1. The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe
This 1987 book is a modern classic, full of wit, satire and gripping narrative twirls. The book epitomises the 1980s, and was a giant critical success, becoming a bestseller. The hero here is one Sherman McCoy, a highly-paid Wall Street bond trader and a self-proclaimed “Master of the Universe”, who has it all – until one day, similar to his antecedent in The Great Gatsby, one accident signals his possible fall from grace.
What, then, do we have by way of a film adaptation? An almost meaningless and unfaithful adaptation The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990), which was neither funny (as was intended) nor convincing. Director Brian De Palma went for a “black comedy” effect, instead of a sumptuous drama, and crafted something atrocious, with many actors simply miscast.
2. The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid
The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007) is one powerful and moving account, which has become a million-copy bestseller. It can break one’s heart, and, if it does not, it will surely leave a lasting impression. The main character here is one talented young man from Pakistan, Changez, who won a scholarship to attend Princeton and became a highly-paid worker for a prestigious company Underwood Samson in the US. However, in the light of the 9/11 attacks, Changez becomes increasingly concerned for the situation of his home country, a worry which starts to test his own inner allegiances, and his American love-interest Erica also becomes more and more distant.
The description above is almost poetically dramatic, immediately painting many different emotions, as West and East clash, and Changez’s disillusionment sets in. However, the frustrating film of 2013 – The Reluctant Fundamentalist is anything but a poetic account about one increasingly disillusioned man. Directed by Mira Nair (Queen of Katwe (2016)), its main theme is an overstated political action, paying only lip service to the haunting and low-key atmosphere of the book. Riz Ahmed and Liev Schreiber may have been good casts, but Kate Hudson is far from being an elegant, vulnerable, dreamy, otherworldly and “European” Erica. The result is that, despite the fabulous character-driven novel, the film seemingly and paradoxically leaves that character almost in the shadows, becoming an unconvincing film.
3. Sliver by Ira Levin
Sliver was written by Ira Levin, who also wrote such mystery novels as Rosemary’s Baby and The Stepford Wives. Like Levin’s more famous novels, Sliver concerns apartments and secret plots, and it is a clever book which explores the themes of increasing surveillance and voyeurism in our modern life. The book has erotic references throughout, but it is probably its psychologically-interesting content, including the character studies and the main mystery, as the book taps into our human fear of being watched and stalked like a prey, which is the most intriguing here.
The main problem with adapting such a book is that it is almost impossible not to give away the culprit of the murders in the beginning, because the book is sporadically written from the point of view of the mastermind behind the plot, and the reader does not even know (at least half-way through) who is writing this account. However, surely, something more could have been cooked up by way of adaptation than the tacky erotic thriller Sliver (1993) starring Sharon Stone and William Baldwin. The film should have focused more on suspense, mystery and the philosophy of modern surveillance, but instead, it was hijacked by Stone, had too much sex, and the overall result left much to be desired.
4. The Stranger by Albert Camus
This is Albert Camus’s famous novel, which also reflects the author’s philosophical absurdist/existentialist points of view. The novel is powerful, evocative and extremely thought-provoking, as it touches on many interesting theme, such as the society’s preoccupation with appearances, rather than trying to understand often hidden human conditions and thoughts, and the individual’s battle with the society for the right to not pretend in life and be truthful to oneself. In short, the film tells of Meursault, a French-Algerian, who is accused of killing an Arab man in the desert after becoming increasingly distant from the people around him and their way of thinking.
In some way, Lo Straniero (The Stranger) (1967), directed by Luchino Visconti and starring Marcello Mastroianni and Anna Karina, is faithful to the novel in terms of what happened in the story and in terms of the setting, but, somehow, the nuance of the book is lost in the film, and the philosophical underpinnings implicit in the novel are vulgarised. At first, Alain Delon was announced for the role of Meursault, and, perhaps, he would have made the character more complicated and less sympathetic than Mastroianni, and, thus, the picture overall would have been more thought-provoking and in line with Camus’s existential uncertainty.
5. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
This 1850 novel is considered to be an admirable piece of historical fiction by Hawthorne. It is set in the seventeenth century, and tells of a woman, Hester Prynne, who tries to repent her sin of conceiving a daughter outside of marriage. For her punishment she is forced to wear a scarlet letter “A” (which stands for “adulteress”) and is torn by the desire to protect the father of her child and the truth. The power of Hawthorne’s story-telling is undeniable, as the novel also explores universal themes of repression at the sight of a sin, hypocrisy, love and personal guilt.
A film adaptation of this novel is The Scarlet Letter (1995), starring Demi Moore and Gary Oldman. This adaptation of a classic may be considered very loose, but, even so, given the powerful nature of the novel it is based on, it falls very short of the desired material. The characters and the setting are those which appear in the book, but nothing else appears even remotely faithful to the book. For example, the film is filled with inappropriate sex references; the decision of the film to start with the affair between Hester and her lover (which is not detailed in the film) backfires; the onscreen chemistry between Moore and Oldman is odd to say the least; and the ending is frustrating.
A while ago, I also found Sofia Coppola’s adaptation of the novel The Beguiled (The Painted Devil) by Thomas P. Cullinan particularly bad.
