roseembolism (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
roseembolism) wrote2009-03-23 04:09 pm
roseembolism) wrote2009-03-23 04:09 pm
Meme: Worst movie ending changed from a book.
Caged from a discussion on worst movie endings, this is a bit specialized: what movie adaption took a great ending to a book, and screwed it up? That is, at what point did you gape at the movie and scream "WRONG!"
For me? There's so MANY candidates, but for the one that made the worst impression, the one that made me realize that the studio just didn't care about the authors idea, we'll have to go back about thirty years or more. Back to a film I saw in school. Back to a grade school English project.
Back to "My Side of the Mountain".
<lj-cut text="The book was cool!">
The resourceful Sam Gribley runs away from home to live on a mountainside his family owns. In the process we get detailed descriptions of how he survives, and in the process learns independence, makes a house out of a tree stump, and tames a pet falcon named Frightful. In the end, his parents visit him, and decide to move out to the mountain with him. It's a great example of a kid developing independence, and parents accepting his decisions.
<lj-cut text="The movie though...">
A hunter shoots Frightful the hawk, and Sam decides to abandon his camp and go back home.
I mean seriously....what the FUCK!? Was Paramount so afraid of lawsuits from the parents of kids who would also go out in the wilderness, that they had to completely reverse the meaning of the movie? The book has adults accepting the kid's counterculture ways, and adapting to it; the movie has the kid abandoning his independent ways and returning to civilization.
So basically, we had an inspiring book turned into a depressing movie that was one more step in making me the cynic I am today. Bummer.
For me? There's so MANY candidates, but for the one that made the worst impression, the one that made me realize that the studio just didn't care about the authors idea, we'll have to go back about thirty years or more. Back to a film I saw in school. Back to a grade school English project.
Back to "My Side of the Mountain".
<lj-cut text="The book was cool!">
The resourceful Sam Gribley runs away from home to live on a mountainside his family owns. In the process we get detailed descriptions of how he survives, and in the process learns independence, makes a house out of a tree stump, and tames a pet falcon named Frightful. In the end, his parents visit him, and decide to move out to the mountain with him. It's a great example of a kid developing independence, and parents accepting his decisions.
<lj-cut text="The movie though...">
A hunter shoots Frightful the hawk, and Sam decides to abandon his camp and go back home.
I mean seriously....what the FUCK!? Was Paramount so afraid of lawsuits from the parents of kids who would also go out in the wilderness, that they had to completely reverse the meaning of the movie? The book has adults accepting the kid's counterculture ways, and adapting to it; the movie has the kid abandoning his independent ways and returning to civilization.
So basically, we had an inspiring book turned into a depressing movie that was one more step in making me the cynic I am today. Bummer.