Today is Stephen King's 63rd birthday. There are loads of adaptations of King's stories. Some work, and some do not work, but it's not as bad a positive percentage asit might seem at first glance. Tobe Hooper's Salem's Lot is super creepy, Romero's Creepshow and David Cronenberg's The Dead Zone are terribly underrated, there's the Kathy Bates double-feature of Misery and Dolores Clairborne, there's The Stand and big chunks of It, there's Frank Darabont's Shawshank Redemption and The Mist. I love all of those things.
But the best two I save for last: Stanley Kubrick's The Shining and Brian De Palma's Carrie are masterpieces. But... which is better? Well?
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5 comments:
Have you actually read "The Shining?" The movie is nothing like the book and the movie sucked in comparison. After reading the book, I have been unable to watch the movie - it just seems stupid.
By the smallest of margins....
'Shining' > 'Carrie'
And 'Stand By Me' would have to be my third fave.
I have little love for 'It' (save for Tim Curry's delicious performance) or 'The Stand', though I must confess a love for 'Cujo.' I find it quite underrated. Or at least I did, the last time I watched it. In nineteen-ninety-something. Dee Wallace, baby.
And 'Christine' ... am I the only one? I mean who can resist a "car as jealous murdering bitch" movie?
Sean that is a WORLD of crazy talk. I read The Shining and the book is terrific but when they actually tried to make a closer adaptation you got Steven Weber bugging out his eyes and some terrible CG monster hedges. Kubrick made something his own with the material, and that something is completely unnerving. To me at least. ;)
Although for the record Carrie wins this contest for me. It's in my top 5 movies of all time, period.
TrG I always forget about Stand By Me! Gah, stupid, that totally woulda made my list of also-faves. And there are a whole bunch opf films I didn't list that I like quite a bit. Cujo actually scared me so bad the first time I watched it it made me ill. I was 10, but still. I haven't seen Christine in a very very long time, I remember liking it way back when, but I've heard it hasn't stood the test of time. Or rather that it was terrible back then too but youth blinded many of us who have fond memories. Been meaning to watch it again though.
To be fair, the relative shoddiness of the ABC "Shining" miniseries is due to the budget more than the story not being up to snuff.
I try to keep some sort of mental wall up between Kubrick's "The Shining" and King's, because the differences all end up breaking King's way, but Kubrick still managed to create something profoundly unsettling even if he bastardized the story.
I love The Shining, the book, and The Shining, the movie, but I tend to look at Kubrick's version as more of a riff on the novel, a film that has taken some basic elements of an existing story and crafted his own film around. Both are terrific, but I do sometimes struggle to call Kubrick's The Shining an adaptation of King's novel. More, 'The Shining, inspired by the novel by King.'
I don't mean this as at all negative. Really. They're both amazing.
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