When films are adapted from books, more often than not, I tend to find the books a lot more enjoyable. So I have skipped watching a lot of films in the hope of reading the books later.
So what are some great films not adapted from books? Or what are some films that are significantly better than the book they were adapted from?
Star Wars.
IDK why I sometimes hear that Lucas derived the movies from some old book series; that’s bullshit. All the books came after the movies.
I think Star Wars is a great example of an original film that’s endlessly familiar. It took so many old fantasy tropes, western tropes, war movie tropes, a hefty dose of Kurosawa, and made something that almost anyone can relate to while still being completely alien.
The story was beat per beat inspired by Joseph Campbell’s The Hero With A Thousand Faces. Campbell’s metaphorical inmost cave was translated into Luke literally going to a cave in Empire Strikes Back.
Not to take anything away from Lucas’ creativity, of course. But to me it was quite obvious that he read or at least was aware of Joseph Campbell’s theory of stories and that Lucas read Frank Herbert’s Dune