What is up, True Believers?!?   I'm still mired in my addiction to Mafia Wars and other Facebook related "time-sucks."  I'm also reading The Civil War: A Narrative by Shelby Foote and listening to Dune Messiah on the iPod.   Since that's all I've done since my last column, there's really nothing else for me to write about.   So thanks for reading...until next time....

<Pregnant Pause...For Dramatic Effect>

Oh yeah...I did say in my last column that I would grouse about movies based on books with no matching plots.  I also mentioned that I would also complain about docudramas that, for the most part, are totally inaccurate.   Here we go...

In past columns I've written about Michael Crichton and Elmore Leonard and how badly their works have been translated to the screen.   Crichton's The Lost World is the prime example of this.  It's almost forgivable because it was Crichton's worst book and he merely striking while the iron was hot on the Jurassic Park franchise.   The movie was nothing like the book at all and both were pretty bad. Now I'm aware that most movies aren't exact duplicates to their counterparts on the page, but most of them remain true to the overall storyline and characters.   Some films, though, only share the title...

The Running Man - Stephen King (writing as Richard Bachman): The only similarities between the movie and the book are the main characters' names and the title.  The book deals with Ben Richards, a poor, unemployable wimp of a man who's daughter is a deathly ill.  His only shot at saving his daughter's life is to compete in this game show called The Running Man.  The story unfolds into a cross-country cat-and-mouse chase with a not-too-subtle editorial on the environment and all things shadow government.  The movie, while adopting the "killer" game show genre, takes on a more over-the-top pro-wrestling type of milieu with Richard Dawson as the host.  Dawson's performance alone, is enough to at least search for on the DVR and if you hurry, it's on one of the basic cable channels this week...ScyFy, I think.    The film's Ben Richards is played by Arnold Schwarzenegger and boasts a supporting cast of Yaphet Kotto, Maria Conchita Alonso, and get this, True Believers, Mick Fleetwood (Fleetwood Mac's drummer) as the leader of the underground resistance, plus a cameo by the most talented of actors, Dweezil Zappa.   Oh...there is one other thing that both the book and film have in common...if you go in not expecting too much, you'll find yourself thoroughly entertained by both efforts.   Both are like Baked Lay's - yeah, they're pretty good, but not as good as a real Lay's.   You can quote me on that.

The Bone Collector - Jeffery Deaver: Like The Running Man, the scriptwriters took a lot of liberties with Deaver's novel, but this time, not only aren't the characters completely different, their names are too.   The only exception is the lead character, Lincoln Rhyme...but even he got changed up beyond recognition.  Lincoln Rhyme is a brilliant forensics crime scene investigator - he's way better than those guys from CSI, CSI: Miami, CSI: NY, and CSI: Hamtramck.  The only drawback is that he's a quadraplegic who can only move his head and right index finger.   And that, my erstwhile readers, is where the similarities end.   The story is vastly different here on out.   Now here's the thing, True Believers, and this rarely happens...I liked the movie better than the book.   It didn't help that I saw the movie first and had some preconceived notions of the plot, the characters, and settings.  Let's put it this way, the book gave us an idea of who the killer was early on...so the book was a procedural mystery, much like Silence Of The Lambs.  We knew who the killer was, we just wanted to know how the Feds were gonna take him down.   The movie gave us no such luxury and is more of a "whodunit?" than anything else.    We have no idea who the killer was until the last 5 minutes of the film..and man oh man, the climax of that film was pure white knuckle suspense all the way.   I happen to think Denzel Washington is a great actor and I also happen to think that this is one of his finest performances.   People may disagree with me...but the amount of discipline Denzel put into this role is well beyond noteworthy...I watched the film over and over to try catch him twitching or moving.  He didn't move a muscle.   The book was just OK and quite frankly, I'm not about to run out and find any of Deaver's other works.

