(3 of 4)
CHALLENGES: Scott Phillips' novel was a twisty little small-town noir with a double whammy or triple-cross on every other page. Which is fine for a leisurely read, but at 24 frames a second--movie speed--that can cause whiplash. Not to mention total incomprehension. Plus the book had some gnarly violence, and it took place mostly in strip clubs. If the MPAA rated books, that one would have been NC-17.
HOW THE BOOK WAS BETTER: There's something about a man getting stuffed into a metal footlocker or having his finger crushed in a vise or getting a shotgunful of snakeshot in the face that you can take when you read about it in a book. When you see it onscreen, in full color, 20 ft. high, it hurts more.
HOW THE MOVIE IS BETTER: For a flick about small-time crooks, Ice Harvest packs some pretty big guns. The script is by Pulitzer prizewinning novelist Richard Russo (Empire Falls) and two-time Oscar-winning screenwriter Robert Benton (Kramer vs. Kramer, Places in the Heart). They smoothed out and sped up the book's curlicue plot, ratcheted down the raunch, added a couple of drama-class monologues and sweetened the book's rather heartless surprise ending.
DEFINITIVE VERSION: It's a dead heat. Ironically, there's prettier writing in the movie than there was in the book. But on the other hand, the book doesn't make you want to cover your eyes.
BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN -- Winner: Book
CHALLENGES: The film had the opposite problem of most adaptations. It had to expand an 11-page short story to feature length. The screenwriters filled out the relationships of the cowboy lovers with their wives and families. The rest author Annie Proulx made easy; much of her dialogue is included verbatim in the script.
HOW THE BOOK WAS BETTER: Jack Twist and Ennis del Mar were really rather dull fellows, and their family lives, when they were in the movie's flatlands (which was most of the time), were drearily miserable in predictable ways. Proulx merely touched contrastingly on that quotidian aspect of their existence and kept the focus on their increasingly tormented romance.
HOW THE MOVIE IS BETTER: Proulx was a realist, not much interested in the glories of mountain landscapes. Director Ang Lee is a romantic, and his realizations of the high country where the cowboys herd sheep and fall in love have a transformative effect on the story. He makes you believe those rough, crude guys might just possibly achieve passion and tenderness in those breathtaking locales.
DEFINITIVE VERSION: Proulx's economical epic. Her unforced, almost taciturn manner better communicated the notion that tragedy is not the sole province of the self-conscious. It can devastate the dim and inarticulate as well.
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE -- Winner: Book
CHALLENGES: Hello? It's only, like, one of the most acclaimed pieces of literature ever (although director Joe Wright had never read it). Those who love it love it a lot. To others, it smells a bit like homework. Not to mention that this is the third adaptation, including one of those BBC behemoths.