year, THAT'S IT!). What other Oscar winners and nominees have been based on books though? For the sake of argument, I'll be including films nominated in the Best Film catagory only.

The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy. 2001-2003
All three films were nominated between 2001-2003 but only the third, The Return of the King, came home triumphant, the first two losing out to A Beautiful Mind and Chicago. The cinematic achievement was huge and it was thought that although the third is often seen as the weakest (it is), it was handed the Oscar on the basis of the work put into the entire trilogy. The books by J.R.R.Tolkien have remained a classic since publication and the films only increased their reach. The Lord Of The Rings has become a behemoth since, with cash-ins around every corner from computer games, toys, artwork and board games. The Hobbit has since been made on the back of the strength of Lord Of The Rings.

The Shawshank Redemption - 1994
Probably the most famous Oscar snub in history is that the Tom Hanks tear-jerker Forrest Gump beat this Stephen King adaptation to the Oscar in 1994. It often tops Best Film categories and it's clear why: It's flipping brilliant. It's based on a short story written by the horror maestro entitled Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption in a collection called Different Seasons. In the same collection, the story The Body can be found, which was also adapted into the coming of age classic Stand By Me. Two of the best films ever made. A tonne of King's books have been adapted with varying success, but each time a new one comes along, the book it's based on sees a bump in sales.

Schindler's List - 1993
Steven Spielberg was often overlooked by the Academy but his take on Thomas Keneally's Schindler's Ark in 1993 was simply too powerful. The book was published 11 years before the film and is based on Oskar Schindler who managed to save over 1000 Jews in World War II. It came away triumphant beating another adaptation, The Remains of The Day based on Kazuo Ishiguro's novel of the same name. In the same year Spielberg made the BEST FILM EVER Jurassic Park, based on the Michael Crichton book. A fabulous year for Spielberg.

Life of Pi - 2013
Just last year this fantastical tale lost out to Argo. It was passed around Hollywood for years as it was thought to be un-adaptable, before visionary director Ang Lee tackled Yann Martel's tale and brought his unique style to it. The book it's based on (of the same name) won the heavyweight literary prize The Man Booker Prize in 2002 and sales rose steadily since. Once the film was released the book entered the top echelons of the charts once more. It split the reading and viewing public down the middle. I loved both the film and book.

The Godfather - 1972
Considered one of the best films of all time, The Godfather was adapted from Mario Puzo's novel of the same name, released just 3 years previously. It came away with the golden statue at the 1972 awards after Puzo had adapted his own book, along with director Francis Ford Coppola. It's a rare case of the film often being voted better than the book it's based on.

So these are 5 of the most well known, but travelling back through time you'll see dozens all based on books. Which are your favourites?

Michael

Facebook - Twitter - Youtube - Shop

Let Me Off At The Top! by Ron Burgundy

I received this book at Christmas from my best friend/confidant and fellow Barricades Rise member Jonathan Coates (he's a great photographer, here's some lovely pictures he took of my son and I). At University we were both huge Will Ferrell fans, starting from a little known classic called Night At The Roxbury. We devoured all 'Frat-pack' films, usually containing at least one of the following: Vince Vaughan, Will Ferrell, Owen Wilson, Ben Stiller and later Seth Rogen. The one film that has stood the test of time and become a cult classic is Anchorman. It's the story of Ron Burgundy, the anchorman of said title and his crew, as they face challenges in the late 1970's from fellow news crews, bears and most importantly, Feminism. With the belated release of 'Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues', this 'autobiography' by Ron Burgundy hit the shelves.

'Every word in this book is true. You can fact-check most of it but much of it lives within my brain. Fortunately for you my memory is infallible. With the exception of people, places, situations and dialogue, I'm like a walking encyclopaedia of facts.'

I was a little dubious of the book as another fake autobiography I've read, I, Partridge by Alan Partridge AKA Steve Coogan, was patchy. There was always something telling me that, although it's funny, it's all fake. The difference between Partridge and Burgundy though is that the latter can go off on a ridiculous mythical tangent and still remain 'in character' due to the character's roots and the film he was born from. The film, although set in reality, has several off kilter moments (Jazz Flute!).

First lets start with the positives. The book alternates between biography and tips or musings. The biography part, especially his early beginnings, had me laughing out loud. SPOILER AHEAD! Verging on, then completely falling into the ridiculous, Ron's time at school was explained with more than a hint of Star Wars. The school in question was named Our Lady Queen of Chewbacca and his classmates ranged from Vinny Cithreepio, Brad Darklighter, Luke Walker and Lando Calrissian. Reading in Ron's voice it all became a lot funnier. He looks back at these times with fondness. The preposterous nature of the book does not die down. If anything it accelerates. A story about Bobby Kennedy, Peter Lawford and himself going out hunting in the desert for the (may or may not be mythical) Jackalopes really had me frowning at the start but by the end the conviction he writes with, often saying 'and this bit was definitely true' had me in pieces. The book doesn't touch any part of the film which I'm glad about, although it often mentions characters from it, especially his news crew and wife.

