1. JAWS

screenplay by Carl Gottlieb & Peter Benchley
based on the novel by Peter Benchley

The book is clearly not always better than the movie. Actually, the book by Gottleib about the making of the movie is better than the original novel. Have you ever read a Peter Benchley novel? You've read Jaws. I'm not guessing, and that may not have been the title, but trust me. Several have been made into movies or miniseries. None of them are the classic Jaws is. The most impressive thing about this script is it wasn't just adapting a weak novel, but adapting to technical issues, actor schedules, and protests from the locals. If you get a chance, read both "Jaws" and "The Jaws Log." You'll see what I mean.

2. STAND BY ME

screenplay by Raynold Gideon & Bruce A. Evans
based on the novella "The Body" by Stephen King

Always a King fan, this is one of my favorite works by him. I'd be lying if I said the movie in no way influenced that decision. It hit all the important plot point, but also included what it was like to be that age. Most of us forget the things we thought about when we were young. This takes us back to that moment in life where you get your first glimpse of the big picture. You get one life. The secret is to be able to remember that, and where it's taken you.

3. THE GREAT ESCAPE

screenplay by James Clavell & W.R. Burnett
based on the book by Paul Brickhill

Based on more than a novel, but a series of first-hand true stories about life in a prison camp, this was a tough one to adapt. It was made more difficult by the fact that the author was not a writer by profession. There is not much in the way of a linear narrative, but mainly anecdotal rememberances of the effort to free themselves, and the way people survive in such a situation. SOme of the stories are clever, some funny, some downright tragic. The script captured this, though a bit lighter, as wess as blend it into a cohesive story. Good show!

4. TRAINSPOTTING

screenplay by John Hodge
based on the novel by Irvine Welsh

Had to be adapted by a Brit. A very patient Brit. This is not an easy novel to read. I don't mean that it's full of drugs, violence, sex, profanity, fecal matter and the like. It is, absolutely. It's just written phoenetically. Worse yet, in one of the world's thickest dialects. Singapore baby talk is about as intelligible. I am of course only assuming this is a faithful adaption, as I was only able to comprehend three sentences of the book, but I'm fairly sure they were in the movie. Actually, those colorful phrases are in a lot of movies.

5. FLETCH

screenplay by Andrew Bergman
based on the novel by Gregory McDonald

This is a bit of a dilemna. This is my favorite book on the list. Actually, I love the entire series, and am curious as to if Kevin Smith can pull it off. The first Fletch movie was thankfully based on a novel. Why, with ten other books in the series, did they go for an original plot for the sequel? Anyway, it's down here because the adaption wasn't better than the book. Not to detract, as it perfectly conveys the characters, and more importantly the writing style and tone of the novels. Basically, love one, you'll love the other. And read the books.

1. APOCALYPSE NOW

Screenplay by John Milius and Francis Coppola.
Based on the novel "Heart of Darkness" by Joesph Conrad.

The book is outstanding. The screenplay is better. The transfer of time and location, from colonial jungle to the Vietnam War, is done seamlessly. They manage to retain the spirit of Conrad's charactors, while fleshing them out and adding depth. One particular instance is Robert Duvall's character. In the book he is crazy, but ultimately kind of forgettable. In the film he and his scenes are made into some of the most memorable of all time. Every aspect of the screenplay was worked over in exahausting detail, causing Coppola to go almost as mad as the renegade Colonel Kurtz in the film. In the end, his sacrifice was not only evident on screen, but undeniably worth it.

2. FORREST GUMP

Screenplay by Eric Roth.
Based on the novel by Winston Groom.

Have you ever read this book? What a piece of crap. Eric Roth deserves an endless parade of wealth and riches for adapting this novel, which is basically a waste of trees, and helping to craft it into the Academy Award winning picture it became. Groom's Gump is basically an unlikeable, pathetic oaf. Audiences would have run screaming from theaters had Roth stayed very true to the book. It is no wonder the film was in development for almost a decade.

