I had the opportunity to view the 1979 movie version of 'Salem's Lot and was really happy I watched it, even though it was extremely long! I was really excited to see how it compared to the book because I feel that Stephen King's writing was almost made for movies. He gives a lot of description and dramatic effects in his novels that would work great for a movies. That is probably why he went on to have his books turn into movies.
If I had to choose between the movie and the book for 'Salem's Lot, I would have to say that I actually enjoyed reading the book better. I could be biased because I read the book first and had certain expectations for the movie, but either way, the concept of 'Salem's Lot remains the same and that's all that really matters.
One of the big differences that bothered me in the movie was that a lot of the characters had different names and were mixed up in the plot. For example, instead of Bonnie Sawyer having an affair with a young kid named Bryant, she had an affair with Larry Crockett. Floyd Tibbits name was Ned and Matt Burke's name was Jason.
Another thing that was different was that Susan Norton was not in the movie for most of the plot. The movie portrayed her as going off to Boston for a while. Ben Mears' late wife, Miranda, was never mentioned and his motorcycle accident was never brought up either. I felt that this part of the book was really important because it was part of Ben's motive to keep on going.
Besides other tiny things that were significantly different from the book, there was one other major difference between the two; time. In the movie, time did not play a role in the events that occurred. There was no significant scene that emphasized the importance of time at all.
I know that there is also a 2004 version, but I have not been able to see that yet. Let's just hope it did a little better of of interpreting Stephen King's novel.
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