Banned to the Big Screen: 10 Adaptations of Banned Books

It's Banned Books Week, and the annual ALA challenge lists are out. The best rebuttal to a banning, history suggests, is a wider audience — and nothing widens an audience like a movie. Ten challenged classics that made the leap:

1. To Kill a Mockingbird — challenged perennially for its language and subject matter; answered with Gregory Peck's Atticus, cinema's conscience. 2. The Grapes of Wrath — banned and burned in Kern County, California, the very place it depicts; John Ford's film won two Oscars. 3. Lolita — 'How did they ever make a movie of Lolita?' asked Kubrick's own poster. Twice, carefully. 4. A Clockwork Orange — banned in Britain for decades by its own director. 5. Slaughterhouse-Five — a school board in North Dakota literally burned copies; Vonnegut's reply is unprintable and the film won at Cannes.

6. The Color Purple — challenged constantly since 1982; Spielberg's film earned eleven nominations. 7. Lord of the Flies — conch shell, two film versions, endless syllabus fights. 8. 1984 — banned for being anti-communist, banned for being communist; filmed in 1984, poetically. 9. The Perks of Being a Wallflower — a fixture of modern challenge lists; Chbosky filmed it himself. 10. Harry Potter — the most banned books of the 21st century's first decade became its biggest film franchise.

The pattern is almost mechanical: challenge a book, mint its status; adapt it, make it permanent. Start with Harper Lee's entry and work down the syllabus.