Faithful Adaptations - The Best Novels Turned Movie

Faithful Adaptations
The Best Novels Turned Movie
by Tim Nasson
May 23, 2006

The Da Vinci Code movie poster

“The Da Vinci Code” is the best selling hardcover, fiction book of all time – for adults. And, for mere curiosity factor, alone, “The Da Vinci Code,” starring two-time Oscar winner - for Best Actor - Tom Hanks, and directed by Oscar winner Ron Howard, will become one of the most popular movies of 2006, if not of all time. The successes of the book and filmed adaptation, however, do not a good movie automatically make. The majority of accredited film critics, nationwide, have panned “The Da Vinci Code” movie, yet it took in an astonishing $77 million during its first three days of release, (May 19-21), in the United States and Canada, alone. (It was released worldwide, simultaneously.)

As a thirty-four year old bonafide movie lover, (since childhood), I have come up with my picks for the Best Adapted Films – from page to screen – since “The Godfather,” in 1972.

While I have not seen every filmed adaptation since “The Godfather,” I have come pretty close. Each year, the major and independent studios release a minimum of 300 movies in theaters. Multiply 300 by thirty four years and you get 10,200 movies. From that list, more than two thirds are from unoriginal screenplays, i.e., based on a book, (fiction or non-fiction), or a play or musical or newspaper article or anything other than an original thought or idea. Furthermore, thousands of movies since 1972, like “The Da Vinci Code,” have been based on novels or novellas. But how many have actually succeeded? And by succeeded I mean done justice to the novel, the story, making its author proud, if alive, and not causing him or her to roll around in his or her grave if dead?

There have been many novels turned into films that have earned truck loads of money for their unfaithful adapters. Let’s face it. Americans are not avid readers. “The Da Vinci Code” has remained a constant at #1 on the NY Times Best Seller Hardcover Fiction list since its release in March of 2003. However, more people will have seen the movie in theaters this weekend, during its first three days, in the United States and Canada, if the film takes in $90 million, than will have read it – in the United States and Canada – since its publication. Less than 12 million copies of the book have been sold in the United States and Canada, since its publication in 2003. Yet if the film takes in $90 million and the average ticket price is $6.50, (and that is the current and accurate ticket price average as of yesterday, according to North American Theater Owners), then more than 13.8 million people will have seen the movie in three days – in the United States and Canada, alone.

Talk about the power of the cinema!

Yes, yes. Of course, many who have read the book are lined up, at this moment, wanting to see for themselves how faithful an adaptation the movie is. That decision, well, that is totally up to you. Chances are, though, you won’t be listing it on your Best Adapted Screenplay list.

Take a look at the list below. It contains the twenty-one best movies adapted for the screen from a novel or novella, in my opinion, since 1972. These films should continue to thrill and entertain audiences for centuries to come. (The shame would be if you have not seen these films on the big screen, for which they were intended.)

While there were over 10,000 movies released since 1972, in theaters, and a large number based on novels and novellas, there are only twenty-one that pop into my mind as worthy of being listed below.

A Room With A View – Quite possibly the best movie ever made, based on a novel or not. This is Merchant/Ivory film is sheer perfection. From the faithfully adapted E. M. Forster novel, by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, (who won the Oscar), to the exquisite direction of James Ivory, impeccable acting, (from Academy Award winners and nominees Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Daniel Day Lewis, Denholm Elliot and Helena Bonham-Carter), and magical cinematography of the English countryside and of Florence, a la the turn of the twentieth century, this is by far, the best adaptation of a novel, ever. If you have not seen the movie or read the book, do yourself a favor. Buy the DVD and/or Buy the novel, and then turn off the phone and settle in for a night of unparalelled pleasure.

