Winter Light. Poster of the 2015 movie and cover of the 1992 book
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Winter Light
James Lee Burke, 1992
movie vs book
Julian Higgins, 2015

An elderly college professor engages two hunters who are trespassing on his property and starts a spiraling power struggle that will put his faith in everything he holds dear to the test. A contemporary revisionist Western that takes place in Montana’s icy wilderness.


Dead Man Walking. Poster of the 1995 movie and cover of the 1993 book
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Dead Man Walking
Sister Helen Prejean, 1993
movie vs book
Tim Robbins, 1995

Matthew Poncelet has been in prison for six years, awaiting execution after being convicted and sentenced to death for killing a teenage couple. As the day of his execution comes closer, Poncelet asks Sister Helen Prejean, with whom he has corresponded, to help him with a final appeal.


Born on the Fourth of July. Poster of the 1989 movie and cover of the 1976 book
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Born on the Fourth of July
Ron Kovic, 1976
movie vs book
Oliver Stone, 1989

In October 1967, Ron Kovic is a Marine sergeant on a reconnaissance mission in Vietnam, during his second tour of duty. In January 1968, Ron is critically wounded during a firefight, but is rescued by a fellow Marine. Against his doctors’ requests, Ron desperately tries to walk again with the use of braces and crutches, only to damage his legs and confine himself permanently to a wheelchair.


Cop. Poster of the 1988 movie and cover of the 1984 book, Blood on the Moon
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Blood on the Moon
James Ellroy, 1984
movie vs book
James B. Harris, 1988

Los Angeles Police Department detective Sgt. Lloyd Hopkins discovers the brutal murder of a young woman. Hopkins notices a great deal of feminist literature with titles like Rage in the Womb on her bookshelf. He also sees two classified ads for anonymous sexual encounters. When he returns home, his 8-year-old daughter wakes up and begs him for a story.


The Chamber. Poster of the 1996 movie and cover of the 1994 book
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The Chamber
John Grisham, 1994
movie vs book
James Foley, 1996

In April 1967, the office of Marvin Kramer, a Jewish civil rights lawyer in Indianola, Mississippi, is bombed by the Ku Klux Klan, killing Kramer’s five-year-old twin boys and leading to the amputation of Kramer’s legs and his later suicide. Adam is motivated to take the case in a search for some understanding of the dark secrets of his family, which prompted the suicide of Adam’s father the year Sam was sentenced to death.