I just(and mean just) finished the book, and I've seen the movie several times. Level... better... worse... I'm kind of reticent to describe either one that way, because I enjoyed both.
The two have a great many similarities, as one would expect, being that one is the source for the other. I say this, because whenever a story changes medium, its telling has to change too(a movie doesn't have the time that a novel does, and a novel doesn't have the visual palette of a movie). Conway is, I think, fundamentally the same in both works, and Bernard doen't change much either.
There are also many differenes: for starters, there are five travelers who come to Shangri La in the movie, versus the book's four. I think Miss Brinklow is probably closest to Edward Everett Horton's character, with the gal in the movie becoming more of a plot device to showcase some of the effects of the valley. Mallinson's character is about the same, but he was changed to be Conway's brother. Conway himself received a bump in importance in the movie, with a more prestigious job(or at least almost a more prestigious job). Lo Tsen is missing in the movie, replaced, I should say, by two characters(one played by Jane Wyatt, the other by Margo, though neither bears a great resemblance to the original).
The book is worth a read, and the movie is worth a watch. So far as absolute preference, I prefer the movie, as it is somewhat more optimistic. (I found there to be a touch of darkness in the book... which I don't mind. There isn't much of it in the movie, though. Oftentimes I'll prefer a work for that touch of darkness, but the optimism here seems more fitting)
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misspaddylee
19 years ago
I have read the book and seen the movie, love both. I think it depends on whether you prefer the book or movie experience more. I do think that for an adaptation of a popular novel, Capra's Lost Horizon would not disappoint a Hilton fan.
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Harold_Robbins
19 years ago
James Hilton's LOST HORIZON is a novel I re-read every 4-5 years or so - it's one of those quietly philosophical books that "restores" me. I'm also very fond of his RANDOM HARVEST and, of course, GOODBYE, MR. CHIPS, each of which I've also read several times - Hilton was, above all, a wonderful storyteller, and with RANDOM HARVEST he managed to withhold a particularly important detail of the plot until virtually the very last page - and it worked! The film versions of each were also splendid (although they couldn't duplicate his RANDOM HARVEST feat for the screen version, it's still a wonderful film; of course I'm referring to the original versions of CHIPS and HORIZON, not the dismal, ill-advised musical remakes of 1969 and 1973) and I enjoy watching them again every couple of years.
LOST HORIZON and GOODBYE, MR. CHIPS are still in-print and readily available at most bookstores, since both turn up on school reading lists frequently; RANDOM HARVEST goes in and out of print, but you can probably find it at a good used bookstore or through an on-line source such as www.abebooks.com, www.alibris.com or even eBay.
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