The Godfather - Popularly viewed as one of the best American films ever made, the multi-generational crime saga The Godfather (1972) is a touchstone of cinema: one of the most widely imitated, quoted and lampooned movies of all time. Marlon Brando and Al Pacino star as Vito Corleone and his youngest son Michael, respectively. It is the late 1940s in New York and Corleone is, in the parlance of organized crime, a "godfather" or "don," the head of a Mafia family. Michael, a free thinker who defied his father by enlisting in the Army to fight in World War II, has returned a war hero. Having long ago rejected the family business, Michael shows up at the wedding of his sister Connie (Talia Shire) with his non-Italian girlfriend, Kay (Diane Keaton), who learns for the first time about the family "business." A few months later at Christmas time, the don barely survives being shot by gunmen in the employ of a drug-trafficking rival whose request for aid from the Corleones' political connections was rejected. After saving his father from a second assassination attempt, Michael persuades his hotheaded eldest brother Sonny (James Caan) and family advisors Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall) and Sal Tessio (Abe Vigoda) that he should be the one to exact revenge on the men responsible. After murdering a corrupt police captain and the drug-trafficker, Michael hides out in Sicily while a gang war erupts at home. Falling in love with a local girl, Michael marries her, but she is later slain by Corleone enemies in an attempt on Michael's life. Sonny is also butchered, having been betrayed by Connie's husband. As Michael returns home and convinces Kay to marry him, his father recovers and makes peace with his rivals, realizing that another powerful don was pulling the strings behind the narcotics endeavor that began the gang warfare. Once Michael has been groomed as the new don, he leads the family to a new era of prosperity, then launches a campaign of murderous revenge against those who once tried to wipe out the Corleones, consolidating his family's power and completing his own moral downfall. Buy the DVD now. And/or Buy the Book now.

Brokeback Mountain - For all the fuss whipped up by the media about this "gay cowboy movie," the fact is, Brokeback Mountain is nothing more or less than a star-crossed romance -- a romance that just happens to involve two men. Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal play young cowboys Ennis and Jack, who meet in the summer of 1963 while tending sheep in a remote Wyoming mountain range. Their initially awkward relationship blossoms into a torrid physical affair, and while the job comes to an end, their romance perseveres. Both men marry and raise families, but at periodic intervals over the next 20 years they slip away to join each other in fleeting attempts to recapture the bliss they felt all those years ago on Brokeback Mountain. The basis of this yarn is Annie Proulx's wistful short story, which has been brilliantly adapted by screenwriters Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana and translated to celluloid with unusual sensitivity by director Ang Lee (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), who won this year's Best Director Oscar for his marvelous work. Contrary to the hoopla generated by the film's attackers and defenders alike, Brokeback is neither a deconstruction of the "macho cowboy" myth nor an endorsement of the gay lifestyle. It does dwell on the secret sorrow that all too often accompanies closeted same-sex romances, and it doesn't shy away from depicting the damage done to the lovers' families. Michelle Williams, Ledger's real-life significant other, delivers a tightly controlled, heartbreakingly poignant portrayal as Ennis's wife, who is devastated by her accidental discovery of her husband's secret love life. Anne Hathaway is nearly as good as the pampered, willful daddy's girl who marries down-and-out rodeo rider Jack and takes him into the family business. In fact, there isn't a weak performance in the film, and even such supporting players as Randy Quaid and Anna Faris make significant contributions in their limited screen time. An insightful drama that never descends to the tawdry or sensational, Brokeback Mountain richly deserves the plaudits it has received. Buy the DVD now. And/or Buy the Book now.

The Color Purple - Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Alice Walker, The Color Purple spans the years 1909 to 1949, relating the life of Celie (Whoopi Goldberg), a Southern black woman virtually sold into a life of servitude to her brutal husband, sharecropper Albert (Danny Glover). Celie pours out her innermost thoughts in letter form to her sister Nettie (Akousa Busia), but Albert has been hiding the letters Nettie writes back, allowing Celie to assume that Nettie is dead. Finally, Celie finds a champion in the don't-take-no-guff Sofia (Oprah Winfrey), the wife of Glover's son from a previous marriage. Alas, Sofia is "humbled" when she is beaten into submission by angry whites. Later, Celie is able to forge a strong friendship with Albert's mistress Shug (Margaret Avery). Emboldened by this, Celie begins rifling through her husband's belongings and finds Nettie's letters. Able at last to stand up to her husband, Celie leaves him to search for a new life on her own. A major box-office hit, The Color Purple was nominated for eleven Oscars, yet won not one. The film was co-produced by Quincy Jones, who also wrote the score. Buy the DVD now. And/or Buy the Book now.

