North Shore Nine

I live by the rule that the book is always better than the movie. It is a safe default setting. However, there have been a few exceptions. Here is my list. Let me know yours.

The Godfather is a very good book, but one of the greatest movies ever.

Filmmakers changed the name of the novel Shoeless Joe to Field of Dreams for the movie. It is a better title and a better movie. Shoeless Joe is another good book, but no matter how vivid your imagination is, it pales compared to hearing the cornfield talk and James Earl Jones’s soliloquy.

Get Shorty, a great Elmore Leonard novel, is improved on in the film.

The Bourne Identity is a little slow and dry as a book, but as a film, it is fast-paced and changes action movies forever.

Forrest Gump is silly and absurdist on the page, but director Robert Zemeckis and star Tom Hanks turn it into one of the most popular movies in the last 50 years.

I am cheating on the last one. I have never read the 1979 novel Nothing Lasts Forever, but there is no way it is better than the movie that was inspired by it, Die Hard. Come on? What’s better than Die Hard? Yippy Ki Yay!