We Asked, You Answered: GW's Favorite Book Adaptations

The costuming, setting, story, and especially the horrific twist revealed at the end make this the perfect book to film adaptation. The film and book came out within a year of one another, during a time we’d consider the post-Baby Boom and during the decade when the birth control pill became accessible to women across the United States. What’s a better way to scare off teenage and young women from having children than a film about a satanic cult living secretly in your building?

Samantha Novitski 
Student, Columbian College of Arts and Sciences

The final 15 minutes of this film are a testament to the power of art to transform the human condition and heal those of us who consume it. Chloé Zhao takes what was just a few pages in the book and turns it into a sequence that had most theatergoers (including myself) sobbing on the way out of the theater. You watch as the main character feels understood in her grief for the very first time and comes to the realization that her child’s legacy will now be shared with the world and will live as long as Hamlet is performed. It is an ode to Hamlet and everyone who has been impacted by William Shakespeare’s masterpiece. This film is a love letter to all art forms and a celebration of art’s ability to impact us. As a reader, cinéphile and Shakespeare fan, I devoured it (and my entire box of tissues!).

Olivia Francis 
Program associate for global and experiential education, School of Business

I love that you can see how much Del Toro loved the original material, not only through his interviews but also with certain motifs and symbolism that someone who has read the novel would be able to spot immediately. I also loved how different the story felt while still being somewhat familiar. Del Toro's story focused more on the trauma between father and son, which he had previously mentioned was what he took away from when he first read the novel. I think that bringing something new to a loved classic is important in keeping the story alive, no matter what story we are adapting or interpreting.

Sofia Ahumada
Student, CCAS

The movie adaptation of "Project Hail Mary" was a masterpiece. Ryan Gosling was the perfect casting choice for the role. He brought the dry humor of the book to life and made his character so relatable.

Oren Rosen
Student, Trachtenberg School of Public Policy & Public Administration

I read Peter Brown's "Wild Robot" series with my kids over a couple of months and we absolutely loved it. It is an achingly beautiful story about nature, technology, family and love. So we were very excited when the movie came out—and it didn't disappoint. It had breathtaking visuals, excellent voice acting, and well captured the emotion of the (first) book. I think the movie was ultimately underrated by critics.

As is typical, the movie is not as good as the book. But I would strongly recommend both, especially to parents with kids in the six to 10 range.

Nicholas Anderson
Assistant professor of political science and international affairs, Elliott School

This is a hot take, but I love every single movie adaptation of Austen's "Persuasion." It's my favorite novel of hers, so you'd think I'd hate the movie versions, but it's just the opposite—I love seeing the different ways it's depicted on screen. I can't even pick which adaptation I like the best!

Kristen Hatcher
Senior fundraising storyteller, School of Medicine and Health Sciences

I particularly appreciated this film’s self-awareness: It recognizes that its literary source began as a spoken epic, passed down through generations. That reminder is important because texts and films are shaped by the contexts in which they are created, preserved and reimagined.

"The Odyssey" originated as a spoken collection of interpretations and imaginings of a heroic age already lost to history. Thus, the book is both an art form and a historical source, offering an imperfect portrayal of Bronze Age Greece as imagined by the close descendants of its protagonists. In light of that, I find it easy to forgive the film’s possible anachronisms in dialogue, costuming and casting.

It’s amazing how the film is inspiring people to take a greater interest in the past. Even my mom bought a copy of the book after seeing it. More broadly, the film captures what I love most about studying history: trying to empathize with those who came before us and understand what their experiences can teach us.

Parker Blackwell 
B.A. ’23, archaeology, classical and near eastern languages and civilizations
CCAS

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Every time I open Letterboxd I rate this movie a little lower. "The Odyssey" is my favorite epic and so I tend to be VERY picky about interpretations. I already have iffy feelings towards Christopher Nolan, and this movie just made it worse. Cinematography was beautiful, but what the heck was that story?! No "My name is Nobody"/"I am Odysseus of Ithaca?" What even is the point of an Odyssey retelling if you’re missing Odysseus’ hubris, one of the major reasons that it takes him 10 years to get home? Also—why were Calypso and the lotus eaters combined into one? And Menelaus and Circe’s characters? I personally read two translations—Emily Wilson’s and Richard Lattimore’s—and Wilson herself does not like this movie.

Comet Dowling
Student, CCAS

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Odysseus was not nearly a bad enough person in the recent movie adaptation. He is the person to hang all of his woman servants/slaves because they slept with the suitors. He is the kind of person to shout out his name after everyone escapes, so that they can all be cursed by the god of the sea. He is the kind of person to stay an entire year cheating on his wife with the person who turned his men into pigs. The man in the movie never does a thing that is morally incorrect, on purpose or accident, except at the very end in what happens to be my favorite scene where he murders the suitors. Even then he seems to have just cause, and he spares those who repent, unlike the book.

Natalia Saenz
Student, CCAS