Movies that respected the books they were based on

[Zardoz!]

Very few book based movies seem to be very respectful of the books they're based on. Often times writers who sell the rights to their books will say that they were completely shut out of the movie making process once the rights were signed over.

But a few book based movies are faithful to the books that inspired them, so let's see how many we can name.

"A clockwork orange" was one of the closest things to literally putting a book on screen I've ever seen.

"2001", well the movie and book were done together, so I'm not sure it counts.....

"The Andromeda strain" got it pretty much right.

[mrbasehart]

The closest literary adaptation I've seen is The Maltese Falcon.  John Huston basically took all of the dialogue and put it in a script.  And that's why it's a great movie.

[Junkyard]

Woops, I missed this thread. Anyway, I'll go with the obvious LotR films. They didn't go word for word, but they made a good film.

[Grillslinger]

The the ending was changed....Fight Club was great.

[BathTub]

Sin City.

[PlayMSTie]

Remains of the Day.

[Bob]

The Green Mile.

[Courtney]

No Country for Old Men had its differences, but I absolutely respect the way they did the ending in the film.  It just felt like the book. 

Plus the loud "what the fuck?" whispers in the theater as the credits came up were kind of awesome.

[Grillslinger]

Sin City.

Closest...adaptation...ever!

[Charles Castle]

Funny, this same topic came up yesterday on another message board I frequent. This was my list, a few of which have already been mentioned:

Rosemary's Baby
Deliverance
The Maltese Falcon
Shane
The Sweet Hereafter
25th Hour
The Princess Bride
No Country For Old Men

[Tyrant]

I though the original Neverending Story movie was fairly accurate. They had to leave a lot out, like the the entire second half of the book (which would later, unfortunatly, become the second Neverending Story movie). But had they included EVERYTHING, the movie would have run 12 hours.

[Cibernético II]

"A clockwork orange" was one of the closest things to literally putting a book on screen I've ever seen.

disagree

[ChrisHanel]

Sadly, I'm left wondering where Cibernético II stands on this topic.

[BBQ Platypus]

I though the original Neverending Story movie was fairly accurate. They had to leave a lot out, like the the entire second half of the book (which would later, unfortunatly, become the second Neverending Story movie). But had they included EVERYTHING, the movie would have run 12 hours.

Technically, if they had included EVERYTHING, they'd still be filming it, wouldn't they?

[RoninFox]

The Princess Bride

It helps when the same man writes both the book and the script, but you're right, this is the best book to screen adaptation I can think of.