The Most Unfaithful Film Adaptations

[kelby_lake]

I'm not surprised that 75% of the book was left out, from what I have read on this forum, Faulkner was mind-numbingly prolix and that's why I haven't read him. During the 1960s, Hollywood went big on Southern Gothic and a spate of films followed one another until the genre became a caricature of itself. For my sins I saw a number of them but when I read that one critic described S&F as a fourth carbon copy of Chekhov in Dixie, I decided to give it a miss.
You're right about bizarre miscasting: what on earth are Margaret Leighton and Françoise Rosay doing in such a film?

And we've got Yul Brynner as the man of the house!

[Emil Miller]

And we've got Yul Brynner as the man of the house!

Yes and wearing hair, according to my reference.

[kelby_lake]

Yes and wearing hair, according to my reference.

He gives his adopted niece quite a kissing :O

[Motherof8]

The movie "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm" starring Shirley Temple wasn't anything like the book.

[JBI]

Like an artist taking a story from the bible. He's not going to have the Pope tell him how to paint.

The Popes, Cardinals, Bishops, etc... actually did just that in a good many instances. Artists often worked with theologians who directed them as to iconography and the appropriate or accepted means of portraying a given narrative. Of course the artists of the past often made attempts at pushing the limitations, but it has really only been over the last century or so that most artists have been free to interpret an existing narrative as they wish... or invent their own narratives. This has had both positive and negative impact upon art. It has allowed artists the greatest freedom. On the other hand, artists cannot count upon the audience recognizing the the common narratives.

What do you mAke then of Caravaggio's religious works. That is probably in line with setting Heart of Darkness in Vietnam/Cambodia.

Are we going to call that faithless or adaptive. The same could be said for the Samurai Shakespeare adaptations by Kurosawa or the cowboy samurai adaptations going the other way.

[Kyriakos]

Not an adaptation, but the movie "Kafka" starring Jeremy Irons (who i like otherwise) simply had nothing to do with Franz Kafka. It was a very big let-down.

[tonywalt]

Brighton Rock (2010 film) - I suppose they had to modernise it a bit-I think Graham Greene would approve.

[Emil Miller]

Brighton Rock (2010 film) - I suppose they had to modernise it a bit-I think Graham Greene would approve.

I agree that this is a most unfaithful adaptation. Compared to the original film this version is an insult to the intelligence and nothing to do with Greene's story. I have seen excepts of it on YouTube and wasn't surprised to find it just another rip off for those who haven't read the book. Knowing something about Greene, I would say that he would have been upset although not surprised at the practice of usurping a brilliant film to make a fast buck out of the cinematically ignorant.

[ennison]

Blow-up. In many ways the film is much better than the text on which it is based.