Movies that had little to do with the book they were named after.

[zombie no.one]

haha, I was wondering about that while I was typing that post, but I've not read it though.


I read JAWS when I was about 18 and seem to remember large sections of it have nothing to do with the shark, and being more focused on chief brody's wife having an affair with whatahisname  (Dreyfus' character)...I guess the film wouldn't have worked as a kitchen sink drama.

I thought the book ending of Jaws was just terrible. The shark dies from a loss of blood?!?

I've not had an urge to read it again but yeah I remember the ending being a real anti-climax compared to the film.

I'm not a big reader anyway, but I think the book is held in quite high regard generally?

[Svengoolie 3]

Well, the exploding air tank bit has been debunked so many times it has become a laugh meme. Maybe just having the damn thing die of all it's wounds finally would have been better but audiences would have, with some understanding, cried "Deus ex machina!"

[Alex]

It seems to be, and for most of it I thought it was decent. Then I reached the end and thought "Seriously, that is how you are going to end it?". Mind you a year or two ago I picked up another one of Benchley's books, The Beast and


****spoiler alert****

That ends in a similar fashion. The giant squid had pulled its self up onto the back of the hero's boat, and is about to kill them all when a Sperm Whale swims up and bites it in half. The end.

[Trevor]

The Sea Wolves (1980) based on the true WW2 war story by James Leasor.

The film - with a great cast, including Gregory Peck and David Niven - changed so much about the book Boarding Party that it was almost unrecognizable. In the battle in the Goa harbour, no one - German or Allied - were killed but in the film, a lot are.



There are some funny moments in the film: one of the raiding party is told that he can't go aboard the German vessel: his response is "Sh*t, sir." Another is told this and he asks "Can I say 'sh*t' too, Sir?" 

The other guy on the ship who is studying to be a minister, gets seasick and says "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not UUURRRRRRRRPPPPP" and pukes over the side.   

There are also so many anachronisms in the film - seeing 1980s clothes in a period film, for one - that you just want to go EISH.