In Which Your Humble Blogger Engages in Serious Backpedalling

So in my last entry I mentioned that I'm not really that big on films based on books, and I gave Lord of the Rings a few knocks for just that.

Well I guess I should clarify.

See, The Godfather, quite possibly the greatest movie ever made, is based on a book. In contrast, Twilight, quite possibly the worst movie ever made, is based on a book.

The difference is, The Godfather was done with style, while Twilight was made to make a quick buck and to give the lead actor a chance to hit on the lead actress. If you can call either of them that.

Or to put it another way, The Godfather gave us "I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse," a horse's head in a bed, "Luca Brazi sleeps with the fishes," Sonny getting utterly blown away, the baptism/purge, and half a dozen other iconic scenes and lines. It also had Marlon Brando, Al Pacino and Robert Duvall all at the top of their games. In contrast, Twilight gave us sparkly vampires and the opportunity for me to use an awful, awful pun: it put a stake in the heart of good vampire stories.

Now, that's not to say that The Godfather was a page-for-page transcription of the novel with good acting, direction and music. Actually, about half the novel got cut (and about half of that wound up in the sequel, which I honestly don't think is as good, but apparently I'm in the minority there). Much like with LA Confidential, another good film based on a book, The Godfather's writers judiciously excised almost everything that was irrelevant to the central plot.

The Godfather even went as far to not actually be called that: The full title of the film is Mario Puzo's The Godfather. I defy you to find another film (other than Bram Stoker's Dracula) based on a book that actually acknowledges the author in the title. It was Coppola's way of saying "hey, there's this book! If you liked the movie, go read it and see what I left out!" If you wanted a similar effect from Lord of the Rings, you'd have to wait through a three-hour movie and about ten title cards at the end before they got to the "Based on the novel by" credit.

So, there you have it: The Godfather is a perfect example of how to adapt someone else's idea for your own cinematic masterpiece. And there's nothing wrong with that; when I did my list, I didn't disqualify Lord of the Rings because it was bad, but rather because I was looking for original ideas. There is something to be said for repackaging something old; that's just not what I was looking for in my list.