Jaws - Displaying a flair for suspense worthy of Hitchcock, young Steven Spielberg terrorized a generation's moviegoers simply by showing a fin in the water. Adapted from Peter Benchley's bestseller, Spielberg's first major hit earned an Oscar nomination for best picture, spawned multiple sequels, and changed Hollywood forever by making the action-blockbuster a summer staple. A triumph of superb craftsmanship, enhanced by John Williams's menacing, Oscar-winning score, Jaws serves as a showcase for three outstanding performances. Richard Dreyfuss and Roy Scheider star as the marine biologist and landlubber sheriff, respectively, who join forces with a grizzled fisherman (Robert Shaw) to hunt down the man-eating shark that is terrorizing a summer resort. There are echoes of Moby Dick in Shaw's obsessive, Captain Ahab-like sailor, as there are in the film's theme of the struggle between man and nature. There is also an element of gallows humor ("I think we need a bigger boat") that punctuates the terror like drops of demented glee. As viewers will see in the outstanding "Making of Jaws" documentary included on both the DVD and double-cassette VHS Anniversary Collector's Editions, this fish story succeeded because of its rich storytelling and characterization. A shock film with heart and soul to match its grit, Jaws remains a true American classic. Buy the DVD now. And/or Buy the Book now.

Ordinary People - There's nothing ordinary about Ordinary People, Robert Redford's powerful, Oscar-winning adaptation of Judith Guest's novel about the deterioration of an upper-middle-class family. For his first directorial effort, Redford chose a piece with sharply delineated characters, brought to life impeccably by a gifted cast. Timothy Hutton won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his portrayal of a guilt-ridden teenager who attempts suicide after failing to save his brother from drowning. Erstwhile sitcom star Mary Tyler Moore has never equaled her performance as the stern, embittered mother who withholds love from her surviving son following the death of her firstborn. Also superb are Donald Sutherland, playing Hutton's sympathetic but ineffectual father, and "Taxi" star Judd Hirsch as the charismatic psychiatrist who attempts to rouse Hutton from his melancholia. Named 1980's Best Picture, Ordinary People hasn't dated a bit: 20 years later, it remains a compelling, emotionally powerful viewing experience. Buy the DVD now. And/or Buy the Book now.

Schindler’s List - Although he will forever be identified with pop culture classics such as Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Raiders of the Lost Ark, Steven Spielberg has never made a film greater than this searing drama about a Nazi industrialist who saved more than 1,000 Jews from certain death in concentration camps during World War II. Broadly based on the book by Australian writer Thomas Keneally, Schindler's List gets underway in 1939 after Hitler's army conquers Poland. Nazi supporter Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson, delivering the standout performance of his career) arranges to staff a major company with unpaid Jews ultimately destined for extermination, among them accountant Itzhak Stern (Ben Kingsley), who becomes his right-hand man. The initially mercenary Schindler gradually becomes attuned to the plight of his workers and arranges to employ nearly 1,000 Jews in his crockery plant -- an effort that requires his careful handling of ghastly Commandant Amon Goeth (Ralph Fiennes), who runs the forced-labor camp housing the doomed people. For this film Spielberg eschews his customary storytelling techniques, using black-and-white film for a gritty look and shooting much of the footage with handheld cameras, documentary style. Period detail is replicated with astonishing accuracy, and you'll get the sense of being right there alongside the characters. The film is extremely long -- well over three hours -- but it unfolds with such urgency that you're never conscious of its length. Neeson is absolutely sensational as the towering industrialist whose innate humanity eventually comes to the fore, and Fiennes, then a virtual newcomer, is sublimely odious as the amoral labor-camp commander. Crafted to perfection and absolutely seamless in its presentation, Schindler's List is a truly unforgettable movie, and the crowning achievement of this generation's most successful filmmaker. Buy the DVD now. And/or Buy the Book now.

