# Inspiring films...



## Legolam (Feb 4, 2004)

I was thinking about this issue this morning (for some bizarre reason):

Since the LOTR films came out, many millions of people have been inspired to read LOTR for the first time. So my question is this: 

What film _first_ inspired you to read the book that it was based on?

I remember watching Jurassic Park when I was a kid and going straight out to buy Michael Crichton's version, as well as his book of The Lost World. Once I'd finished them, I read the original Lost World too!


----------



## Sarde (Feb 4, 2004)

I was inspired by the movies to read LotR. It has never happened to me before that I really enjoyed a book AFTER seeing the movie. So I don't usually read the book after seeing the movie. Oh wait, I have one book on the shelf here... Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian. It is one of the books that the movie with Russell Crowe as Captain 'Lucky' Jack Aubrey was based upon. I haven't read it yet but if it is half as cool as the movie was, I'll be satisfied.


----------



## Éomond (Feb 8, 2004)

Besides _Lord of the Rings_, the only other book I went out and bought after seeing the movie was _Black Hawk Down_. It's a great story, but like LotR, the it's very easy to see the differences, but I still love both. It also wants to make me sign up for the Army (just one of the reasons).


----------



## Sarah (Feb 8, 2004)

Sarde said:


> Oh wait, I have one book on the shelf here... Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian. It is one of the books that the movie with Russell Crowe as Captain 'Lucky' Jack Aubrey was based upon. I haven't read it yet but if it is half as cool as the movie was, I'll be satisfied.



I heard billy boyd was in that. Is it any good?


----------



## Sarde (Feb 8, 2004)

Sarah said:


> I heard billy boyd was in that. Is it any good?



If you are interested in a detailed account on what life was like on a battle ship in the 18th century, it is awesome. The plot isn't much, but the attention to detail is stunning. And there are some kick-ass battle scenes. Billy Boyd was great in it, his role suited him very well.


----------



## Ithrynluin (Feb 8, 2004)

_The House of the Spirits (starring Meryl Streep, Jeremy Irons, Antonio Banderas, Glenn Close, Winona Ryder)_ was a film I really enjoyed, so I read the book by _Isabel Allende _and loved it!

Another one of those was Stephen King's _It. _Great book and great film adaptation.

The only book I was a bit disappointed in after seeing the movie was _The Bridges of Madison County._ Perhaps the film was so good that it overshadowed the book itself?


----------



## 33Peregrin (Feb 12, 2004)

Sarah said:


> I heard billy boyd was in that. Is it any good?



I guess you might like it... if you like that kind of stuff. I really didn't enjoy it much. Billy Boyd was a pleasent surprise for me though, he was excellent, and his parts in the movie were great.

LOTR really was the only movie that made me read the book that I can remember. It was just so amazing, I went home and read The Hobbit that night, and began LOTR two days later.

I read A Walk to Remember after the movie, and that was the only time I have ever seen a movie that was better than the book.


----------



## Ireth Telrúnya (Feb 12, 2004)

Legolam said:


> I was thinking about this issue this morning (for some bizarre reason):
> 
> Since the LOTR films came out, many millions of people have been inspired to read LOTR for the first time. So my question is this:
> 
> ...



Oh, those Jurassic Park films also inspired me to read Michael Chrichton. I've read both those too and also "Timeline" which is a movie now as well and I'm waiting to see it.

And well, I read "Star Wars" after having seen the film...or was it vice versa..I can't seem to remember any more! Anyway, at least I read the two sequels before I saw them.

I also read a novel about "the Independence Day", of what happened before the actual happenings of the movie.


----------



## Elessar II (Feb 12, 2004)

> Oh, those Jurassic Park films also inspired me to read Michael Chrichton. I've read both those too and also "Timeline" which is a movie now as well and I'm waiting to see it.




I also was inspired by the Jurassic Park films to read M. Crichton's books, which got me started reading all of his books. 
( TIMELINE IS COMING OUT!?! Alright!! Now that is one movie I've got to see!)


----------



## Elessar II (Feb 13, 2004)

Nevermind. Read the summary, and it looks like another one of those great stories that were ruined on film.


----------



## Rhiannon (Feb 13, 2004)

Mm....What books have I read _after_ seeing the films? Ah, _Sense and Sensibility_. I saw the film before reading the book. But I probably would have read the book eventually anyway, does that still count? And..._The Secret Garden_ and _The Little Princess_ I both read after seeing the films first...but again, probably would have read them anyway.

