{"id":79155,"date":"2025-07-20T23:05:18","date_gmt":"2025-07-20T23:05:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/79155\/"},"modified":"2025-07-20T23:05:18","modified_gmt":"2025-07-20T23:05:18","slug":"six-films-better-than-the-books-theyre-based-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/79155\/","title":{"rendered":"Six Films Better Than the Books They\u2019re Based On"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.<\/a><\/p>\n

Welcome back to The Daily\u2019s Sunday culture edition.<\/p>\n

Announcements of yet another book-to-film adaptation are usually met with groans by fans of the source material. But sometimes a new movie can be a chance to lift the best elements of a story. We asked The Atlantic\u2019s writers and editors: What\u2019s a film adaptation that\u2019s better than the book?<\/p>\n

Jurassic Park (streaming on Peacock) <\/b><\/p>\n

I am not saying that the Michael Crichton novel Jurassic Park<\/a> isn\u2019t great, because it is. The folly of man, the chaos of progress, the forking around, the finding out, the dinosaurs\u2014God, the dinosaurs. But in 1993, Steven Spielberg took this promising genetic code, selected the fittest elements, spliced them with Hitchcock<\/a>, and adapted them to the cool dark of the multiplex. The result is not just a great movie. It is a perfect movie.<\/p>\n

The story is tighter; the characters are given foils, mirrors, and stronger arcs. On the page, Dr. Alan Grant is a widower and the paleobotanist Ellie Sattler his student; Dr. Ian Malcolm, chaos mathematician, is a balding know-it-all. On the screen, our dear Dr. Sattler feasts on Dr. Grant\u2019s restrained, tonic masculinity and Dr. Malcolm\u2019s camp erotic magnetism (as do we). The dialogue is punchier too. \u201cYou\u2019re alive when they start to eat you,\u201d \u201cWoman inherits the Earth,\u201d \u201cClever girl,\u201d \u201cHold on to your butts\u201d\u2014none of that poetry appears in the paperback.<\/p>\n

Spielberg and his crew used CGI techniques<\/a> to make the inhabitants of Isla Nublar come to life, but the real magic came from practical effects, including a 9,000-pound, bus-size animatronic T. rex. This ferocious predator deserves to live on-screen, chomping on velociraptors and snatching a lawyer off of the toilet. Thirty years later, I am still not sure man deserves to watch.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Annie Lowrey, staff writer<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

The Talented Mr. Ripley (streaming on Paramount+ and the Criterion Channel)<\/b><\/p>\n

Patricia Highsmith wrote eminently<\/a> filmable<\/a> novels, none more so than her oft-adapted The Talented Mr. Ripley<\/a>. The 1999 movie is the most famous and successful take, transforming the source material into a faster-paced and more suspenseful version of the story. The novel\u2019s crime-to-punishment ratio is Dostoyevskian; for each misdeed Tom Ripley commits, he spends twice as long regretting it or worrying that he\u2019ll get caught. Anthony Minghella\u2019s adaptation diverges from this claustrophobic narration and limits viewers\u2019 access into Ripley\u2019s mind, making his deceitful and violent actions all the more unexpected.<\/p>\n

The final scenes contain the largest plot deviation\u2014a shocking twist that manages to both show Ripley at his worst and invite sympathy for him. The film also clarifies his tortured sexuality, an element of his character that remains more ambiguous in the novel. What Highsmith hints at, Minghella more boldly asks: When someone is already ostracized, even criminalized, by society, what\u2019s to stop him from taking the leap into actual depravity?<\/p>\n

\u2014 Dan Goff, copy editor<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (available to rent on YouTube and Prime Video)<\/b><\/p>\n

I\u2019m going to make some people mad, but the 2011 adaptation of John le Carr\u00e9\u2019s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is even better than the superb novel<\/a>. It\u2019s a rare instance of a spy movie that transcends genre and stands on its own. Gary Oldman\u2019s portrayal of the intelligence officer George Smiley is one of the great performances of the 21st century\u2014and it probably paved the way for Oldman to eventually play Jackson Lamb<\/a> in the addictive Slow Horses series, also an adaptation. The treatment of the field agent Ricki Tarr (played by Tom Hardy) is both more intense and to the point than in the novel. The scenery\u2014the shots of Budapest alone\u2014brings le Carr\u00e9\u2019s writing to life in a way that few adaptations ever do. And the film has easily one of the most gripping, poignant, and creative final scenes I\u2019ve ever seen. (Julio Iglesias\u2019s rendition of \u201cLa Mer\u201d is on my dinner-party playlist. If you know, you know.)<\/p>\n

\u2014 Shane Harris, staff writer<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

The Devil Wears Prada (streaming on Disney+)<\/b><\/p>\n

At first glance, the 2006 film The Devil Wears Prada seems to make only cosmetic changes to Lauren Weisberger\u2019s fizzy novel about a young woman trying to break into New York\u2019s publishing industry. In the movie, the protagonist, Andy, is a graduate of Northwestern, instead of Brown. Her boyfriend is a chef, not a teacher. And Miranda Priestly, the imposing editor of a fashion magazine\u2014a thinly veiled version of Anna Wintour\u2014who hires Andy as an assistant, isn\u2019t always seen wearing a white Herm\u00e8s scarf.<\/p>\n