The Door In The Floor - Adapted from a John Irving novel - or rather, the first third of A Widow for One Year - this provocative drama provides Jeff Bridges and Kim Basinger the best roles they’ve ever had. Emotionally complex and, in spots, profoundly unsettling, The Door in the Floor tackles the dissolution of a troubled marriage with unusual intelligence and sophistication. Famous author Ted Cole (Bridges) and his wife, Marion (Basinger), have all the material comforts conducive to easy living, but they just aren’t getting along. Neither has ever really recovered from the death of their two sons in a car crash, and Ted copes with the diminution of Marion’s passion for him by engaging in a series of affairs. One summer, he hires a 16-year-old student named Eddie as an assistant, and the precocious teen immediately becomes attracted to Mrs. Cole -- who, in turn, is drawn to the boy because he resembles her oldest son. As presented by director Tod Williams, the story is rife with ambiguity; at one point it seems fairly obvious that Ted is pushing Marion to have an affair with Eddie, perhaps out of some cruel, sadistic fascination. Bridges plays the brilliant author as extremely manipulative, and therefore engenders little audience sympathy. Basinger, on the other hand, is achingly vulnerable as the emotionally wounded wife and mother who finds herself being drawn into an untenable relationship, partly out of sexual longing and partly out of an unhealthy attraction based on the boy’s resemblance to her dead son. There are no pat resolutions to the clearly defined narrative quandaries. While certainly not for all tastes, The Door in the Floor exhibits a sensibility that bears comparison to some of the best European-made dramas of recent years. It’s totally unlike any Hollywood film we’ve seen in years, an intellectually engaging slice of two very troubled lives. Buy the DVD now. And/or Buy the Book now.

The Cider House Rules - Adapted from John Irving's evocative novel with rare sensitivity, a tender and poignant drama stirs viewers' emotions as few films have. It begins during the early '40s in a ramshackle Maine orphanage, where Dr. Larch (Michael Caine) cares for unwanted children and performs illegal abortions. His oldest charge and reluctant protégé, Homer Wells (Tobey Maguire), yearns to make his own way in the world and begins by hiring out as an apple-picker for nearby orchard owner Wally (Paul Rudd). After Wally goes off to war, his beautiful girlfriend, Candy (Charlize Theron), succumbs to loneliness and teaches Homer some life lessons Dr. Larch had overlooked. Caine is superb in his Oscar-winning role, but all the performances are wonderful - Maguire brings sweetness and depth to his character, while Theron is utterly believable as a free-spirited dream girl. Director Lasse Hallstrom (My Life as a Dog) recreates the period beautifully and exhibits a keen understanding of class distinctions between orphaned Homer, well-to-do Wally, and the itinerant workers led by Mr. Rose (Delroy Lindo). Buy the DVD now. And/or Buy the Book now.

The Hours - A complex, engrossing tale primarily enacted by three of the finest actresses working in film today, The Hours interweaves the stories of three profoundly unhappy women linked by an unforgettable book that reveals more about them than they care to admit. David Hare’s adaptation of Michael Cunningham’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel is intricately structured and meticulously layered, and it creates an emotional vortex that’s as unforgettable as it is powerful. Nicole Kidman, deliberately de-glamorized, portrays novelist Virginia Woolf as a tortured soul whose brilliant work emerges out of her struggle with mental illness. Many years later, Woolf's novel Mrs. Dalloway has a hypnotic effect on Laura Brown (Julianne Moore), an emotionally barren housewife who cares little for her loving husband (John C. Reilly) and finds Cold War suburban life intolerable. Still later, Clarissa Vaughan (Meryl Streep), a middle-aged lesbian living in New York, conceals her private desperation while caring for her suicidal, AIDS-ravaged former lover (Ed Harris). Director Stephen Daldry (Billy Elliot) unobtrusively guides the three disparate story lines toward their inevitable conclusions, allowing his outstanding performers plenty of latitude in illustrating the different views of love, passion, and duty that comprise the movie’s core. There are no heroes or villains in this yarn, only people who -- like many of us -- silently yearn for something they fear they will never attain. Their longing is conveyed, palpably but with subtlety, in this richly emotional drama, a tour de force by virtue of its superb cast. Buy the DVD now. And/or Buy the Book now.