AH-HA! I have one! _The King's Damosel_ by Vera Chapman. There was a silly, campy, and weird animated movie made...oh, a decade ago, maybe...called 'Quest for Camelot'. Yes it was dumb, but it 1) featured a girl heroine, 2) was about King Arthur, and 3) I was just the right age not to care how stupid it was. So I loved it, and still had a good time watching it a few years later when my younger siblings were the right age for it and we rented it. By then I was old enought to watch for these things, and noticed in the opening credits that it was 'based on the book by...' And soon after in the library I picked up an anthology of Arthurian stories and recognized Chapman's name in the list on the cover. Checked it out, read the story (which is really a novella), _adored_ the story--which was absolutely nothing like the movie except that there was a girl and there was a guy and the guy happened to be blind. The movie was fun because it was so stupid, the book was gloriously poetic and tragic and beautiful. But I did read it because I saw the movie first. Ta-da!

Mm...I've done the opposite. The animated film of _Watership Down_ *prevented* me from reading the book for several years. *shudder* I did love the book, though.


----------



## Ol'gaffer (Feb 13, 2004)

Well, there are a few.

_High Fidelity_ was the first to do so, I started reading Horny very regularly and even read "about a boy" before the movie came out, I loved the movie though.

_Bridget Jones Diary_ was another, great books and good movie.

_Requiem for a Dream_ has been the latest to achieve that effect.


----------



## FIRELILY (Feb 13, 2004)

Lets see...first to come to mind is The Yearling (-sniff! the poor deer!) and also To Kill A Mockingbird.
Then Last of the Mohicans (YOW! Daniel Day Lewis could make me read detailed doco on heating and air conditioning if he was in the movie), Brave New World, and Stephen King's The Shining (movie did not do the book justice).
I know there's more, but those are the first to come to mind.


----------



## Courtney (Feb 20, 2004)

I also read Jurassic Park and Lost World... My favorite movie/book by Chrichton, however, is The Thirteenth Warrior (movie)/Eaters of the Dead(book).

The Last of the Mohicans is an awesome book (and movie)!! I was fortunate enough to have read the book first. There are quite a few differences.

More recently, I was inspired to read The Count of Monte Cristo. The book is SO much better! It is a lot darker and it goes an entire generation further than the movie. Oooh! It was eerie!


----------



## Starbrow (Feb 22, 2004)

I remember reading Mary Poppins some years ago and being quite shocked and disappointed that it was not like the Disney version. Since then, I've been leary of movie adaptations of books.


----------



## Rhiannon (Feb 22, 2004)

I loved the novel of Mary Poppins--much more than the film version, though I was surprised by the difference between them.


----------



## FIRELILY (Feb 23, 2004)

Rhiannon said:


> I loved the novel of Mary Poppins--much more than the film version, though I was surprised by the difference between them.



Mary Poppin is a novel?????!!! Who knew? (Well, apparently Rhiannon, but I mean besides that.)


----------



## Rhiannon (Feb 23, 2004)

Mary Poppins is several novels, actually--I've only read the first one (when I was...eleven? Maybe twelve), but I have a few of the others. _Peter Pan_ is another novel that's very different from the movie (the animated movie, I haven't seen the new live action one...*mutters* Stupid tiny local theatre...). It's wonderful, and it makes very little sense. For that matter _The Wizard of Oz_ isn't particularly similar to the movie either, and the other fourteen books in the Oz series aren't at all (I read all fifteen of the original ones when I was nine. In case you wondered why I'm so very warped).


----------



## Snaga (Feb 23, 2004)

The Maltese Falcon... an excellent film, based on an entertaining book. If you like those hard-bitten private eye stories, this is unbeatable.


----------



## celebdraug (Mar 2, 2004)

to be honest, i dont think there has ever been any other movies that have inspired me to read the books!  

LOTR was the first!!


----------



## Ravenna (Mar 27, 2004)

Alastair Maclean's Navarone books, also Where Eagles Dare, the only war films I've ever really liked.
Jurassic Park.
The Horse Whisperer was another.
Also, not stricly speaking movies, but the adaptations of Bernard Corwell's Sharrpe novels got me hooked on the books, this despite only watching the first one cos I had a thing for Sean Bean in tight trousers!!


----------



## Eledhwen (Mar 27, 2004)

Pinocchio. Then I got hold of Victorian fairy story books, to read the unsanitised versions of the other Disney offerings. I sometimes wonder if the scriptwriters have ever read the original stories. I also read Homeward Bound after seeing the film - well worth it to the child I was then.

 I suppose The Bible comes into this category too - though most of it was omitted from all the films put together.


----------

