by Paula Munier

Okay, it’s that time of year again when we hole up and watch movies while it rains/sleets/snows/blows outside. So we may as well watch movies that teach us something. Years ago when I lived in California, I belonged to a writers club where we watched films together and analyzed them. When it was my turn to host the movie night, we watched AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN, and I talked about the hero’s journey and Joseph Campbell and how that film reflected that journey. (It was the Eighties, people.) Now all these years later, I do the same thing on my own, focusing on films adapted from books. Give it a try. The writer in you will be glad you did.

To get you started, here’s an admittedly eclectic list in random order, comprised of the movies based on books, short stories, or plays that I have seen many, many times. Some because every time I run across them I can’t help but watch them again all the way to The End, some because my husband watches them over and over again and I can’t avoid them, and some because I saw them once and as wonderful as they are, they unsettled me so much at the time that just the mention of them now sends my writer brain into a scene-by-scene recounting that’s just as disturbing as seeing the actual films themselves.

Happy viewing–and don’t forget to (re)read the books they’re based on as well. Because the book is (almost) always better.

1. LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE, by Laura Esquivel
2. THE JOY LUCK CLUB, by Amy Tan
3. TRUE GRIT, by Charles Portis
4. JAWS, by Peter Benchley
5. SENSE AND SENSIBILITY, by Jane Austen
6. EMMA, by Jane Austen
7. PRIDE & PREJUDICE, by Jane Austen
8. PERSUASION, by Jane Austen
9. DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS, by Walter Mosley
10. MYSTIC RIVER, by Dennis Lehane
11. THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA, by Lauren Weisberger
12. THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, by Stephen King
13. DEATH COMES TO PEMBERLEY, by P.D. James
14. THE WIZARD OF OZ, by Frank L. Baum (The Wonderful Wizard of Oz)
15. BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, by Annie Proulx
16. BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuv
17. DOCTOR ZHIVAGO, by Boris Pasternak
18. CROUCHING TOGER, HIDDEN DRAGON, by Wang Dulu
19. THE COLOR PURPLE, by Alice Walker
20. AMADEUS, by Peter Shaffer
21. DANCES WITH WOLVES, by Michael Blake
22. HECTOR AND THE SEARCH FOR HAPPINESS, by François Lelord
23. THE PRINCESS BRIDE, by William Goldman
24. TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, by Harper Lee
25. THE GODFATHER, by Mario Puzo
26. SCHINDLER’S LIST, by Thomas Keneally
27. MONEYBALL, by Michael Lewis
28. NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, by Cormac McCarthy
29. ENCHANTED APRIL, by Elizabeth von Arnim
30. THE BOURNE IDENTITY, by Robert Ludlum
31. WAITING TO EXHALE, by Terry McMillan
32. THE MARTIAN, by Andy Weir
33. DOUBLE INDEMNITY, by James M. Cain
34. DUNE, by Frank Herbert
35. MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS, by Agatha Christie
36. JURASSIC PARK, by Michael Crichton
37. THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD, by John le Carré
38. AMERICAN FICTION, by Percival Everett (Erasure)
39. THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR, by James Grady (Six Days of the Condor)
40. THE NAME OF THE ROSE, by Umberto Eco
41. LITTLE WOMEN, by Louisa May Alcott
42. SIDEWAYS by Rex Pickett
43. FIELD OF DREAMS, by W.P. Kinsella (Shoeless Joe)
44. WHAT’S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT, by Tina Turner
45. SMILLA’S SENSE OF SNOW, by Peter Høeg
46. LONESOME DOVE, by Larry McMurtry
47. LAURA, by Vera Caspary
48. RANDOM HARVEST, by James Hilton
49. THE MALTESE FALCON, by Dashiell Hammett
50. APOLLO 13, by Jim Lovell

DOUBLE FEATURE: REACHER (Lee Child), BOSCH (Michael Connelly), VERA (Ann Cleeves), anything MORSE (Colin Dexter) or SHERLOCK HOLMES (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle) or MISS MARPLE (Agatha Christie) or MAIGRET (Georges Simenon) or SEX IN THE CITY (Candace Bushnell) or SHAKESPEARE

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