Spotlight on Film 
I didn’t know there was a film of The Stranger. I kind of wish I didn’t now if it was done so poorly. I’ll be sure to miss it!
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I’ve deliberately avoided Bonfire of the Vanities (1990) for reasons you bring up here, despite being a Brian de Palma fan! Curious to read Tom Wolfe’s book though, heard has a reputation of depicting 80s America well like American Psycho.
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The Bonfire of the Vanities is a thick book and needs some commitment, but it is totally worth it, in my opinion. A modern classic and yes, a tribute to the 1980s US (and its indulgences!). Thanks for the comment!
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Bofires of Teh Vanity is one I am curious to read. I had no idea Levin wrote Sliver( I had even less idea that it was a book) I am curious to read that one too but will wait so I forget some of the plot details. Another great book that was a bad adaptation in my mind was Even Cowgirls Get The Blues. The book has many great quotes that are amazing but the movie was disgusting. As much as I love Uma Thurman, even she should not save this feature
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The Bonfire of the Vanities is a great read, and Sliver is a worthwhile read (even though I still think Levin’s A Kiss Before Dying is much better – so check it out too, if you are interested and haven’t read it yet).
Even Cowgirls Get the Blues book looks like fun, in a rebellious sort of way, but the film cover and some shots look pretty terrible. I guess not every novel is meant for a film adaptation. I am curious reading that book now, though.
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The first answer was the first one I thought of too. I had no idea The Scarlet Letter was officially adapted. I guess Easy A was its unofficial one.
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Great post. Fascinating subject to discuss since it is so full of potential debate. I admit I haven’t read any of these books and cannot comment on them, but I was curious to see if my pet peeve of an adaptation made your list: The Grapes of Wrath. One of the best books ever written IMO, but the film is abridged, censored and ultimately meaningless.
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Thank you! It is interesting that you think that way about The Grapes of Wrath. I need to revisit both the film and the book. Perhaps, I would agree with you. Censorship and cuts can be evils reducing any film to only a fraction of a book’s glory. Hmm.
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Interesting discussion. However, regarding ‘The Scarlet Letter’, there is in fact a great adaptation from 1926. It was directed by Victor Sjöström, a Scandinavian who worked in Hollywood. It stars Lillian Gish and Lars Hansen. Unfortunately it is rarely seen these days.
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I will sure to check out this adaptation since I have not heard of it before, many thanks!
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Great post!! Generally speaking adapting novels can be very tough to do as there is often so much material to condense into a cinematic running time. Obviously some are more successful than others and in my view many short stories or novellas often make better film adaptations than big novels.
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I haven’t seen any of these film adaptations.
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You have not missed much 🙂
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A great idea of a post Diana. I have read The Great Gatsby and The Scarlet Letter in the choices you have selected and I am thankful not to have seen the adapted movies. Sometimes a great plot can be challenging and often comes across more meaningless on screen.
I find directors often now use the term ‘loosely based’ in trying to discreetly avoid any truth behind the stories or any arguments of course, but even so it follows half the original so it can add to the confusion. A book adaptation onscreen, I always disagreed with is The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button. A lovely read which procedeed with a powerless movie.
Sincerely Sonea
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Thanks for your kind words, Sonea! Yeah, you missed nothing if you have not seen the above films. I agree with you about this “loosely based” issue because I think producers/directors sometimes just like the main idea of some book, but they also want their own elements in a film, so they say “loosely based”, which I think is also misleading since they took the very essence of some book.
I have to admit I have not read F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short story, but I found the 2008 film starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett powerful enough. Now I am really curious to read the story, I wonder how much difference between the two there really is.
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Very interesting. What about “The Beach”?
As for me… “Night/Day Watch” was a good adaptation, even though the source material wasn’t as indogestible as some of the films you mentioned. “I, Robot” was pretty good, it maintained some of the original ideas with impressive effects and was spectacular.
As for some of Stanislaw Lem’s adapta
tions, it’s hard to say. “The Congress” with H. Keitel, Robin Wright (directed by Ari Folman) was without doubt original and psychedelic, but quite hard to digest too.
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Yeah, many these science-fiction adaptations are either a hit or a miss. I am curious to see The Congress, and I agree, I also kind of liked Night Watch and I, Robot. Btw, have you see any of Strugatsky brothers’ adaptations, such as Dark Planet or Hard to be a God?
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Not yet. I’ll definitely watch ”Hard To Be A God”, but I’ve heard it isn’t a particularly easy movie so I guess I’ll delay for a little. What about Dark Planet?
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Obitaemyy ostrov. Someone recommended I watch it, but I was put off by bad reviews. I think that film should have been on my list.
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Ah of course. The one with the pink tank. Haha!! It made quite a fuss when it was out. I skipped it too after reading all those negative reviews. And Bondarchuk is pretty uneven as director. However I’m planning to watch ”Attraction”.
P. S. I’ve heard a lot of good things about ”Vremya Pervyh”.
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The title “Attraction” sounds like a romantic comedy 🙂 I guess there should be some romance there, or they would have translated it like “magnetism” or something “scientific”?
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Prityazhenie 😂 yes, i’m pretty sure there is some very important romance involved!
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I have read SLIVER but have not seen the film. I LOVED the novel up until the ending, which I didn’t care for. Did they change it at all?
Great write-up!
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