Some great books have made great movies. It's a safe bet that many people, asked to reel off their top five, would name one of the following: "The Godfather" (Mario Puzo); "A Clockwork Orange" (Anthony Burgess); "Blade Runner" (from Philip K. Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?"); and "2001: A Space Odyssey" (Arthur C. Clarke).
Notice none of these great books is an English Lit. classic. It's a fact that movies based on books drawn from the less highbrow corners of the library -- say, genre fiction, edgy, neglected, regional stuff or children's books -- make better screen experiences than literary masterpieces do. So try movies based on science fiction, horror, murder mysteries, anything to do with war or police procedurals.
If you insist on being literary, choose a movie that takes a classic and plays with it rather than going all Merchant-Ivory. Sorry, but Leonardo DiCaprio as Romeo beats Laurence Harvey any day. Five to try:
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