The Silence Of The Lambs - One of the most gripping and horrifying thrillers ever, The Silence of the Lambs introduced moviegoers to the screen's most blood-curdling antihero: brilliant, urbane, softspoken Hannibal Lecter -- a psychotic killer and confirmed cannibal. As depicted with three-dimensional fidelity by Anthony Hopkins, Lecter's a shrewdly manipulative but devilishly charming fiend to whom maximum-security incarceration is merely a temporary setback. Jonathan Demme's bone-chilling adaptation of the bestselling novel by Thomas Harris initially focuses on FBI agent Clarice Starling (played by Jodie Foster), following her exhaustive but ineffectual search for a serial killer. She approaches Lecter for help, persuading him to give her valuable insights into the workings of a similarly affected criminal mind. But the importance of Starling's quest recedes dramatically when the evil genius escapes, and Demme tantalizes viewers with her dilemma: Can she find the killer before Lecter finds her? An intense, unforgettable thriller that confounds genre expectations, Silence draws its effectiveness from a beautifully crafted screenplay rich in characterization, Oscar-winning performances by Hopkins and Foster; and the sure-handed direction of Demme. Buy the DVD now. And/or Buy the Book now.

Terms Of Endearment - Adapted from the novel by Larry McMurtry, Terms Of Endearment is a modern, five-hanky classic. It depicts the up-and-down relationship between a mother (Shirley MacLaine) and daughter Debra Winger) through marriage, childbirth, affairs, and tragic illness. Terms Of Endearment is driven almost entirely by dialogue and characterization, and the cast here is uniformly excellent, right down to the smallest parts. MacLaine and Winger deliver two of their best performances, and as an aging astronaut who woos MacLaine into redemptive romance, Jack Nicholson is at his most sensitive and least gimmicky. He conjures up a believable character without sacrificing any of his trademark charisma. Director James L. Brooks never lets the film veer into sentimentality or mawkishness, and his sure-handedness paid off in numerous awards, including an Oscar for Best Picture. A tearjerker with sensitivity and insight that's attuned to the rhythms of ordinary life, Terms Of Endearment is an enduring masterpiece of American film. Buy the DVD now. And/or Buy the Book now.

A Passage To India - A Passage to India, director David Lean's final film (for which he also received editing credit), breaks no new ground cinematically, but remains an exquisitely assembled harkback to such earlier Lean epics as Doctor Zhivago and Ryan's Daughter. Based on the novel by E. M. Forster, the film is set in colonial India in 1924. Adela Quested (Judy Davis), a sheltered, well-educated British woman, arrives in the town of Chandrapore, where she hopes to experience "the real India." Here she meets and befriends Dr. Aziz (Victor Banerjee), who, despite longstanding racial and social taboos, moves with relative ease and freedom amongst highborn British circles. Feeling comfortable with Adela, Aziz invites her to accompany him on a visit to the Marabar caves. Adela has previously exhibited bizarre, almost mystical behavior during other ventures into the Indian wilderness: this time, she emerges from the caves showing signs of injury and ill usage. To Aziz' horror, he is accused by Adela of raping her. Typically, the British ruling class rallies to Adela's defense, virtually convicting Aziz before the trial ever begins. Though he is eventually acquitted due to lack of evidence (in fact, director Lean never shows us what really happened), Aziz is ruined in the eyes of both the British and his own people-as is Adela. Woven into these proceedings is a subplot involving Adela's elderly travelling companion Mrs. Moore (Peggy Ashcroft), who through a series of plot twists too complex to describe here becomes a heroine of the Indian Independence movement. A Passage to India was nominated for several Academy Awards, scoring wins in the categories of Best Supporting Actress (Peggy Ashcroft) and Best Original Score (Maurice Jarre). Buy the DVD now. And/or Buy the Book now.