There are equal misses as hits especially when talking about his tips. One extremely funny chapter is named 'My Twelve Rules for Living Through a Prison Riot', yet the majority of his tip chapters fall flat. 'My Hair' tells about his majestic mane but becomes limp. As the book draws to a close it starts to lose focus and pace. The chapter on the nineties starts pretty funny, with stories of political cover ups and how Ron was involved, but quickly burns out and the joke just doesn't die. SPOLIER AHEAD! In one chapter he goes on about how he hates Mexico and how no-one should ever write about it, then he talks himself into writing it himself and towards the end actually uses a chapter as the intro to this new book. The set up was really well played but the final output is lame. I also had problems finding certain things funny due to it's American nature. Most celebrities he names I had never heard of yet after Googling several of them they are household names in the US.

The book is only around 220 pages and I ran through it quickly, finding it laugh out loud as well as tiresome, pretty much what I thought of I, Partridge. I would definitely recommend it for fellow Burgundy fans but otherwise I'd give it a miss.
One final grievance is the cover. It's made to look like a 1970s biography with it's black background and ugly font and although it fits in with the time of the film, aesthetically it's really off putting.

A middle of the road 5 on the comfometer.

Stay Classy.

Michael
Like!
Follow!
Buy!

The Da Vinci Code - The Friday Adaptation

As it's Dan Brown week on our website (all DB books reduced!) it seems the best time to have another look at one of the most controversial books of recent times, along with it's film companion. Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code was released with massive uproar in 2003, and I mean book-burning, marching-on-the-street uproar due to it's 'challenge' on the relationship of Jesus with Mary Magdalene. In hindsight a lot of people have decided it was all a bit over the top (you think!?) and all the hoo-har only helped to actually promote the book and shift an extra few million copies. With most things that get hyped be it a book, film or game, it was only a matter of time until it was turned into a film.

The UK book cover

I read the book around the time it came out and was sucked in from the start. In 2 days I had consumed all 500+ pages. Many people have said how appalling the writing is but at the time I just wanted to read fast paced, ridiculously high concept genre fiction and it's exactly what I got. But what about the film, seeing as this is the Friday Adaptation? It held so much promise. Taken from a major novel, directed by Ron Howard of Apollo 13 and Happy Days fame (and one of my favourite films Frost/Nixon), featuring Tom 'Can-do-no-wrong' Hanks and several highly regarded character actors including Gandalf, Doc Occ and Leon. But boy, did they mess it up.

It's a box! A magic religious box! Let's talk about it!

The issue I have with it is that it's just plain boring. The high stakes, high paced action from the book seems to have taken a back seat. Sure there is action but it seems subdued, as if the director thought the story might be lost in an array of explosions and blood. What it needed was MORE chases, MORE explosions. It is the perfect vehicle for it. Maybe the critics of the book were right and the source material is just not good enough but the way it is directed is more akin to a political thriller than an action thriller. A director as unsubtle as Brett Ratner (Rush Hour) could have made a better film. Howard, you dropped the ball on this.

The one thing that sticks out more than anything else though is Hanks. He is known as a nice guy, a charmer, so why is his Robert Langdon such a dullard? Unlikable in fact. Leaving his charisma behind was the biggest gaff.

Dan Brown, looking like a boss

The film made a tonne, so much so that another Dan Brown film was made featuring Hanks. Angels and Demons was an appalling film and even worse than The Da Vinci Code. I know it's appalling as on my Honeymoon in Sri Lanka, the only TV channel we could get was a movie channel that played Angels and Demons, Coraline and Iron Man on repeat. Due to a deafening ear infection (literally) I was in bed for 4 days with the TV. I have seen these three films about 6 times each in 4 days. It kinda made me think that actually the books might be a bit rubbish, but having only read The Da Vinci Code which I liked, I can't substantiate this.

RottenTomatoes.com has given it a dour 25%, with the public giving it 64%. I agree with the critics. It's not a disastrous film, just more a mess. My wife really enjoys it though. On the nose with the most agreeable quote comes from the critic Rob Gonsalves from eFilmCritic.com

"Any Movie with a sulking albino assassin begs for campy, self-aware treatment, but Howard and scriptwriter Akiva Goldsman serve it all up straight-faced"

"If I look down, maybe no one will notice how bad this film is"

Brown's new book is released in a few weeks and will again will sell in the millions. Maybe it's time I re-read Da Vini Code or gave one of his other books a go to see if my taste has changed. Get your Dan Brown fix from our (superior) books right HERE.

What did you think of the book and film?

Michael