re: Is it difficult to make classical literature into good movies? And what the best

Much of classic literature falls into that realm of novelization and a lot of those novels were originally conceived for serialization and, so, it's probably best left to the mini-series or TV adaptation format.

Not to mention that most classic novels and stories were painstakingly toiled over and perfected for years on end. Meanwhile, modern cinema tends to try to pop out movies as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible. If the original writing was razor sharp and, therefore, great, it stands to reason that the screenplay would, too, need to be razor sharp, as too would the direction and acting. This isn't even taking into account the stylistic flourishes like cinematography, score, editing, etc.

In other words, there are just so many places were good, tight classic literature can have its corners cut in the film making process. You're taking the voice of one writer and giving it up to an entire crew of egos and creative licenses and hoping it will be faithful. Typically not the case.

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Can you imagine how boring something like As I Lay Dying would be on film?

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I haven't seen it, but James Franco just recently did this.

Also, to the OP, The Great Gatsby is pretty good, IMO, if we're counting that as classic literature.

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I think it may be that many were made into movies long ago and we don't watch old movies as much as we read old books.

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Winner.

There's problem with Classical Literature for a few reasons:

1. For the most part, it's long. You have to cut A TON from something like the Brothers Karamazov to get it to work. Same for most books. And it's hard to keep the same outcome by cutting out probably 40-60% of a book.

2. It takes unique skill. Those are different types of stories. Much more reliant on character, dialog, than on editing/cgi/pacing. There are FEW director's I'd trust with Classic Lit now: Brannagh, Malick, Weir to name some of the few.

3. The "Re-Imagning": It seems we're much more concerned with "updating" classics. See light examples at Pixar (Up is Moby Dick for instance), and heavier examples in something like AI as Pinnochio, etc.

4. White people. Eh the focus is on diversification, and older stories are often either white dudes writing about white dudes, or a minority writing simply about being a minority at that time, which is hard to relate to. Not only that, often the content is difficult to market. 12 Years a Slave and Django did great, but how rare are films about slavery?

5. Impossibility. Some great old classics like Slaughterhouse Five, Gravity's Rainbow, Ulysses, Finnegan's Wake are just impossible to put on screen. I was actually pleasantly surprised by Tristram Shandy with Coogan, and that was a re-imagining, but it worked. That won't always work. (Cath-22 worked relatively well. (And I really, really want someone to do an updated F451.)

6. Old Stuff Just Doesn't Sell. As much as I want A Brother's Karamazov film, or a really great version of Crime and Punishment or THe Secret Agent. You almost have to reimagine. Classic stuff, classic tone, just won't sell. And I honestly don't know why. As a culture, we aren't as interested in history as we used to be.




With all that said, this:



Would make an awesome film. (Plug: I'm halfway through a script on this. I'll probably never finish though.)

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To Have and Have Not & The Killers are both great movies

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The first ten minutes or so of The Killers is pretty much the short story verbatim. The rest of the movie is a relatively conventional noir thriller, though still entertaining.

Of Mice and Men.

Master and Commander was a very good adaptation of Patrick O'Brian's novels. The books really aren't terribly old but the language and setting is pretty old fashioned. And the movie was remarkably faithful to that.

It made a little money but not all that much. People would much rather watch Pirates of the Caribbean I, II, III, IV,...

There just aren't a lot of people that want to watch movies that are faithful adaptations of classic literature.

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Master and Commander

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Incredible movie. I have wished for a sequel for years.

Other ones I liked that were updated versions: Gattaga (Great Expectations), Scrooged (Christmas Carol)

True to material ones I liked: Moby Dick ( Gregory Peck 1956), A Tale of Two Cities (1980 hallmark hall of fame), Romeo and Juliet (1968 Zeffirelli version)

I'm sure there are a ton more I have forgotten.

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Also, to the OP, The Great Gatsby is pretty good, IMO, if we're counting that as classic literature.

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The Great Gatsby, while it is not even my favorite Fitzgerald novel, is definitely consider classic literature. I've seen it on at least a couple of all time lists.

I've not seen either (or any?) version of the movie though so I can't comment on how they were.

The movie Fahrenheit 451 had too many changes from the book. I understand how changes can be necessary at times when making a movie, but the changes made were too drastic.