3. SCHINDLER'S LIST

Screenplay by Steven Zaillian.
Based on the novel by Thomas Keneally.

A very touching and personal book turned into a very touching and personal film. Perhaps the best example of a great book turned into a great screenplay. Zaillian took as much care in adapting the novel as Keneally did in writing it.

4. LEAVING LAS VEGAS

Screenplay by Mike Figgis.
Based on the novel by John O'Brien.

A hard, depressing novel. O'Brien's bleak portrayal of an alcoholic who moves to Las Vegas to, literally, drink himself to death had Hollywood misstep written all over it. Studio films can never get a dark novel right. This may be the biggest simultanious fluke in history. MGM, a large Hollywood movie machine allowed the film to nail the tone of O'Brien's book. Mike Figgis, he of crap like "Mr. Jones", "One Night Stand", and "The Loss of Sexual Innocense", actually made the novel into a cohesive and masterfully screenplay. Elisabeth Shue was good for once in her life, so good she was nominated for an Oscar and Cage parlayed his Best Actor win into a career freefall that matches only that of "The Crying Game" actor Jaye Davidson. The stars were in place, the planets were aligned and "Leaving Las Vegas" was perfect.

5. THE LOVER

Screenplay by Gerard Brach.
Based on the novel by Marguerite Duras.

French author Duras wrote a sensual, scandalous book. Sounds like easy prey for adaption, huh? Not quite. Duras wrote the book in such a disjointed, cereberal manner that to translate it to the screen (or even into English) was not an enviable task. Gerard Brach met this challange. Her female charactor, a poor teenage French girl, is the only one who we really get to know in the book. Brach gave life to her older, Chinese lover and her low class, racist family. "The Lover" remains one of the most underappreciated films of recent history.

1. THE GODFATHER

Screenplay by Francis Ford Coppola & Mario Puzo
Based on Puzo's novel

The real alchemy of adapting previous works into screenplays comes when a fair-to-middling source is turned into a work of brilliance, which is clearly the case with GODFATHER. Taking Puzo's trashy - albeit engaging - bestseller, basically a beach book, and turning it into a lyrical exploration of family and fate is a thing that happens maybe once in a decade, if that often. An added bonus, of course, is Robert Towne's uncredited polish, for which Coppola thanked Towne while accepting the Adapted Screenplay Oscar that year.

2. OUT OF SIGHT

Screenplay by Scott Frank
Based on the novel by Elmore Leonard

Faithful in spirit, if not scene-by-scene, to Elmore Leonard's downer of a novel, Frank's script chops up the narrative to a pleasantly disarming effect, adds a degree of cool and of sex not really as evident in the book (although that could have a lot to do with George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez's chemistry). Either way, decent book, great script.

3. THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION

Screenplay by Frank Darabont
Based on the novella "Rita Hayworth & the Shawshank Redemption" by Stephen King

Darabont's script (which borrows freely from Campbell Bruce's "Escape from Alcatraz") is broader, more epic than King's novella, yet also more intimate, if you can figure that one out. Either way, Darabont takes a decent source, makes it a stirring, enriching script. And of course loses the Academy Award to Eric Roth for Gump.

4. A FEW GOOD MEN

Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin
Based on his play

Sorkin's play, while an impressive debut, is relatively shapeless and ethereal, which is fine for the stage, but for a Rob Reiner courtroom drama, you need a little more shape. Whether Sorkin did this on his own - or, as rumor has it, was aided by some uncredited work by William Goldman - is irrelevant, as the end result is drum-tight, and served as the launch for the successful career of one of our best contemporary writers.

5. FIGHT CLUB

Screenplay by Jim Uhls
Based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk

Okay, so I'm really into Fight Club. Sue me. But seriously, to take a novel as psychological as Palahniuk's debut, and make it a cohesive (and, for that matter, coherent) movie is a pretty tall order. Fortunately, Uhls (with uncredited help from Se7en writer Andrew Kevin Walker) is able to build an overall structure which fits Palahniuk's characters and themes perfectly, ratcheting the intensity up that much more from the novel.