This week it’s all about Oscar buzz. My friend Cindy is diligently working her way through all of the Oscar contenders while I am satisfied to get a chuckle from the the ridiculous TV commercials for the show starring co-hosts Anne Hathaway and James Franco. Our regular contributor Denise Neary has turned her Oscar excitement bookwards and has a challenge for those of us that love both books and movies!
With the Oscars coming up this weekend, a challenge to Midtown Review readers.
What is your favorite book that was turned into a favorite movie (okay, or favorite BBC series)?
My all time book to movie Oscar would go to TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD….great book, great movie. Oh, Atticus!
A few more in serious competition for the top honor:
LITTLE WOMEN, the Winona Rider version.
I loved that book so much, and cried from the moment of the first credit to the end of the last in the movie theater. Imagine how happy my fellow theater-goers were!
For me, that movie had three really interesting interpretations:
- Susan Sarandon as a “take-no-prisoners” Marmee.
- Gabriel Byrne as Professor Baer put that character and the whole Jo/Fritz situation in a new light. Until then, I really had thought Jo made a mistake letting Laurie go.
- Clare Danes had the most unusual take on Beth I’d ever seen. Not what I read, not what I thought….but interesting, and beautiful.
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, the Colin Firth version.
Even though I know to expect it… one of the things that always takes my breath away when I listen to a movie made of Austen’s work is how much of the dialogue is lifted without change from her book.
Two new faves:
The movie is great for many reasons…..their rendition of the song Under Pressure, sung by patients and staff at a mental health facility, made me laugh out loud in the theater.
An amazing cast took on those strong female roles, and a movie that stayed true to the spirit of the book. The imagery in the book so carefully followed the book…..I felt that I had just spent some time in the South, drinking iced tea, and listening in on the conversations of some amazing women.
So, those are my nominees.
What are yours?
— Denise Neary, Regular Contributor
“Mystic River” – Dennis Lehane’s powerful crime novel about the intersecting lives of three childhood friends, was also a great movie. The film version earned Sean Penn his first best actor Oscar, and Tim Robbins the best supporting actor Oscar.
And HBO’s 2002 Emmy Award-winning “Band of Brothers” was a faithful adaptation of Stephen Ambrose’s history of a U.S. parachute infantry regiment in WWII. Great book, great series.
Though it wasn’t my favorite movie – the adaptation of THE COLOR PURPLE was excellent. On a more obscure note, I really liked both the book and the movie of WHAT DREAMS MAY COME (and the movie actually won an Oscar for visual effects I think).
And of course a list like this sort of has to include THE WIZARD OF OZ, no?
— Dana