Stone Soup by Jan Eliot for April 14, 2010

You forgot to add the “stay sexy” part, Phil. Very important.

Cast your bread upon the water and ……

Dose every kid have to see a movie to get a book report done? Heart did this just a month ago!

Their sane, but their brats.

I love this strip. I hate Phil’s mustache style. It’s so, well, you know. How about something a little more western or a least a little fuller or maybe not at all.

No, not “K”, Holly. Arrest her, Phil. Actually, lock them all up, they’re all nuts. ;-)

Some movies based on books get the name right and nothing else.

jml58- Amen. More than a few teachers grade on what is in the paper. If it follows the MOVIE version, the grade is judged accordingly.

Phil wears his uniform when he’s off duty?!? I agree he needs a fuller moustache… And Holly needs to quit being a smartass…brat! That being said… :-]

Should anyone require 100 wet loaves, please contact Holly tomorrow. Oh, Jan, you are so good at seeing inside my house!

Back in Jr High, my English Teacher had us do a book report on a book that had recently been made into a movie… which was playing in town. She gave extra credit if we saw the movie and compared the two in our paper.

As I remember, the book itself was good (I had actually read it before we got the assignment), but the movie stunk.

With the exception of Lord of the Rings, I have yet to see a movie that is as good as the book, I expected great things from Jurassic Park (Which was a Good movie) since the author wrote the screen play… I was terribly dissapointed.. it could have been a Great Movie but was only good…..

The movie “Blade Runner” is better than the book “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?”, but it’s very different. “The Graduate” works better as a movie than as a book. Kubrick’s “The Shining” is arguably better than King’s (although King would disagree), and the same could be said of “A Clockwork Orange”, “2001: A Space Odyssey”, “Spartacus”…(not “Lolita”, though; that movie is great, but the book is better).

I think the book-to-movie argument becomes more balanced if you think of how many famous movies turn out to be based on books you never knew existed. If the book is already considered a classic, though, it’s hard for a movie to measure up, if only because the mediums are so different. If all a movie does is accurately depict the events of the book, it’ll likely fail as a movie. And if its filmic elements, however successful in their own terms, DO distract (or even detract) from the literary elements of the source material, fans of the book will complain.

A film director’s prime responsibility is to make a good film, and if the book gets in the way, the book needs to be disregarded. If the Buddha blocks your path to Enlightenment, you must kill the Buddha. That’s one of the reasons for the conventional wisdom that it’s easier to make a good movie from a bad book than from a good one.

But yeah, if the purpose of seeing the movie is to substitute for reading the book… That trick NEVER works.

(It’s interesting that you mentioned “Jurassic Park”, though. I’ve heard that, when he was writing the book, Crichton was asked what he was working on, and he said “I’m writing the most expensive movie ever made.”)

maybe it’s “to kill a mockingbird”. ;)

n the other hand, “the Bourne Identity” was a good movie, but after the first six minutes had little to do with the book. The book was about Bourne’s conflict with Carlos the Jackal. Carlos didn’t even appear in the movie.

“Sum of All Fears” movie had a completely different ending from the book.

“2001 a space odyssey” the movie was incomplete vis-a-vis the book. Kubrick was told to have it done by a certain date or face cancellation of the project. He just turned in what he had and to hell with the rest.

I hate it when Hollywood thinks they can write a story better than the original author.

Charlie Kaufman and Spike Jonze’s “Adaptation” is in fact “officially” an adaptation of Susan Orlean’s “The Orchid Thief.” Of course, the screenplay is credited to Charlie Kaufman and Donald Kaufman, and Donald Kaufman doesn’t actually technically literally even exist…

I’m thinking Val should help Holly out by downloading the BOOK for her to read…

Obviously, Val never learned to master THE look. The mother look that said «Who do you think you’re kidding. You do not pass Go. Not even close” Do the work. It is your responsibility or face the consequence: bad notes means restriction of privilege: no friends, no TV, no taxi service, end of story. Did not hurt that I made sure movies or long TV hours were reserved for week-end, days off and vacation for the whole family. I got two kids who love reading, are very responsible and are doing great at University.

Why thank you Werew0lfe! I never finish the book, not my kind of reading at all. Too much action without a reason and a good guy acting too much like a bad one.

I’ll give the movie a try. Maybe I’ll like it better.

The only reference I have which is recent was Love in the Time of Cholera, which I heard was controversial. Never saw the movie, but bought and read the book (in the original Spanish). I enjoyed it, and may eventually read the other principal book of Garcia/Marquez ;-) but I have others in my principal study area yet to read.

knitcat said, about 23 hours ago

jml58- Amen. More than a few teachers grade on what is in the paper. If it follows the MOVIE version, the grade is judged accordingly.

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Knitcat: What do the teachers that don’t grade on what is in the paper grade on?

Let her roast, Val. My kids got stung a few times by their cavalier attitude and it straightened them right up.