Movies - Take Two. Action!

[JKL2000]

I've never read the book, but I had the understanding the Lynch movie followed by the book pretty closely. I thought I had read that Frank Herbert saw it, and recognized his dialog in the picture.

Maybe it was (I read the book about 25 years ago), but the visualizations of things like the Guild Steersmen, and Baron Harkonnen were so distinct that it gave the film a very strong feeling of its own. I honestly can't remember if in the book Baron Harkonnen was quite as disgusting as in the film (and it worked well in the film). I could remember incorrectly but it reminds me a bit of differences between, as an example, the novel and the film of "The Shining." Then there was a TV remake of The Shining which was again quite different from Kubrick's movie (more similar to the novel). Of course, we've also had a TV remake of Dune which was quite different from Lynch's movie, though I'll be damned if I can remember that much of it actually.

[GuitarGeek]

Then there was a TV remake of The Shining which was again quite different from Kubrick's movie (more similar to the novel). .

Yeah, I remember reading an article on it in TV Guide when it came out. Stephen King was apparently upset with the liberties Kubrick took with his version. I remember distinctly that one thing in particular that irked King was the use of an axe, instead of the croquet mallet that appeared in the novel. So King did his own version where whoever it was who played the Jack Nicholson character used the croquet mallet, for whatever difference that makes.

I've never read any of King's novels, and to tell you the truth, I've only seen a few of the movies based on them. I still think the best one I saw was Dead Zone (particularly the ending). Oh yeah, Carrie's pretty awesome too, though I have no real desire to ever see it again.

I saw The Shining about a million years ago, I think that was another movie we saw on HBO when we first got it back in the early 80's. Wouldn't mind seeing it again sometime (especially after sort of reading the thread here).

Maximum Overdrive had a great musical score (the soundtrack album also functions as an AC/DC best of), and it had Lisa Simpson in it, to boot, but in general I thought it was kinda dopey. I understand that's another one where they later did a made-for-TV version, though as I recall, the original picture was directed by King himself, apparently is only such foray, so I'm not sure what the point of doing a second version was there.

Can't remember if i've ever seen Christine, I think I saw part of it, but not the whole movie.

I remember the TV version of IT! being pretty good, and I liked The Langoliers.

King wrote The Mist too, didn't he? THat was a good movie, though I thought the ending was uber stupid.

Damn, and there waso ne, I think it was called Sleepwalkers, about a mother and son pair of vampires, used the Santo & Johnny classic Sleepwalk pretty effectively in the film. I think that was reasonably decent.

But I still think Carrie and Dead Zone probably the best of the ones I saw.

[GuitarGeek]

Oh, shit, and The STand! I watched that when it originally aired, though the main thing I remember was (Don't Fear) The Reaper being used in the opening, and Laura San Giacomo. Now that I think about it, I can't remember if I saw that last part of that.

[Scott Bails]

Are you referring to The Dead Zone when you say "Dead Again," Chris?

[Jerjo]

Stephen King's big issue with The Shining was that Kubrick was pretty disdainful of anything supernatural and he felt Kubrick toned down those aspects. Still a great movie though.

As a science fiction reader there was just a shit-ton wrong with Lynch's Dune. This enumerates the problems better than I can.

https://www.tor.com/2017/04/18/david...ience-fiction/

[JKL2000]

There’s way too much King material to have seen or remembered it all! I feel like I’ve read a lot yet barely scratched the surface.

Kubrick’s Shining is fantastic, yet King’s novel has important elements that are almost entirely left out. But that’s good, IMO - you get different things from both. When a gifted director does that, it’s cool. When a crappy director does that...it’s crappy!

BTW, I sort of remember Dead Again. Was that a TV movie? (Based on his story Sometimes They Come Back?)

[moecurlythanu]

Burp

(edit)

[Hal...]

Yeah, I remember reading an article on it in TV Guide when it came out. Stephen King was apparently upset with the liberties Kubrick took with his version.

As Jed said, "when a gifted director does that, it's cool."

Incidentally, as I pointed out in that post with all the pictures, Kubrick used a yellow VW in his movie whereas King used a red VW. Toward the end of the movie, there's a highway accident where a semi is laying on a red VW. In the documentary Room 237, they see that as Kubrick giving King the middle finger.

What King didn't understand at the time is that when someone buys the rights to a writer's story, they can do with it whatever they want. Lolita, Dr Strangelove, and A Clockwork Orange all differed from the original source material, to varying degrees. Had King done a little homework, he would have known Kubrick's movie was going to differ from his book.

I remember distinctly that one thing in particular that irked King was the use of an axe, instead of the croquet mallet that appeared in the novel. So King did his own version where whoever it was who played the Jack Nicholson character used the croquet mallet, for whatever difference that makes.

Well, just off the top of my head, you can kill someone pretty quickly with an ax. A croquet mallet is going to take a good bludgeoning.

BTW, the guy who played Jack in the TV miniseries was Steven Weber, the younger brother in the TV show Wings. I thought it was pretty good but there was none of the dread in it that permeated Kubrick's version.

I've never read any of King's novels, and to tell you the truth, I've only seen a few of the movies based on them.

What about Stand by Me, The Green Mile, or Shawshank Redemption, all of which were based on King novellas? IMO, those were the best King movies.

[Jerjo]

I just remembered that one of King's objections was the casting of Jack Nicholson. To King, Nicholson as the character Jack meant a lack of tension as this supposedly normal guy descends into madness, spurred on by this haunted hotel. With Nicholson, you pretty much assumed "yep, this guy is going to go fucking nuts".

[Hal...]

