Spot-on re James Jones adaptations

[cmvgor]

MrArkadin;
Absolutely correct and thanks for the input. Both adaptations of The Thin Red Line (1964 &1998) were very bad uses of Jones' material. I had forgotten
them completely. It may be simply that this writer's works are not suitable
for presentation in a feature-length movie foremat. IMO, the best-ever
use of a James Jones work was the 1980's six-hour miniseries remake of
From Here To Eternity. The longer foremat gave time to tell the whole story (including the inside-the-Stockade scenes), and casting was
excellent. Steve Railsback was 95% of Montgomery Clift as Prewitt, and
Joe Pantoliano was 99% of Frank Sinatra as Maggio (this was my first exposure to both these young actors). Something like that may be the
only way to do justice to a major Jones work. On the other hand, several
of the short pieces in 'The Ice-Cream-Cone Headache And Other Stories'
might go very well in a movie or TVM foremat -- and give some people a
shock at what this writer can deliver.

[MikeBSG]

I'm glad to see that I'm not alone in thinking the Malick "Thin Red Line" was a poor adaptation of Jones' novel.

I liked the movie when I saw it, but then when I started reading the novel, I couldn't believe what Malick omitted and changed. It was as if he approached the novel believing that the Production Code still govered what could be on screen.