The White Tiger & 9 Other Great Movies Based On Booker Prize-Winning Novels, Ranked (According To IMDb)

These movies are considered to be the best interpretations of some great Booker Prize-winning novels.

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Regarded as one of the highest literary prizes in the world, the Booker Prize is an annual award that recognizes the most talented fiction writers from the Commonwealth. Over the years, some of the Booker Prize-winning novels have also served as inspiration for memorable films, the latest cinematic adaptation being Netflix’s The White Tiger.

Some of the most acclaimed Booker winners like Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children couldn’t share the same fate but otherwise, these novels have yielded classics like Schindler’s List, and modern cult favorites like True History of the Kelly Gang and Life of Pi.

10 True History Of The Kelly Gang (2019) – 6.0

A winner from the 2000s by Peter Carey, True History of the Kelly Gang is a fictional novel on the adventures of the Australian outlaw Ned Kelly in the 1870s. Starring George McKay in the titular role, the novel and the film chronicle an era when British colonizers still exercised considerable hegemony over Australian subjects. Seeking a personal vendetta and agitated with these overlords, Ned Kelly attempts to lead an anarchist revolution to fight back.

Despite its period setting, the film relies on a certain postmodern execution that adds a fresh spin on the bushranger genre (aka Australian Western) of cinema.

9 Possession (2002) – 6.3

The genres of romance and historical mystery were blended in the 1990 novel Possession: A Romance by AS Byatt. This work of postmodern metafiction was then adapted for the big screen as Possession. Gwyneth Paltrow and Aaron Eckhart star as two scholars who unearth a series of love letters that might suggest an unknown relationship between two Victorian poets, whom they both idolize.

Matters grow complicated as both experts harbor different thoughts on love and life. Meanwhile, the actual relationship from the past is explored as a parallel story.

8 Disgrace (2008) – 6.5

Two-time Booker winner JM Coetzee’s Disgrace is a character study that studies the protagonist’s relationship, not just with the people around him, but also the unruly relationship he shares with post-Apartheid South Africa.

John Malkovich teams up with debutant Jessica Haines in this update on the 1999 novel. Malkovich plays a professor who needs to quit his teaching job after a criminal and disgraceful incident, and he tries finding some long-lost solace at his daughter’s (Haines) farm. But when a series of disturbing crimes plague their life, the aging professor desperately wishes to find a solution to all his miseries.

7 Oscar And Lucinda (1997) – 6.6

Peter Carey happens to be one of the five writers who have won the Booker twice. He received his first Booker in 1988 for Oscar and Lucinda that was later adapted into a romantic drama film of the same name starring Ralph Fiennes and Cate Blanchett.

Oscar and Lucinda relies on gambling as a driving theme as the two lead characters engage in a life-changing wager while meeting on a ship headed towards Australia. While Oscar is an Anglican minister, wishing to escape from a childhood of trauma, Lucinda is a businesswoman trying to counter the male-dominated society of the 1800s.

6 Last Orders (2001) – 6.9

Graham Swift’s novel Last Orders uses multiple first-person accounts and flashbacks to explore the friendship of a few war veterans who are asked to scatter the ashes of a friend, in accordance with his last wishes. This reunites the aged men for a special journey, resonant with many wholesome slice-of-life/road films.

Because of the constant shift in narrators, Last Orders isn’t a straightforward novel to adapt but director Fred Schepisi managed to pull it off, creating an endearing drama that is furthered by its ensemble. Bob Hoskins, Helen Mirren, Michael Caine, and David Hemmings lead the cast.

5 The White Tiger (2021) – 7.2

Arvind Adiga is one of the few Booker winners from India, winning the top prize for his debut novel The White Tiger. The Netflix film of the same name carries the book’s observational satire to expose several aspects of Indian suburban society, delving into casteism and class differences.

The film’s bleak humor tends to emphasize Balram (Adarsh Gourav) rags-to-riches story in an almost gangster-like fashion. Forced into a subservient society, Balram looks up to his rich employers with admiration. But as time progresses, he sees the opportunistic and vile nature of the ones sitting at the top, prompting him to resort to desperate measures.

4 The English Patient (1996) – 7.4

Ralph Fiennes has starred in about three Booker winner adaptations, Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient being one of them. A romance of epic proportions, the film focuses on a badly burned pilot (Ralph Fiennes) who encounters a nurse (Juliette Binoche) during the Second World War.

As the nurse tends to his burns, the pilot recounts a passionate love affair before the War. The so-called English patient’s stories eventually help to heal the nurse’s own personal wounds from a turbulent past. The film went on to increase the Canadian-Sri Lankan writer’s novel’s popularity while sweeping at the Oscars, taking home nine, including one for Best Picture.

3 The Remains Of The Day (1993) – 7.8

Nobel Prize-winning novelist Kazuo Ishiguro would be popularly known as the writer behind Never Let Me Go (that was later adapted into a film of the same name). However, way before that, cinephiles got a taste of Ishiguro’s literature with an adaptation of his Booker winner The Remains of the Day.

Starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson, the film dealt with a loyal butler in post-War Britain who must confront the true nature of his master, whom he finds out to be a Nazi sympathizer. The film turned out to be another feather in the cap for the trio of director James Ivory, producer Ismail Merchant, and screenwriter Ruth Jhabvala, who had helmed many a British adaptation before.

2 Life Of Pi (2012) – 7.9

Director Ang Lee has had diverse experience in the field of literary adaptations, as seen from his period romance Sense & Sensibility and the romantic drama Brokeback Mountain that was based on a short story. However, with a novel as philosophical and abstract as Yann Martel’s Life of Pi, Ang Lee chartered new territories.

The almost ‘unfilmable’ novel turned into a visual spectacle chronicling an Indian boy’s (struggle after a shipwreck as he survives on a boat with a wild tiger as a companion. Relying less on dialogues and more on slow-burning ideas of human mortality, Life of Pi is an amusing update on the familiar ‘lone survivor’ trope.

1 Schindler’s List (1993) – 8.9

Thomas Keneally’s Schindler’s Ark is arguably one of the finest works of historical fiction in recent history. Inspired by the life of industrialist Oskar Schindler, the novel and its future film adaptation attempted to understand his metamorphosis as an empathetic being.

While Schindler was initially a member of the Nazi party and his actions were just motivated by his own profit, he went on to garner a deep-seated opposition against the Nazis and went on to save the lives of nearly 1200 Jews during the Holocaust. Boasting of top-notch performances by Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley, and Ralph Fiennes, Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List is an intensely emotional understanding of the atrocities of the time it’s set in.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/booker-prize-winning-movies-netflix-the-white-tiger-the-english-patient/