A red-letter day for bookworms

Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List was voted by Time magazine as one of the Best 100 Films of all time. Others in the list are Casablanca (1942); Chinatown (1974); Citizen Kane (1941); Dr. Strangelove: or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964); E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982); 8 1/2 (1963); The Godfather, Parts I and II (1972, 1974); The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (1966); Goodfellas (1990); The Lord of the Rings (2001-03); Pulp Fiction (1994); Raging Bull (1980); Yojimbo (1961); Unforgiven (1992), among others.

Schindler’s List won the Academy Awards (Oscar) Best Director for Spielberg while Ralph Fiennes who played the villainous Goth, earned a Best Supporting Actor nomination. However, Fiennes won the Best Supporting Actor award at the British Academy. Schindler’s List consistently ranks among the finest movies of all time. It is currently ranked ninth best film by the American Film Institute. Liam Neeson’s character is ranked third best-loved character while Fiennes’ Goth is the third most hated.

Roman Polanski was asked to direct but he begged off saying he, too, was a survivor of the Polish Ghetto and doing the movie would just bring up too many personal issues he was not yet ready to deal with. Polanski directed another Holocaust-themed movie in 2002 entitled The Pianist and won the Oscar Best Director. The Holocaust is the systematic persecution and genocide of the Jews during World War II by Nazi Germany and its collaborators. Martin Scorsese, considered the god of cinema, was also asked to direct Schindler’s List but refused, saying, the movie should be made by a Jewish director. Spielberg, on the other hand, was said to have refused payment for making the movie.

Schindler’s List is based on the Booker Prize winning book, Schindler’s Ark by Thomas Keannely. It tells the story of Oscar Schindler, a member of the Nazi party who helped Jews under his employ in a factory that he owned, escape the Holocaust by bribing Nazi police and lavishing them with gifts.

Books make for good, dramatic movies. Some books are better left the way they are – just books, while admittedly, there are some movies from books that are better than the book version. And some books become best-sellers only after a movie is made on them.

Moviemakers often look to books for materials for their movies because of their universal appeal and tried-and-true properties. They have a dependable plotline tested on a ready-made, guaranteed audience and publicity running for years – or even several centuries. Of the five films nominated for Best Picture in this year’s Academy Awards, three – Munich, Capote and Brokeback Mountain – were preceded by their novels. Other literature-flicks that have figured prominently at the Academy are The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire, Memoirs of a Geisha, A Constant Violence, The Constant Gardener, War of The Worlds and Pride and Prejudice.

Hard core horror fans have enjoyed Stephen King on the big screen, including Carrie (1976), The Shining (1980), Cujo (1983), Children of the Corn (1984, with six sequels up to 2001), Creepshow (1983), and Secret Window (2006). Also notable are Anne Rice’s Interview with a Vampire (1994) and Queen of the Damned (2002). Horror classics, such as Dracula, Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, have also been adapted into films many times over.

John Grisham novels have been blockbuster hits, including The Firm (1993), The Pelican Brief (1993), The Client (1994), A Time to Kill (1996), The Rainmaker (1997) and Runaway Jury (2003). Before Dan Brown’s Robert Langdon put in an appearance, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s character Sherlock Holmes already starred in several films (like the Hound of the Baskervilles, 1939 and 1959). Agatha Christie has also made a number of detective film mysteries (including Ten Little Indians, 1965, 1975 and 1989, and Murder on the Orient Express, 1974). Michael Crichton has had his share of smash hits, such as Jurassic Park (1993), Disclosure (1994), The Lost World (1997) and Sphere (2003).

Time and again, classics have been adapted into films, such as To Kill A Mockingbird (1962), A Room With A View (1985), Sense and Sensibility (1995), Great Expectations (1998), Les Miserables (1998) and Pride and Prejudice (2005).

Shakespearean works have also inspired several movies, including contemporary adaptations like My Own Private Idaho (1991, based on Henry IV), Romeo + Juliet (1996), Ten Things I Hate About You (1999, based on Taming of the Shrew), O (2001, based on Othello), and She’s the Man (2006, based on Twelfth Night).

In the comedy arena, Truman Capote’s Breakfast at Tiffany made for an Audrey Hepburn starrer, while Winston Groom’s Forrest Gump was a runaway ‘90s hit. Children’s books have also been made into a movie. Aside from Harry Potter and the Chronicles of Narnia, there are L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz (1939), PL Travers’ Mary Poppins (1964), Mary Norton’s Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971), Chris Van Allsburg’s Zathura (2005), and Roald Dahl’s Charlie and The Chocolate Factory (1971 and 2005).

Catch the 27th Manila International Book Fair on Aug. 31 to Sept. 4 at the World Trade Center, Pasay City. For details, call 890-0661 or 896-0682, or e-mail [email protected].