There are few science fiction writers more prolific or impacting upon society than Ray Bradbury. Most noted for his famous dystopian novel “Fahrenheit 451”, Bradbury has a total of 27 novels and short story collections to his name, and his influence on culture cannot be overstated. The New York Times once called him “the writer most responsible for bringing modern science fiction into the literary mainstream.” Famous creators from Spielberg to Gaiman to Stephen King himself, have cited Bradbury as a great influence on their work. He has everything from a type of Nebula award to a crater on the moon named after him.
Bradbury himself would later reject the label of “science fiction writer”, and perhaps the label “Midwest surrealist”, as he was once called, fits more aptly. Bradbury spent his career writing illuminating and thought-provoking works that commented on culture, technology, and the unique gift of human virtue and morality in the face of strange and even horrific situations. Growing up in the 1920s and ’30s, he was influenced by listening to and watching both radio and television supplant the place of books in the culture of the time, and the rapid evolution of other, terrifying technologies such as the atomic bomb moved him deeply. He was also star-struck by Hollywood, living down the street from flagship theaters for MGM and Fox, and would sneak into them to watch movies.
With his fascination with movies, it is understandable why Bradbury himself, or others, would adapt many of his stories into film. So what are the best adaptations of his stories?
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5 It Came from Outer Space (1953)
Universal-International
This classic black-and-white 1950s movie is unique among the era of ’50s movies about aliens. As Ray Bradbury would later say, “I wanted to treat the invaders as beings who were not dangerous, and that was very unusual.” Bradbury wrote the screenplay himself, but it was slightly changed by another screenwriter, Harry Essex, who never credited Bradbury with the brazen copy and paste.
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Directed by Jack Arnold (Creature from the Black Lagoon), the plot centers around an amateur astronomer (Richard Carlson) and a schoolteacher (Barbara Rush) who go in search of a meteor crash, and find an alien spaceship instead. Though initially they seem antagonistic, the aliens are revealed to be friendly, and they just want to repair their ship and be on their way. The end of the story is a commentary on how humanity is not ready for such an encounter, and the place of fear in reaction to the strange and unknown.
Critical response to It Came From Outer Space was positive, and it was later nominated to be one of AFI’s Top 10 Science Fiction Films ever. It’s been called a genuine classic, with Phil Hardy’s “The Aurum Film Encyclopedia: Science Fiction” review saying, “Dark desert roads and sudden moments of fear underline Arnold’s ability as a director of science fiction films, and Essex’s/Bradbury’s lines match his images superbly.”
4 The Halloween Tree (1993)
Turner Entertainment
The Halloween Tree is an animated fantasy direct-to-TV movie released in 1993 by Hanna-Barbera. It’s based on Bradbury’s novel, and at first glance it seems like a standard children’s movie about Halloween. But, the script is, unsurprisingly, very well done, and went on to earn Bradbury an Emmy for his screenplay adaptation. Bradbury also plays the narrator of the movie, alongside the wonderful Leonard Nimoy, who plays the strange guide that helps the children find their missing friend. The film also explores the origins of Halloween, and the meaning behind the costumes that the kids wear.
Though this movie is not popular or well known, its quality and writing hold up to this day. It remains underrated, but still enjoyed by many niche fans every October.
3 Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983)
Buena Vista Distribution
Something Wicked This Way Comes is, surprisingly, a Walt Disney Productions film. Disney at the time wanted to branch out from their perception as an animation and family-friendly studio, and this dark fantasy story written by Ray Bradbury was a perfect way to do that. Bradbury originally wrote it as a screenplay in 1958, but when the movie never came about, he adapted it into a novel, published in 1962. The story centers around two boys who visit a mysterious carnival that comes to their small town and get pulled into a web of dark magic and demonic powers.
Disney sought out Bradbury initially to work on the film, but he had a falling out with director Jack Clayton over how faithful it would be to the book, and a lack of credit to Bradbury on the script, and he left the project. After seeing the final cut from Clayton, Disney hired a new director and editor, then gave the film a new score and a six month re-shoot and re-cut, which ended up staying pretty close to the original Bradbury novel. Despite the production struggles, the movie went on to be a success, with Roger Ebert giving it the perfect summation and highlighting Bradbury’s work on the plot and dialogue, saying:
“It’s one of the few literary adaptations I’ve seen in which the film not only captures the mood and tone of the novel, but also the novel’s style. Bradbury’s prose is a strange hybrid of craftsmanship and lyricism. He builds his stories and novels in a straightforward way, with strong plotting, but his sentences owe more to Thomas Wolfe than to the pulp tradition, and the lyricism isn’t missed in this movie. In its descriptions of autumn days, in its heartfelt conversations between a father and a son, in the unabashed romanticism of its evil carnival and even in the perfect rhythm of its title, this is a horror movie with elegance.”
2 The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953)
Warner Bros.
Ray Bradbury’s influence and atmosphere certainly lends itself to the ’50s decade perhaps more than any other, and The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms might be the most influential of his contributions in that era. Released in 1953 like the other adaptation on this list, It Came From Outer Space, this black-and-white film was a direct inspiration for Godzilla and many other giant monster movies, and was the first movie to use atomic energy in the plot of the monster’s conception.
The movie is based on Bradbury’s 1951 story “The Fog Horn”, in which a giant monster from the bottom of the ocean attacks and destroys a lighthouse because of the sound of the fog horn. While working on a tentative monster movie, producers noticed that Bradbury had recently published “The Fog Horn”. By that point, Bradbury was a well-respected and influential writer, and the producers decided to attach his fame to their movie, buying the rights of the short story and changing their working title and monster design to match Bradbury’s story better, as well as adding the element of nuclear power, which was a dark shadow over the era.
With a powerful musical score, impressive special effects for the time, an explosive and exciting ending, and Bradbury’s notorious influence, the movie was a great success. It was also nominated for the AFI Top 10 Science Fiction Films ever, and still holds an impressive 95% rating on Rotten Tomatoes to this day.
Best Martin Scorsese Films, Ranked
1 Fahrenheit 451 (1966)
Rank Film Distributors
Fahrenheit 451 is based on Ray Bradbury’s most famous book of the same name. Written in 1953, the dystopian novel is about a fireman that sets fires instead of putting them out. With its famous opening line “It was a pleasure to burn”, the story explores the relationship between knowledge and control, as society burns books in favor of giant wall-screen TVs. Bradbury was highly influenced by the McCarthyism and fear-mongering of the 1950s, but he also recognized even from childhood the sharp importance of knowledge in books and the enormous impact that removing them from libraries, or the erasure of information through fires such as the burning of the Library of Alexandria.
The novel won numerous awards, and stands to this day as one of the most signature dystopian novels ever written. While the movie doesn’t come close to meeting the novel’s impact and excellence, Bradbury was still happy with how it turned out, especially the ending. Iconic French director François Truffaut didn’t reach as high as he aimed, but the story is still compelling, and the musical score is well done. Perhaps the biggest mistake of the movie was casting the same woman in two different roles, that of main character Guy Montag’s wife, and his neighbor who becomes his love interest. Over time, opinion of the movie has improved, and it holds the test of time, with Martin Scorsese himself calling it an “underrated picture” and a big influence on his own work.