But the movie\u2019s sharp screenplay by Aline Brosh McKenna elevated the material past its breezy, chick-lit-y origins. Anchored by a top-notch cast (Anne Hathaway as Andy, Meryl Streep as Miranda, and a breakout Emily Blunt as Andy\u2019s workplace rival), the film is the rare rom-com focused more on professional relationships than romantic ones: between mentors and mentees, bosses and employees, colleagues and competitors. Even amid its glossy setting, The Devil Wears Prada captured the reality of work, showing how finding career fulfillment can be a blessing and a curse. For me, the film is a modern classic, endlessly rewatchable for its insights\u2014and, of course, its fashion. I certainly have never looked at the color cerulean the same way again.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Shirley Li, staff writer<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

The Social Network (available to rent on Prime Video and YouTube)<\/b><\/p>\n

Did Mark Zuckerberg\u2019s girlfriend really break up with him by calling him an asshole in the middle of a date? Did he actually spend the moments after a disastrous legal deposition refreshing a Facebook page, again and again, to see if she\u2019d accepted his friend request? Well, probably not\u2014Erica Albright, Rooney Mara\u2019s character in David Fincher\u2019s film The Social Network, is admittedly fictional. But her opening scene establishes Fincher\u2019s version of Mark Zuckerberg as a smug, patronizing jerk who can\u2019t imagine other people\u2019s feelings being as important as his own, and sets the movie off at a furious, thrilling pace that doesn\u2019t slow until the very end, when Mark has alienated everyone who once cared about him.<\/p>\n

The Social Network is a biopic that doesn\u2019t hold itself to facts, to its absolute advantage. Ironically, this approach elevates the nonfiction book it\u2019s based on, Ben Mezrich\u2019s The Accidental Billionaires, which was written without even an interview with Zuckerberg and panned as shoddily reported. (In a New York Times review<\/a>, Janet Maslin wrote that Mezrich\u2019s \u201cworking method\u201d seemed to be \u201cwild guessing.\u201d) The truth doesn\u2019t matter as much as telling a good story\u2014as long as you keep control of the narrative, which Fincher\u2019s Mark struggles to do.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Emma Sarappo, senior associate editor<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Clear and Present Danger (streaming on MGM+)<\/b><\/p>\n

Clear and Present Danger the book<\/a> is the size, shape, and weight of a brick; Phillip Noyce\u2019s bureaucratic thriller slims Tom Clancy\u2019s nearly 1,000 pages into a svelte 141 minutes (though movies could always be shorter<\/a>). The action takes place on the sea, in the jungle, at a drug lord\u2019s mansion, and in the streets of Bogot\u00e1\u2014the latter setting the scene for an ambush sequence so memorable that the Jack Ryan series restaged it. But the film is most gripping in hallways and offices, culminating in Henry Czerny and Harrison Ford brandishing dueling memos at each other like light sabers. (\u201cYou broke the law!\u201d) And although the character of Jack Ryan can sometimes blur into a cipher in Clancy\u2019s novels, Ford embodies him with a Beltway Dad gravitas\u2014never more so than when he announces to the lawbreaking president of the United States, \u201cIt is my duty to report this matter to the Senate Oversight Committee!\u201d Such a Boy Scout.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Evan McMurry, senior editor<\/p>\n

Here are three Sunday reads from The Atlantic:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Week Ahead<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The <\/b>Fantastic Four: First Steps<\/a>, a Marvel movie about a group of superheroes who face off with Galactus and Silver Surfer (in theaters Friday)<\/li>\n
  2. Veronica Electronica<\/a>, a new remix album by Madonna (out Friday)<\/li>\n
  3. Girl, 1983<\/a>, a novel by Linn Ullmann about the power of forgetting<\/a> (out Tuesday)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Essay<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \""Elio"\"Pixar<\/p>\n

    What Pixar Should Learn From Its Elio Disaster<\/p>\n

    By David Sims<\/p>\n

    \n

    Early last year, Pixar appeared to be on the brink of an existential crisis. The coronavirus pandemic had thrown the business of kids\u2019 movies into particular turmoil: Many theatrical features were pushed to streaming, and their success on those platforms left studios wondering whether the appeal of at-home convenience would be impossible to reverse \u2026 Discussing the studio\u2019s next film, Inside Out 2<\/a>, the company\u2019s chief creative officer, Pete Docter, acknowledged the concerns: \u201cIf this doesn\u2019t do well at the theater, I think it just means we\u2019re going to have to think even more radically about how we run our business.\u201d<\/p>\n

    He had nothing to worry about: Inside Out 2 was a financial sensation<\/a>\u2014by far the biggest hit of 2024. Yet here we are, one year later, and the question is bubbling back up: Is Pixar cooked?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    Read the full article.<\/a><\/p>\n

    More in Culture<\/b><\/p>\n

    Catch Up on The Atlantic <\/strong><\/p>\n

    Photo Album<\/b><\/p>\n

    \"AA recortador performs with a bull in the Plaza de Toros bullring during a festival in Pamplona, Spain. (Ander Gillenea \/ AFP \/ Getty)<\/p>\n

    Take a look at these photos of the week<\/a>, which show a trust jump in Iraq, a homemade-submarine debut in China, and more.<\/p>\n

    Play our daily crossword.<\/a><\/p>\n

    Explore all of our newsletters.<\/a><\/p>\n

    When you buy a book using a link in this newsletter, we receive a commission. Thank you for supporting The Atlantic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":79156,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[1022,171,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-79155","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114888069762371657","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}