Good morning, all! I wish I'd been around to jump into the critical fray last night, but I thought DRSWW pretty much covered review questions I might have posed; I loved the film JAWS and was I glad that I'd read the potboiler novel first to appreciate the choices the filmmakers made in altering storylines and rethinking several of the characters. In the case of THE FIRM, I read the novel after seeing the film and I kept thinking during the reading, was this in the film I saw? I preferred the film's rewrite as well. I loathe the Greer Garson film of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE primarily because it lacks, as does the musical FIRST IMPRESSIONS, the tone of Miss Austen's literary style, mistaking coyness for wit.
My goddaughter is the most rabid Harry Potter fan I know; she's reread all of the books each time a new film comes out, and she disliked the film of HARRY POTTER & THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN because she felt too much of the novel was omitted (she'll loathe the next and longer GOBLET OF FIRE!). But, DRRonPulliam, what's this about no fantasy in school curriculum? What are the ILIAD, ODYSSEY, Shakespeare's TEMPEST, MACBETH, and MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, the Lewis Carroll ALICE books, Washington Irving's RIP VAN WINKLE and SLEEPY HOLLOW, A CHRISTMAS CAROL, and a lot of classics I love but fantasies? Has school curriculum changed so much in the past 50 years that I was a student? I never was really in touch. And I have a lot of adult friends reading the Harry Potter books. In London the books are printed with two different covers: one for young readers and one for adults.
DRCillaliz, I'm embarassed I forgot TUSCALOOSA's CALLING ME . . . I saw it around 1976, and it was a lot of fun; it has a couple of really wonderful New York songs.
Biggest disaster films: A CHORUS LINE, YENTL
Favorite disaster films: POSEIDON ADVENTURE (and any other Shelly Winters swimming film, but I can't think of any now), AIRPLANE