Out Of Africa - A lush and enthralling romantic drama drawn from uniquely fascinating source material, Out of Africa eschews most of the genre clichés and unfolds with refreshing respect for its audience. Meryl Streep is superb as Karen Blixen, the passionate Danish woman who marries for convenience at the beginning of World War I and moves to Nairobi with her husband (played here by Klaus Maria Brandauer). Before long, the marriage fails, leaving Blixen free to pursue her romance with an idealistic British adventurer (Robert Redford), who dearly loves her but balks at being tied to one place. Kurt Luedtke's script -- a synthesis of five books Blixen later wrote under the name Isak Dinesen -- tells the story at a leisurely pace, and some might think the film unnecessarily long at two and a half hours. But director Sydney Pollack re-creates time and place with such skill and accuracy that you'll find yourself drawn into the narrative and hanging on every word and expression. David Watkin's lush cinematography creates an otherworldly ambience that gives the Streep-Redford romance an oddly dreamlike aspect. Redford doesn't always convince us that he's an Englishman, but his scenes with Streep, whose work here ranks with her greatest performances, will melt the heart of even the most cynical viewer. Romantic epics rarely achieve a perfect balance between their technical and artistic ambitions, but Out of Africa is one such work. Buy the DVD now. And/or Buy the Book now.

Mystic River - This gripping, suspenseful drama has some of the trappings of a whodunit, but Mystic River isn't a murder mystery -- it's a multilayered exploration of the human psyche that eschews easy explanations and pat answers. It's a story without readily definable heroes or villains: The principal characters are all flawed in one way or another, and they are so skillfully represented as to be recognizable and real. That's a tribute not only to the exemplary cast but also to director Clint Eastwood, whose sure-handed guidance keeps the actors sharply focused and prevents their emotionally charged performances from bubbling over with melodramatic excess. Brian Helgeland's masterful adaptation of Dennis Lehane's novel begins in the working-class Boston neighborhood where ex-con Jimmy Markum (Sean Penn) runs a corner grocery store. When his teenage daughter (Emmy Rossum) is found brutally murdered, Jimmy recruits his thuggish friends in an attempt to ferret out the killer and exact vengeance before homicide detective and childhood pal Sean Devine (Kevin Bacon) can apprehend the culprit. Suspicion falls on another old friend, Dave Boyle (Tim Robbins), an emotionally crippled handyman who was abused as a child, but both Jimmy and Sean are initially reluctant to believe their former classmate capable of murder. Mystic River isn't an easy film to digest, as it often evokes tremendous pain and seems at times to wallow in tragedy. It traffics in unspoken secrets, repressed guilt, and tribal loyalties. Penn and Robbins richly deserved the Oscars they won for their portrayals, and the little gold statuettes could have been awarded to the other cast members with equal justification. One of those rare movies that stands up to repeated viewings with undiminished effect. Buy the DVD now. And/or Buy the Book now.

The Shawshank Redemption - Released in 1994 to mixed reviews, this engrossing adaptation of a Stephen King novella impressed moviegoers with its painstaking exactitude, stylish direction, and memorable performances. It went on to earn seven Academy Award nominations and become a giant hit on home video, finding a huge and appreciative audience. It begins in 1947, when bank vice president Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) is convicted on circumstantial evidence for the murder of his wife and her lover. Sentenced to life imprisonment in Shawshank Prison, he endures with a quiet tenacity that wins him the respect of both hardened prisoners -- like "Red" (Morgan Freeman) -- and the duplicitous warden (Bob Gunton), who puts the new fish to work on his personal financial matters. Director Frank Darabont allows audiences to experience the tedium of prison. Life in Shawshank is not just tedious, though; it's also grueling and painful, punctuated by bursts of brutality and horror that wear down prisoners sentenced to long terms. And it unfolds, according to Darabont, in a manner in which seemingly oblique words or incidents prove later on to have special resonance. Despite the grim subject matter and two-and-a-half-hour length, The Shawshank Redemption is both engaging and ultimately uplifting. Much credit for this goes to Robbins and Freeman, each of whom displays qualities that make his character especially vivid and memorable. It's a rewarding motion picture that's guaranteed to linger in your memory. Buy the DVD now. And/or Buy the Book now.