The Bourne Identity - Robert Ludlum: I actually have to say that the whole damn trilogy of movies is nothing like the books.   I knew things were kind of screwed up when a) Jason Bourne knew his real identity was at the end of the first book, but didn't find out until the end of the third movie.   Also, Bourne's girlfriend is alive for the FOURTH book in the trilogy (The  Bourne Legacy) and is now married to Bourne.   The books were better than the movies, but really, not by a whole lot.   The filmmakers, while not staying completely true to Ludlum's storyline, did a great job in capturing the nuances of his storytelling.   Ludlum doesn't write a lot of over-the-top James Bond/Rambo type fare, so when Bourne kills somebody, it's done with the surgical precision that isn't flashy, but gets the job done quickly.  I suspect that's the idea.   Casting a non-action star like Matt Damon was a good move to play Jason Bourne, but nothing beats reading the works of Robert Ludlum.  Besides the Bourne books, you should also read Trevayne, The Parsifal Mosaic, and The Janson Directive.   I don't see these becoming movies any time soon, though.

Kiss The Girls/Along Came A Spider - James Patterson: Another one of my favorite actors is Morgan Freeman.  From Hoke in Driving Miss Daisy to Red in Shawshank Redemption to Somerset in Seven...you can't do much better than Freeman.  He just brings a realism to his roles that is hard to explain.   Now, if you're a semi-reader of this column, you'll note that I blasted author James Patterson for another one of his works I read this past summer.   If you do read anything by Patterson, make sure it's an Alex Cross mystery.  Like Baldacci's Camel Club, there are about 7-8 Alex Cross books out and about, beginning with Along Came A Spider.  Which brings up the first departure from the series.   The first film made was Kiss The Girls and Along Came A Spider was it's sequel.   So the filmmakers got it all backwards.   Secondly, as much as I love to watch Morgan Freeman, he is not Alex Cross in my estimation.  In the book, Along Came A Spider, Cross is in his late 30s and his grandmother lives with him and his two children.   Freeman, who is almost 70, doesn't quite fit the mold Patterson created...and quite frankly, there's no way movies could have been made out of the rest of the books.   Another aspect in the novels that got lost in the films is that Alex Cross is in excellent physical shape.   Freeman, in my estimation (and I love the guy!), isn't one who goes out and kicks ass.  At any rate, I still love the Alex Cross series and just bought the latest two, Double Cross and Alex Cross' Trial.  I will cover this series in an upcoming column, but for now - check out the books...skip the movies.   Again, huge Freeman fan...but him as Alex Cross...not so much.

Based On A True Story...

There are so many times that movies are based on true stories but are so completely inaccurate.  That drives me nuts, True Believers!  Now, there was a time way back when when I thought there was more truth to the historical "docudramas" that Hollywood put out.  In the early 90s, I rediscovered my love of all things history.  You see, back in high school, I enrolled in all sorts of AP History courses.  When I started college, I forgot about all that and pursued a career in alcoholism.  Right about the same time I sobered up, the History Channel was added to basic cable packages and I became a rabid viewer.  One of their original series was called History vs. Hollywood and its purpose was to compare Hollywood history films to what had actually happened.

Braveheart: Mel Gibson, as of right now, is stone-cold nuts.  I haven't the slightest idea what's going through his head lately...if anything's going through his head at all.  All I know is that I thought he did a great job in directing Braveheart.   Braveheart involves the telling of the story of William Wallace, Scotland's greatest hero and legend.   If you've not seen this story, be advised that I am giving away the ending here (or as everyone calls it:  SPOILER ALERT).   William Wallace is captured, tortured, and executed at the end of the film.   However, history dictates otherwise.   William Wallace was never captured and executed.  In fact, he was the Scottish ambassador to Rome after Scotland won its independence.  The other differences pale in comparison, but the pivotal battle scenes were also completely inaccurate.  The first battle in the film, at Stirling, was won by tactical maneuvering and the use of shiltrums (the long wooden spears).  Historically, the Battle of Stirling was actually the Battle of Stirling Bridge.   The Scotsmen won this battle merely by logistical luck as the English underestimated the number of Scottish troops and got themselves in a traffic jam on the bridge.   At that point, they were sitting ducks for the archers.    The battle of Falkirk was accurate in the fact that Wallace did lose the battle.  Shiltrums were used in this battle, not the boiling oil fields.   The third inaccuracy was the portrayal of Robert the Bruce.  In the movie, he played the conflicted heir to the worthless Scottish throne.  In real life, he wasn't as wishy-washy and actually was more of a contributor to Scottish independence than Wallace was.   Don't let these detract you from viewing Braveheart though, it's a great story and a great movie.   It also marks the last time Gibson made a movie that showed a spark of genius in telling a good yarn.

