The Stories that Shine Through

Some stories are so good that even when the faces and names change people are still in love with them. Some though are not so well received but that's simply a matter of taste I guess.

I am trying to compile a list of movies that are not direct adaptations but more along the lines of adaptation by substance.

For example, Clueless is Emma and Ten Things I Hate About You is The Taming of the Shrew.

Not literal adaptations but the themes are there. Anyone else know one?

I'm not sure if this is really what you're looking for, but Were the World Mine is technically an adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream. (It's quite a good movie, as well, although definitely not to everyone's tastes.)

It may be too direct a relationship for what you're looking for, but how about O Brother Where Art Thou and The Odyssey?

Woody Allen's A Midsummer's Night Sex Comedy and Ingmar Bergman's Smiles of a Summer Night are also take offs on A Midsummer Night's Dream.

The second original Star Trek movie, Wrath of Khan, takes a fair amount from Moby Dick, though the story isn't parallel.

The movie "Strange Brew" is Hamlet and the 1950s science fiction classic "Forbidden Planet" is The Tempest

There seems to be a lot of Shakespeare in this thread.

In a way, Disney's "The Lion King" also is Hamlet.

#3, I also always felt that Huckleberry Finn and Cold Mountain both had a liberal dose of the Odyssey

And, of course, Star Trek has King Arthur and Theseus mixed all through it.

Apocalypse Now is The Heart of Darkness.

And even though it's based on a book of the same name, Jaws is Moby-Dick.

>5 TLCrawford:
To save everyone's time, Wikipedia currently lists 49 Modern adaptations of Shakespeare, including several not based on Romeo and Juliet, on a category page. Being Wikipedia, I'm sure the list is incomplete and some of the items there are debatable. They don't list Marina Warner's Indigo or Peter Greenaway's Prospero's Books, for instance (both The Tempest).

Another great Odyssey rip-off is Derek Walcott's Omeros.

okay that covers W. Shakespeare mostly... how about other authors?

These are some really good posts! I enjoy watching a movie that I know is an adaptation of a book that I also enjoy. Its like seeing it in a whole new way or through someone else's eyes