A Simple Plan - Based on Scott Smith's bone-chilling blockbuster 1993 novel, A Simple Plan is a bit of a departure for horror-film director Sam Raimi who then went on to direct two Spider-Man films. Instead of flying eyeballs, dancing corpses, or a costumed, comic book protagonist, A Simple Plan is a taught crime thriller. Set during the white winters of Minnesota, this story tells the eerie tale of Hank and Jacob Mitchell (played by Bill Paxton and Billy Bob Thornton) who, along with a buddy, find a downed single-engine plane buried in the snowy woods. Inside it is a decaying pilot and a bag carrying four million dollars in one-hundred-dollar bills. The men decide to hide the money until spring when the snow is melted and the plane is found. If no one notices the missing money at that time, they will split it and live a wealthy new life. A simple plan, right? Wrong. Much like Humphrey Bogart's The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, things can only get worse, as distrust and greed creep into the minds of the principles. They find it difficult to decide which one gets to hold the money -- and even more impossible to keep from dipping into the stash until spring. And so on. It also becomes increasingly tough to keep a secret of this magnitude. And if all this doesn't get movie-goers' right-brains working, it seems there are suspicious characters in town who just may be able to link them to the plane, forcing the more dangerous and bloody question of what to do with those people and how to cover their tracks. Buy the DVD now. And/or Buy the Book now.

The Prince of Tides - Barbra Streisand directed and stars in this love story about two people of dissimilar backgrounds who form a connection based on their unhappy experiences. Adapted from the novel by Pat Conroy, the story concerns Tom Wingo (Nick Nolte), a rudderless, unemployed football coach. Stuck in a loveless marriage with a wife (Blythe Danner) who feels nothing for him, and unable to move forward with his life, he is suddenly jarred out of his lethargy when he travels to New York because his twin sister (Melinda Dillon) has just tried to kill herself. In New York, he meets her psychiatrist, Susan Lowenstein (Barbra Streisand), who is married to a snobbish husband (Jeroen Krabbe). Susan and Tom become attracted to each other out of their loneliness. As his relationship with Susan blossoms, Tom learns to deal with his mother Lila (Kate Nelligan), who is the sole emotional center of his life. In the past, Lila was married to an abusive alcoholic. When she left her first husband, she married a rich man whose abuse was mental rather than physical. Tom hates Lila, but he can't free himself of his attachment to her. Buy the DVD now. And/or Buy the Book now.

Sense & Sensibility - The recipient of seven Academy Award nominations, this film version of Jane Austen's classic 1811 novel stars Emma Thompson as Elinor Dashwood. With her mother and sisters, Elinor struggles financially after the death of her father, who bequeathed the Dashwood estate to his oafish son by an earlier marriage. While sorting out the family's affairs, the shy, self-sacrificing Elinor secretly falls for her stepbrother-in-law, Edward Ferrars (Hugh Grant), a sensitive, well-educated bachelor who cannot court her because of his foolhardy youthful engagement to the greedy Lucy Steele (Imogen Stubbs). The grateful Dashwoods are offered a modest country home by family friends, which they accept. Once relocated, Elinor's brash, spirited sister Marianne (Kate Winslet) falls for a dashing local, John Willoughby (Greg Wise), a womanizer who nevertheless seems to share her affections. A prominent neighbor, Colonel Brandon (Alan Rickman), also falls in love with Marianne, but she is oblivious to the older man's affections. Eventually, Willoughby fails Marianne, breaking her heart, until she realizes Brandon's feelings. When Edward's family disowns him, Lucy marries his brother instead, leaving him free to pursue an exultant Elinor. Thompson won the film's sole Oscar for her screenplay adaptation of Austen's novel. Buy the DVD now. And/or Buy the Book now.

