Wondering whether to read the book or to watch the on screen adaptation? Yes, I have been wrestling with that, book by book, movie by movie and TV series by TV series, year after year and it never gets easier, ever. So here I am to help you choose, though today it is not so much of a choice but rather a list of equals across different genres. Here, I have a list for you today, my list of three awesome books (series) which met their equally magnificent cinematic adaptations:
1. Gone with the Wind
This classic American novel by Margaret Mitchell published in 1936 needs no review. Set in Georgia, during the American Civil War Era, the world fell in love with the duo of Scarlett O’Hara, the spoiled daughter of a well-to-do plantation owner and her hero, Rhett Butler. As if the book was not enough to take over the world, the movie adaptation in 1940 captured the imagination of the most cynical skeptics too. I never get tired of saying this every time I watch this movie, “Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh were born to play Rhett and Scarlett.”
I read the novel for the first time in high school, was love struck; watched the movie years later and swooned over again. The cast, the direction, the cinematography, everything was so perfect, just the way I imagined as I had read. If the not-so-happy ending of the book haunted me for years, the last words by Rhett Butler in the movie echoed inside my mind for years too “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn” to Scarlett O’Hara, in response to her tearful question: “Where shall I go? What shall I do?” I give a lot of damn, both for the book and the movie and I hope you do too!
2. Harry Potter Series
The Harry Potter (HP) series of seven fantasy novels written by British author, J.K. Rowling was for children to read about magic, wizards witches and all that stuff. What really happened surprised Rowling more than anyone else. From the first book, “The Philosopher’s Stone” published in 1997 to the last one, “The Deathly Hallows” in 2007, the books wove magic on children and adults all over the world, popularity, critical acclaim, commercial success, yes, these books lapped all of it. The eight movie series based on the seven books, distributed by Warner Brothers started with “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone“ (2001) and ended with “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2” (2011). Riding on the popularity of the books, yes agreed, but each movie with its most intricate detail were impeccable adaptations by their own rights too.
If Rowling took six years to write her first HP book, I give her an ode to her patience by waiting for 15 years from the first book’s release to actually buy the entire series in 2012. I read them at a voracious speed one after the other in less than a month, juggling with a demanding job, and was that fun! The next day, I binge watched all the eight movies on a four-day holiday weekend! And it was worth the wait, worth every missed out conversation among friends, the spell jokes among colleagues which I didn’t understand, yes, the endurance was worth it all. The books weave magic on you and the movies only tighten the web making you shout for more. Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter is immortalized I guess, difficult for any of us to see him play any other role in any other movie. Kind of like a curse actually for such a good actor! I am sure many of you reading this will have crazier stories for the HP series, do share them with me. I still feel the euphoria all over again. Maybe time for another read, another watch?
3. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
The only TV series in the list and no, last does not mean least by any means. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle created “Sherlock Homes” one of the most enduring character in crime fiction and wrote 60 stories. The first 12 stories were published in 1892 and from then on, Detective Holmes and his friend, Dr. Watson became a worldwide phenomenon. Doyle was conferred knighthood for it and even today, 127 years since the first story, Sherlock Holmes lives on. In fact, the author got so fed up with the obsession over Holmes that he killed him in one of his books (The Reichenbach Fall) but had to bring him back to life out of pressure from the fans worldwide with the author even getting death threats. The review of the astronomical number of movies and TV series adaptations done on Sherlock Holmes around the world will fill up another series of books and I am still counting.
I watched a Sherlock Holmes TV series when I was in middle school and did not understand much of it then. In high school, I started reading Sherlock Holmes and no surprises, got hooked on to it totally. From then on, I have tried to watch as many adaptations of movies and TV series, including the portrayals by Benedict Cumberbatch as well as by Robert Downey Jr. But my thoughts kept going back to that old TV series from school. Thanks to the internet, I retrieved the series and watched both the seasons at one go, recently. And I rate that as the best adaptation ever of this detective series. This TV series was first released in 1984. Jeremy Brett played Sherlock and David Burke played Dr. Watson. The aquiline nose, the top hat, the pipe and his eccentricities, Jeremy Brett has the character of Holmes embedded in every look, every gesture and every word. One series I will recommend to every aficionado of Sherlock Holmes!
I hope you loved reading this list as much as I loved penning it. To be honest with you, I have repeatedly read each book and watched each cinematic adaptation umpteen number of times to help me choose, the book or the theatre. And I just couldn’t, every repeat only reinforced my wonder of such fine adaptations that matched the books, every word to every act!. Please leave me your comments below, I will really love to hear back from you. I will like it even more if you come up with your own views about this list, which may help me choose the better of the two. And, yes, that will also mean I do another repeat read and watch with your valuable inputs, an opportunity I don’t want to miss. Keep reading, keep watching, I will be back soon!
Watch What You Read! 