Adaptation as good as the Book

[Jamieson Wolf]

I love love love The Green Mile. Both the book and the movie, which is rare for me.

There have been a few GREAT adaptations of Stephen Kings books to movies (The Green Mile, Misery and Carrie stand out for me) and some horrible ones (I didn't care for the movie of Christine, Salems Lot or The Mangler for instance) but The Green Mile stands out for me.

I think what makes the book so good is the raw, personal emotion that we get when we read it. What is so good about the movie is that it has that same raw, powerful emotion.

What does everyone else think?

Cheers,
Jamieson

[michal]

I totally agree. I always felt that it was King's writing -the descriptiveness and realistic sense of it, even the unbelievable parts, that makes the books so well translated into films.
Or, I guess you can say, even Hollywood can't go wrong with a really good story. Oh wait, of course it can...

[aptpupil]

Agreed, the movie of The Green Mile was a triumph, without a doubt.

Up there with Shawshank and Stand By Me in the list of great SK adaptations for me.

[Samantha_]

It's a good film.

[Uncle Waldo]

I loved The Green Mile. The film pretty much equals the book. It's one of the closest movie adaptations to any of King's books or novellas. I'd say the only one closer would be Stand By Me (The Body). Hanks pulls out the Edgecombe character perfectly and the other actor's, esp. John Coffey's portrayal, were cast well too. The movie is always great to watch.

[GNTLGNT]

Frank Darabont did a wonderful job adapting it for the screen and working within those limitations. The characters certainly came to life, and I gotta tell ya-I FELT Tom Hank's agony with that UTI....yowee zowee!

[Bubonic]

As good as the book?
I'd be almost tempted to say so for how phenomenal I felt it was, watching it last night for the second time after 10 years... But it has also been as long since I've read the book.
For me it's been proven that reading a book before seeing the film will take away from my enjoyment of the movie.
Now I'm wondering if actually the movie could be considered less ambiguous then the book, cleaner in a way?

[Bubonic]

Now that I think of it, I much enjoyed the way in which Darabont approached the revelation of whether or not Coffey was guilty or not.
I think I prefered how Coffey revealed the truth to Hedgecomb as opposed to Paul investigating it in the book.

[Uncle Waldo]

I have to agree 100 percent. I say the best adaptations have been The Green Mile, Shawshank, Stand By Me, and the TV version of The Stand.