It used to be the conventional wisdom that a movie always dumbed-down the novel it was based on. When film was a new medium, film makers assumed audiences needed to be led by the hand. But even a few decades down the line, we had those awful versions of A Farewell to Arms (Rock Hudson!) and The Great Gatsby.

The film medium presents problems. When plots have to be scrunched into the two-hour time frame something’s gotta go. Besides, when a novel relies heavily on a narrator’s language and style, how do you squeeze that into a film? In a recent adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, the novel’s wonderful first sentence was put in the mouth of a character. It worked, although you can’t pull that trick very often.

But film audiences have become increasingly sophisticated, more willing to fill in gaps between jump cuts, more able to interpret without that which is not laboriously explained. Plus actors and directors at the top of their games can lend things to a story that even the novelist might have missed or that the words alone can’t grasp.

Here are a few films that I liked better than their parent novels:

1. The Young Lions–this film about WWII came out in the early 1960s. While Irwin Shaw’s novel was good, Marlon Brando brought something special to the role of a Nazi officer who becomes increasingly disillusioned with all that he had believed in. You know how Brando could brood. It’s how a lot of Republicans must feel today. Get it on Netflix.

2. The End of the Affair–Julianne Moore is at her best in this film, and putting that great old song “Haunted Heart” in the sound track was a stroke of genius. Okay, the novel is great too. Check ‘em both out, but ignore the spooky religious stuff. Oh, and get the Haunted Heart album by Quartet West.

3. The Catcher in the Rye–well, the movie doesn’t exist, but that’s why it’s so much better than the novel. Holden needs a spanking.

4. From Here to Eternity–the novel is way too long, although depicting military life on the eve of Pearl Harbor was a great premise. See the film with Frank Sinatra getting his career back, Montgomery Cliff being vulnerable, and Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr making out in the surf. My girlfriend and I went and tried it the same night, although we only had a little lake in the neighborhood. I cut my foot on a beer can. Bad idea, but great movie.

5. The Night Talker–Robin Williams isn’t half bad. The novel? Yuk! Oh, also see Williams in that one about the guy who develops photos in the drug store. I forget the title.

I gotta go watch TV.

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