10 Of The Best Movies Based On Books

There's an old saying that "the book is better than the movie". While that might be true some of the time, it isn't true all of the time. Over the years, there have been plenty of skilled directors who have taken up the challenge of adapting classic books to the screen, resulting in some fantastic films, including a few that frequently appear on 'The Greatest Movies Of All Time' lists.

If you're interested in seeing which films get things right with their adaptations, or just want a few examples to rattle off next time someone says the book is better, these are the best books based on movies.

Jaws

The first, but certainly not the last, Steven Spielberg-directed adaptation on this list, Jaws, is a film that needs no introduction. 50 years since its release, it still continues to terrify new audiences, with its story of a man-eating great white shark terrorising the beach town of Amity Island during the summer.

When adapting the film from Peter Benchley's novel, Spielberg and screenwriter Carl Gottlieb pared the novel down to its basics and reworked its characters, while cutting various subplots, including one where the wife of police chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) has an affair with the marine biologist Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss). These inclusions also include some of the most iconic lines ever uttered in pop culture, like ​Quint's (Robert Shaw) harrowing USS Indianapolis monologue.

The end result is a movie that more or less invented the summer blockbuster, whose star greatly outshines that of its source material. You know a movie is great when the first two notes from its John Williams theme are enough to send a shiver down your spine. Dah-nah.

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The Godfather

Based on Mario Puzo's novel of the same name, The Godfather is the movie that instantly shuts down any conversation about the book inherently being better. Directed by Francis Ford Coppola, who co-wrote the screenplay with Puzo, The Godfather is widely considered to be one of the greatest films ever made. 

The first film in this epic film trilogy follows Michael Corleone (Al Pacino), the reluctant heir to a powerful crime family, who is being readied to take over the operation by his father, Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando). With a cast that includes stellar supporting performances from James Caan, Robert Duvall and Diane Keaton, The Godfather is one of those movies where every single thing works perfectly. Nominated for 10 Academy Awards, it took home wins for Best Picture, Best Actor (for Brando) and, most relevant to this list, Best Adapted Screenplay.

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High Fidelity

Rob Gordon (Cusack) is a record store owner and obsessive music fan, and is currently going through one of the worst breakups of his life. Attempting to understand why his relationships never last, he sets out to reconnect with his Top 5 worst breakups to figure out what the problem is (hint: it's him).

While director Stephen Frears swapped the novel's London setting for Chicago, for the most part, High Fidelity is an incredibly faithful adaptation—to the degree that the book's author, Nick Hornby, noted that "at times, it appears to be a film in which John Cusack reads my book".

High Fidelity is a sharp comedy about relationships and emotional development, with a great supporting cast that includes a young Jack Black playing a rude, opinionated music snob who works for Rob, who steals every scene he's in. It also helps that, as a movie about music, it has a kick-ass soundtrack.

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The Shawshank Redemption 

It wouldn't be a list of the best book-to-movie adaptations without something that originated from the mind of Stephen King. Based on the novella, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, it follows the life of Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins), a banker who is sentenced to life at the Shawshank State Prison. Despite his claims of innocence, Andy learns to navigate his new surroundings, befriending fellow inmate Red (Morgan Freeman), a man who can smuggle anything into Shawshank.

Masterfully directed by Frank Darabont with beautiful cinematography by Roger Deakins, the film was initially a box-office failure. However, The Shawshank Redemption would go on to score seven Academy Award nominations and become widely regarded as one of the best films of the 1990s.

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Gone Girl

Gone Girl is one of those great thrillers that has you constantly guessing what is or isn't true, with an ending that hits like a ton of bricks. Directed by David Fincher, a man who knows his way around a bleak mystery, the film's screenplay was written by the best-selling novel's original author, Gillian Flynn, which helps it maintain everything that made the source material great.

When Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) discovers that his wife Amy (Rosamund Pike) is missing, he becomes suspect number one for her possible murder. While Nick sets out to prove his innocence and find out what happened to his wife, Fincher slowly peels back the couple's troubled relationship, revealing something much darker that lies at its core. 

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Trainspotting

One of the cult novels of the 1990s, Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting, also inspired one of the best cult films of the decade. Released in 1996, Trainspotting firmly established Danny Boyle as one of Britain's hottest new directors and helped Ewan McGregor become an international star.

Set in Edinburgh, it follows a group of impoverished, twenty-something heroin addicts as they struggle through the harsh reality of their lives, while trying to get clean or cook up their next score. As far as movies based on books go, you can't get much better than Trainspotting. The punk rock energy of Danny Boyle's direction, the strung-out performances of the main cast and an absolutely kick-ass soundtrack, perfectly combine into a bleak, occasionally comedic, portrait of addiction.

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The Lord of the Rings Trilogy

There are good book adaptations, there are great book adaptations, and then there's Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy, an undertaking that is as epic as it is bold. While some elements of J. R. R. Tolkien's novel have been cut for time (that's what the Extended Editions are for) or moved around to improve the pacing for each individual film, The Lord of the Rings trilogy is an amazing adaptation of a cornerstone of fantasy fiction.

Shot in Jackson's home country of New Zealand, this epic series follows Frodo, a Hobbit who is tasked with taking the One Ring to Mordor so it can be destroyed in the fires of Mount Doom. Joined by the Fellowship of the Ring, Frodo's journey is fraught with adventure and peril as they travel across Middle-earth to stop the ring from being reclaimed by the dark lord Sauron.

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The Shining

There are few horror movies more iconic than Stanley Kubrick's The Shining. An absolute masterclass in terror and suspense, it's the kind of movie that will always scare you, no matter how many times you watch it. Jack Nicholson's gloriously manic performance as the struggling writer Jack Torrance as he slowly subcumbs to madness of the Overlook Hotel, is an all-timer.

While it's widely considered to be one of the best movies based on a book, if you ask Stephen King, the original author of The Shining novel, he'll tell you differently. He was notoriously unhappy with how Kubrick deviated from the source material.

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Dune and Dune: Part Two

Thought to be unfilmable, director Denis Villeneuve has seemingly done the impossible with his adaptation of Frank Herbert's sci-fi masterpiece, Dune. Set in the far future, the film follows the heir of House Atreides, Paul, after his family is given control of the planet Arrakis. Also known as 'Dune', Arrakis is the only planet that produces the drug known as 'spice', which is an essential component for interstellar travel.

What Paul doesn't know is that he is a pawn in a centuries-long power struggle (he may or may not be the messiah of Dune's native people, the Fremen), while his family's newly assigned position is part of a much larger, more sinister plot.

Splitting the classic novel into two films, Villeneuve is given ample space to build the unique world of Dune and give its wide cast of characters the depth they need. With an all-star cast that includes Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Oscar Isaac, Rebecca Ferguson and Florence Pugh, these two films live up to the epic stature of Herbert's original book. 

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Jurassic Park

Like we said earlier, when it comes to great movies based on books, Spielberg has a fantastic track record. And few films, adaptation or original, are as perfect as Jurassic Park. Based on Michael Crichton's novel of the same name, this adaptation takes the best parts of its source material—a theme park full of real dinosaurs run amok—and transforms them into the ideal blockbuster.

With memorable performances by Sam Neill, Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum, ground-breaking special effects that still retain their magic in 2025, and fantastic direction that combines wonder and suspense, Jurassic Park is the kind of movie that you can watch again and again. 

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Image Credit: Warner Bros.

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