Forrest Gump - A paean to the enduring values of faith, humility, and common decency, 1994's Forrest Gump remains a shining beacon that overlooks the sea of coarse, cynical, and violent movies currently proffered by Hollywood filmmakers. Tom Hanks won a much-deserved Academy Award for his portrayal of the eponymous protagonist, a dull-witted member of the baby-boom generation who overcomes adversity, survives war, enjoys success, and transforms the lives of all who come into contact with him. Robin Wright is unaccountably touching as the girl he loves; Gary Sinise offers a sharply limned portrayal as Forrest’s scornful army buddy; and Sally Field is memorable as his devoted, long-suffering mother. Director Robert Zemeckis won an Oscar for his inspired directing, which partially blunts the satirical edge of Winston Groom’s novel but creates an alternative reality that’s much more soothing to audiences. Digital technology -- innovative for 1994, when the movie was produced -- places Forrest at the scene of decisive historical and cultural events recorded on film over several decades, which lends a comforting air of inevitability to his personal odyssey. Uplifting, warm, and sweet without being saccharine, Forrest Gump celebrates the human spirit with a sureness few contemporary films have ever achieved. Buy the DVD now. And/or Buy the Book now.

Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring - J.R.R. Tolkien's fabled Ring trilogy, originally published in the 1950s, set a new standard for fantasy fiction -- and its Oscar-winning live-action adaptation does the same for movies of the sword-and-sorcery genre. Perhaps the most eagerly awaited fantasy film of all time and nearly five years in the making, The Fellowship of the Ring captures the spirit of Tolkien's Middle-earth saga far more faithfully than its millions of fans dared hope. (Ralph Bakshi offered an animated adaptation in 1978, but to a much less rousing response.) The story begins as elderly hobbit Bilbo Baggins (Ian Holm) relinquishes possession of his most valuable keepsake, a golden ring possessing magical powers, to his youthful heir, Frodo (Elijah Wood). Charged with casting the ring into the fires from which it was forged, the young hobbit begins an arduous trek across Middle-earth, accompanied by a sturdy band that includes his best friend, Sam Gamgee (Sean Astin), the mercurial wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen), the haunted warrior Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen), and the blustery dwarf Gimli (John Rhys-Davies), among others. Opposed by treacherous sorcerer Saruman (Christopher Lee) and the demonic emissaries of the Dark Lord, Sauron, this continuously embattled Fellowship makes its way slowly toward the cruel land of Mordor. Studded with remarkable action sequences enhanced by state-of-the-art computer effects, Fellowship is a veritable feast for eye and ear. Director Peter Jackson shot the film in his native New Zealand, where he found stunning, picturesque locations in which to set his scenes. These marvelous natural settings combine with the beautifully crafted sets, costumes, makeup, and props to convincingly bring Tolkien's mythical world to life. The actors, one and all, play their roles as if they were born to them; even such briefly seen stars as Cate Blanchett (elf queen Galadriel) and Liv Tyler (elf maiden Arwen) perform with panache. Fellowship departs from the sacred texts in a number of ways, but Jackson's movie replicates the trilogy's first book faithfully. A rousing adventure-fantasy that will delight Tolkien devotees and newbies alike, this is truly an unforgettable film. Buy the DVD now. And/or Buy the Book now.

So, is Steven Spielberg the master of adaptations? With three movies, "Jaws," "The Color Purple" and "Schindlers List," each of which couldn't be more different than the other, Spielberg carves out a spot in history for himself as the one of the best directors in the history of motion pictures. And, then there are the writers. Both Larry McMurtry, with "Terms Of Endearment" and "Brokeback Mountain," and John Irving, with "The Cider House Rules" and "The Door In The Floor," find two spots on the Best Adapted Films since 1972. Perhaps directors should start exploring more of their works.

Of course, there are some of your favorites missing, and mine, too. "Apocolypse Now" or "Blade Runner" and "Stand By Me," perhaps? They were good movies and great books but they lost something, ever so slightly, on their way to the screen from the page. Where are "Harry Potter" and "Jurassic Park," you ask? They all could have been much better movies, each of the Harry Potters and Jurassic Parks. None of them, to date, have been the best possible adaptation. Most books are better left unfilmed. Should “The Da Vinci Code” have been left alone? Or could Steven Spielberg have done a better job with it? There is no way to know that, for sure, unless the film gets remade. And chances are, down the line, since it is one of the most popular books ever, that it will get remade. How many times have they tried with "Little Women." Perhaps next time, even in our lifetime, whomever tackles the project will be better suited for cracking the code.