Which film or book which is hailed as a classic do you not like?

I was just curious to know if there is a divide between literature and film critics and the general audience in terms of what constitutes a great book or film.

Sometimes I've read books or watched films that I have thought were really hard work, but the critics have bestowed the term classic on them. I'll start off, for brevity I've limited the choice to 4 from each category....But you can expand or contract your list.

Books:

Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

To the Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf

The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald

Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut

Films:

Citizen Kane

2001 - A Space Odyssey

Mullholland Drive

Lord of the Rings (any of them)

On the other hand....

I think the critics got it right when these were labelled as classics

Books:

Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

Animal Farm - George Orwell

Billy Liar - Keith Waterhouse

The Haunting of Hill House - Shirley Jackson

Films:

Vertigo

The Long Good Friday

Sunset Boulevard

Night of the Demon (1957)

I'd be interested to see whether, in your opinion, you agree with the critics choice of 'classic' books and films.

I was just curious to know if there is a divide between literature and film critics and the general audience in terms of what constitutes a great book or film.

 

Sometimes I've read books or watched films that I have thought were really hard work, but the critics have bestowed the term classic on them. I'll start off, for brevity I've limited the choice to 4 from each category....But you can expand or contract your list.

 

Books:

Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

To the Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf

The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald

Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut

 

Films:

Citizen Kane

2001 - A Space Odyssey

Mullholland Drive

Lord of the Rings (any of them)

 

On the other hand....

 

I think the critics got it right when these were labelled as classics

 

Books:

Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

Animal Farm - George Orwell

Billy Liar - Keith Waterhouse

The Haunting of Hill House - Shirley Jackson

 

Films:

Vertigo

The Long Good Friday

Sunset Boulevard

Night of the Demon (1957)

 

I'd be interested to see whether, in your opinion, you agree with the critics choice of 'classic' books and films.

Talking just films, one need look no further than the 80's to answer your query, at least for me. Oscar winners were abysmal apart from Rain Man and Platoon. However we had great movies in that decade that were not even nominated i.e. Wall Street, Scarface, The Untouchables and An Officer and a Gentleman , just to name a few.

As far as books are concerned, I did not find Three Men In a Boat remotely funny. I gave up before the half-way mark.

I was just curious to know if there is a divide between literature and film critics and the general audience in terms of what constitutes a great book or film.

 

Sometimes I've read books or watched films that I have thought were really hard work, but the critics have bestowed the term classic on them. I'll start off, for brevity I've limited the choice to 4 from each category....But you can expand or contract your list.

 

Books:

Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

To the Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf

The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald

Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut

 

Films:

Citizen Kane

2001 - A Space Odyssey

Mullholland Drive

Lord of the Rings (any of them)

 

On the other hand....

 

I think the critics got it right when these were labelled as classics

 

Books:

Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

Animal Farm - George Orwell

Billy Liar - Keith Waterhouse

The Haunting of Hill House - Shirley Jackson

 

Films:

Vertigo

The Long Good Friday

Sunset Boulevard

Night of the Demon (1957)

 

I'd be interested to see whether, in your opinion, you agree with the critics choice of 'classic' books and films.

I happen to like the films you mention as not worthy :hihi:

I happen to like the films you mention as not worthy :hihi:

That's fair enough - if you like them, you like them.

Over the years I've listened to debates about what constitutes a 'classic' book or film. I guess part of that is does it stand the test of time.

I do wonder when people vote for the best film or book, do they do so thinking that's what they've been told is the greatest book or film - because they think the critics know best.

I know that Virginia Woolf's 'To the Lighthouse', and '2001 - A Space Odyssey' are often cited by people as those that make up these 'greatest of' lists. I can understand in terms of literature, To the Lighthouse was pioneering in terms of the Modernist movement...so in terms of its place in history of course....But a pleasurable read!

hmmm tough question, needs some serious thought tbh lol, tbh im not really a book fan so id have to say all

No one should have to read Jude the Obscure, or, thinking of other texts on my 80s A Level English Lit syllabus, Waiting For Godot. On the other hand, that syllabus was enlivened by Emma, Wuthering Heights, Macbeth and The Wasteland, so it wasn't all gloom and tedium.

Possibly not syllabus-worthy, but recommended nontheless: Dracula, the original Sherlock Holmes novels and short stories, The Moonstone, The Woman in White, and MR James's ghost stories.

Over-rated films: Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Inception, Donny Darko.

No one should have to read Jude the Obscure, or, thinking of other texts on my 80s A Level English Lit syllabus, Waiting For Godot. On the other hand, that syllabus was enlivened by Emma, Wuthering Heights, Macbeth and The Wasteland, so it wasn't all gloom and tedium.

 

Possibly not syllabus-worthy, but recommended nontheless: Dracula, the original Sherlock Holmes novels and short stories, The Moonstone, The Woman in White, and MR James's ghost stories.

 

Over-rated films: Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Inception, Donny Darko.

Not read Jude the Obscure. Though I agree with you about Wuthering Heights (I tried reading it as a youngster and struggled with it, read it as an adult and loved it).

I must try MR James's ghost stories. As said above I loved the film Night of the Demon, (on which James's 'Casting the Runes' is based).

Books, Don't like Captain Correli's Mandolin (far too wordy and over descriptive) and The old man and the sea (it's just a bloke fishing, and not very well) The old man and the sea film is worse than the book..

But that's just my opinoin.

I'm determined to give A.S Byatt's Possession a read. It was a Booker Prize winner, and apparently a very good read.

Though I do know that the film adaptation starring Gwyneth Paltrow wasn't received well....

The majority of Shakespeare's.

Book - I don't think Midnight's Children has aged well at all. Rushdie has written better books since.

Film - I genuinely don't get the love for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I thought it was awful.