The Untouchables: In my previous column, I had cited Gus Russo's The Outfit as one of my favorite all time books.  To sum up, it told the true story of the Chicago Mob after the fall of Al Capone.   It was in this book that I also learned that the fall of Al Capone was not as it was presented in the TV series and the 1987 film The Untouchables.   First of all, Elliot Ness and his band of Untouchables weren't solely assigned to bring down Capone.   Andrew Mellon was the main guy tasked to do that.  Ness' assignment was just to enforce the Volstead Act (Prohibition) in the Chicago area.   Since his role and actions were more high-profile than Mellon's, Ness got all the glory when Capone was finally convicted.   The second, and most glaring inaccuracy was the film's portrayal of Frank Nitti.  The film version of Nitti is this psychotic hit man who met his end when Ness tossed him off the roof of the courthouse.   In reality, Frank Nitti, while still a mob goon, was also extremely smart and so high up in the ranks that he ran the Outfit upon Capone's conviction.  Nitti's death was brought about by his own hand.  The Outfit overplayed its hand when trying to extort big-name movie studios and Nitti was indicted for it.   Fearing for his life, another prison term, and the possibility of having cancer, Nitti got slobbering drunk and killed himself in 1943.  How he went about it is kind of funny (for a suicide that is).  He was staggering on some railroad tracks trying to shoot himself in the head.  He'd missed twice, badly ruining his hat.   A train was bearing down on him and the engineers thought he was shooting at them.  Nitti had enough poise and grace to jump out of the way of the train and then finally shoot himself in the head.  It just goes to show you that you can do anything you put your mind to with the right mix of persistance, fortitude, and good aim.  Again, The Untouchables is a damn fine film and even though Jimmy Malone didn't exist in real life, Sean Connery's Oscar-winning performance makes this movie worth watching over and over again.

The Doors: If you're a fan of Oliver Stone's work, you know why I'm including this film.  Now Stone isn't exactly known for keeping things "factual" in his films - just watch JFK or Nixon.  The Doors, however, is completely overblown in terms of accuracy because Stone felt the actual story was a little too boring and opted to feed into the myth and legend that is Jim Morrison.   Stone, unlike his other films, freely admitted this and portrayed Morrison in what he called his own "artistic interpretation."  The fallout on this was that the remaining members of The Doors and one of Morrison's former lovers, Patricia Kennealy, were all very upset at the final cut of the film.  Morrison was not the violent hedonist that Stone portrayed him to be.  The most glaring example of this was the depiction of Morrison's relationship with Pamela Courson - he did not lock in her the closet and set their house on fire; he did not try to do a "lover's leap" suicide pact off a Hollywood balcony; nor did incite riots at their concerts.     Additionally, Stone portrayed Kennealy not as herself but as a mix of all of Morrison's bed partners.   Kennealy took great offense to this, especially that she was portrayed as the "homewrecker" to the Morrison/Courson relationship.   While a decent film, the only true aspects of Stone's The Doors was that Jim Morrison was born, started a rock group, and died in Paris in 1971.   Other than that, Stone used a lot of "creative license" for this film - and that's really saying a lot about a filmmaker who's typicial MO is to beat that "creative license" to death.

Well that just about wraps up whatever it was I was trying to say here.  The only thing else I can say is that the above-mentioned films are worth viewing and the above-mentioned books are worth reading.   Just don't expect them to match up all the time.   For my next column, I am going lament about three..count 'em...three TV series that were cancelled before their story arcs ended.   No wait, in memory of Billy Mays, if you read my column next time around, I will throw in another prematurely cancelled TV show ABSOLUTELY FREE!!!!   Operators are standing by!

Until next time, True Believers, you be you and I'll bring the Spunk!

Set as favorite

Bookmark

Email This

Hits: 500

Trackback(0)

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (0)

Write comment

Show/Hide comment form

This content has been locked. You can no longer post any comment.