Movies Better Than The Book

"The book was better." When it comes to movies adapted from novels, this old adages tends to be proven right. Sure, special effects bring an undeniable razzle-dazzle to the whole affair. Yes, some actors are capable of bringing their character to life with unique vibrancy. Sometimes, a movie adaptation even manages to significantly alter the story in a way fans approve of (no one really needed to see Disney animate Cinderella's wicked stepsisters chopping off their own toes). A movie adaptation can be quite good, even great, and occasionally, even a masterpiece. But ultimately, even if it hits those heights, the book still tends to reign supreme. 

See, a book doesn't have to account for budget, runtime, or limited technology. Moreover, a book happens in collaboration with the reader, ensuring a unique bond. Harry Potter might describe Hogwarts, but its sights and smells live in your imagination. Sure, more people usually end up seeing the movie than reading the book, but as any bibliophile can tell you, that doesn't mean the movie is better.

And yet, every so often, a movie comes along and proves the old rule wrong by being solidly better than the book it's based on. Some are elevated by tremendously talented casts, while others make expert edits to their book's clunky story. However they do it, they triumph over their tomes, and we're here to celebrate them.

It feels a bit cruel to point out that The Devil Wears Prada is better as a movie than a book. It does have Meryl Streep on its side, after all, in what's become one of her most celebrated roles. But her performance is simply too delicious to deny. As Miranda Priestly, Streep rides the line between outright camp and icy perfection with ludicrous precision. She is more Anna Wintour than Anna Wintour herself, the infamous inspiration for the character. And what surrounds her isn't lacking, either. Anne Hathaway charms as everygirl Andy, Stanley Tucci provokes laughter and genuine pathos as long-suffering Nigel, and Emily Blunt is razor-sharp as Andy's caustic colleague, also named Emily.

How could any book compete? Lauren Weisberger's 2003 novel does as good a job as anything could, really. Weisberger really was Anna Wintour's personal assistant, and she really did pour her juicy memories onto the page. As a result, the book has an irresistible confessional edge, shot through with a very real anger missing from the movie. It's worth a read, especially if one is interested in fashion. But when a book has been shot into the stratosphere of Streep-dom, it just has to accept second-place status. As Miranda would say, peering over the rim of her glasses, "That's all."

You just can't help but love Elle Woods, Legally Blonde's indefatigable heroine. She's an unabashed California girl, complete with a Barbie mane, daddy's money, and a well-accessorized chihuahua. But as it turns out, she's also one heck of a law student. Watching her triumph over her jerk of an ex, a creepy professor's manipulation, and the low expectations of Harvard's elite is dazzling, and she's kept grounded by the movie's enormous heart. Everything is possible in Elle Woods' world, with enough elbow grease, self-confidence, and sisterhood, and no one is so far gone that they can't land their own happy ending. The hot UPS guy can be charmed, the LSATs can be aced, and the trial can be won. In the immortal words of Elle herself, "What, like it's hard?"

Amanda Brown's 2001 novel of the same name is a considerably more laborious affair. Based on Brown's own experiences at Stanford, this Legally Blonde drags beneath the weight of Brown's clunky prose. Moreover, the Elle of the novel lacks nearly all of her movie counterpart's appeal. Her narration has an odiously catty edge to it that recalls Mean Girls' Regina George more than it does Reese Witherspoon's spirited performance. Brown's book would have been a pale attempt at paint-by-numbers chick-lit, even without the movie. Stood beside it, every flaw is even more apparent. Skip its thin swill of sass and Stanford-isms in favor of a Netflix rewatch.

"Feuding magicians" is one heck of a premise, and it propels both Christopher Priest's 1995 novel The Prestige and its 2006 film adaptation of the same name to tremendous heights of entertainment. Setting it in the late 1800s is another stroke of genius, as the strange, sci-fi nature of the story's illusions mirrors the mind-bogglingly rapid change of the era. But the novel takes the story in a decidedly more supernatural direction, involving souls separated from bodies. This works on its own merits, but you'd be hard-pressed to find many who'd pick its ending over the film's.

You're likely already picturing those unforgettable final moments, in which Michael Caine's measured voice explains how people want to be fooled over images of top hats in a field, the burning theater, and the corpse in the water tank. The shock of the movie's reveal, enhanced by the breakneck storyline it caps off, simply cannot be denied. Moreover, Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale are at the top of their game here as men so devoted to their craft that they end up destroying themselves. The book does different things, to a large extent, and does them well, but the movie is an expertly executed magic trick, its three-act structure a perfect mirror of the illusion at the center of the story. There is the pledge, the turn, and the prestige, and the audience goes wild for it to this day.

Peter Benchley's 1974 novel, Jaws, is fine. It'll keep you turning pages as you sit in an airplane or perhaps in a waiting room somewhere, where it's been lying beside old copies of Newsweek for a decade. That's the sort of book it is — it passes time. This is a perfectly decent thing for a book to aspire to, but quite frankly, even in that category, it struggles. Jaws is merely, thinly fine. Fans of the movie will be surprised to discover a tangle of subplots and character beats within it that Spielberg expertly excised, as well as some of the worst musings on female sexuality you're likely to read for a good long while. Beneath this mess, however, lies the story that became the movie. Before the movie existed, that was enough to recommend it.

But, of course, the movie exists. The ur-summer blockbuster excavated what's good about the book, then put it in the hands of actors who transformed banal characters into unforgettable figures of tension, bravery, and terror. Quint is the best example. In the book, he's a forgettable Ahab-lite, but in the hands of actor Robert Shaw, he's transformed into a grizzled figure of hard living, violent means, and regret. Jaws fires on all cylinders, while the book chugs along, a weary tugboat among many at a barnacle-spotted marina. It's fine. But why bother with fine when its adaptation is one of the greatest thrillers of all time?

Back in 1999, the Los Angeles Times said The Iron Giant "feels like a classic even though it's just out of the box." This sort of praise didn't matter at first, as The Iron Giant made a measly $23 million at the box office. But the years have kind to the film, which is now deservedly hailed as an animated classic. A Cold War fable of tremendous tenderness, it's a movie that feels simultaneously large and small. On the one hand, it's about big ideas like xenophobia, normalcy, and war. And on the other hand, it's such an intimate portrait of coastal Maine, you can practically smell the woodsmoke. It is, in short, all-ages entertainment at its absolute best.

Much of this success comes from Ted Hughes' 1968 novel, The Iron Man, upon which the movie is based. There are significant differences between the two, most notably an extraterrestrial dragon the size of Australia that the Iron Giant must battle. This blend of old-school fairy tale structure with mid-century pulp certainly appeals, but in the shadow of the movie, it feels like a rough draft. The anti-war messaging is more skillfully pulled off in the movie, the small-town setting more well captured, the human characters vastly more vivid. It is, in every sense, simply better — though admittedly, it'd be pretty cool to see The Iron Giant's animation team take a crack at bringing the "Space-Bat-Angel-Dragon" to life.