That's funny because Kubrick wanted Nicholson from the start.

[frinspar]

Best rule to go by is: the less King has to do with the movie versions of his stories, the better. Fantastic wordsmith, horrible visual artist.

[dropforge]

The one remark of King's regarding Kubrick's The Shining that I'll never forget: "I gave him a live grenade, and he threw himself on top of it."

[Klonk]

I just remembered that one of King's objections was the casting of Jack Nicholson. To King, Nicholson as the character Jack meant a lack of tension as this supposedly normal guy descends into madness, spurred on by this haunted hotel. With Nicholson, you pretty much assumed "yep, this guy is going to go fucking nuts".

I can definitely see where he's coming from here though. When I first saw Jack Torrence you could tell the crazy was already there

The Shining is one of my all time favorites. Chilled me to the bone at the time.

[JKL2000]

Agree that King shouldn't be involved in making movies, and also that Nicholson was in some ways a strange choice for Torrance (Shelley Duvall was a strange choice two). But they both ended up giving very good performances.

[GuitarGeek]

What about Stand by Me, The Green Mile, or Shawshank Redemption, all of which were based on King novellas? IMO, those were the best King movies.

Damn, I keep forgetting those are based on King stories or novels, I guess because they're so different what you normally associate with the name "Stephen King". Yeah, I've seen all of those. Well, I saw part of The Green Mile and Shawshank. Wouldn't mind seeing them in their entirety. I liked the portions I saw of those pictures.

But I remember seeing Stand By Me...oh geez, must have been at least 25 years ago. I know it has to be at least that long, because I remember a TV Guide article on Jerry O'Donnell, when he was on Sliders, that noted how different he looked on that show from when he was in Stand By Me. But yeah, that was a very good movie. I actually remember reading somewhere, back then, that a lot of people were upset that at the end of the movie, Richard Dreyfus simply turns off his computer, apparently without saving the story that he's been narrating to the audience.

I can sort of see the point that Jack Nicholson was maybe a weird chose for the role, in so much as you don't get the "descent into madness" vibe so much as "Well, he's already a batshit loose cannon".

But this is Stanley Kubrick we're talking about. The man who gave us Dr. Strangelove (Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying, And Love The Bomb), 2001: A Space Odyssey, Barry Lyndon and A Clockwork Orange. He can do whatever he wants. Well, he could, while he was still among the living.

Speaking of Kubrick, anyone ever see the movie Colour Me Kubrick? Apparently, in the early 90's, there was con man running around London, duping people into believing he was Kubrick, and this film sort of dramatizes that whole situation. I thought that was pretty good. Be interesting to know how much of what was in the movie actually happened.

[nosebone]

Terrifier

Holy crap Pennywise has nothing on this fucked up clown DEFINITELY not for the squeamish!

It's a pretty safe bet that only Lou and possibly Nosebone would appreciate this. Continue on...

One word - hacksaw!

[Hal...]

I actually remember reading somewhere, back then, that a lot of people were upset that at the end of the movie, Richard Dreyfus simply turns off his computer, apparently without saving the story that he's been narrating to the audience.

I thought he simply turned off the monitor. Back then, there were no screen savers so if you left a monitor on you could get "burn in".

[aith01]

I thought he simply turned off the monitor. Back then, there were no screen savers so if you left a monitor on you could get "burn in".

Oh yeah. The joys of CRT monitors...

[Hal...]

I found a clip of the last scene in Stand By Me. At 0:25 you can see there's something on the side of the monitor. At 1:25 is where he turns something off. Judging by the position of his hand, I'm guessing the monitor.

[GuitarGeek]

I thought he simply turned off the monitor. Back then, there were no screen savers so if you left a monitor on you could get "burn in".

He might have. But I distinctly remember there was a bit of dis-consternation in some quarters over the fact that he apparently didn't save the writing, as saw people saw it. So there's all sorts of talk of "continuity error" or "He saved it, it's just not shown" or "He only turned off the monitor".

Now that, I think of it, one could suggest it was entirely intentional, like he realized he didn't "need" to save it, because he only wrote the piece as a cathartic thing, and he didn't feel anyone else "needed" to see it, or whatever. I've heard of writers or even composers destroying material for whatever reason, either because they've decided it's "not up to snuff" or there's some other symbolic reasoning. Maybe that's what happens here.

I also remember the debate about Goofy spilling over into real life. Funny, I always thought he was an anthropomorphic dog. Period. And that's apparently what Walt intended. I don't know why everyone got so confused about that.

[Scott Bails]

I've heard of writers or even composers destroying material for whatever reason, either because they've decided it's "not up to snuff" or there's some other symbolic reasoning. Maybe that's what happens here.

Like Banksy?

[Hal...]

He might have. But I distinctly remember there was a bit of dis-consternation over the fact that he apparently didn't save the writing, as saw people saw it. So there's all sorts of talk of "continuity error" or "He saved it, it's just not shown" or "He only turned off the monitor".

Did you watch the clip I posted? There's a cut from when he typed the last sentence to him standing and looking at the monitor because what occurs in between is totally irrelevant to the story. Thus, whether he saved the story or not is minutiae. These people you refer to sound like Yes fans.

[Sturgeon's Lawyer]

Loving Vincent

This is sort-of a mystery, set one year after the death of Vincent van Gogh. A postman asks his son to deliver Vincent's last letter to his brother Theo, and said son gets totally involved in finding out what happened to Vincent. Evidence is produced that he did not commit suicide, but was murdered. The solution eventually proposed is - to me - unsatisfactory, and does not really explain said evidence.

The cast is almost irrelevant. The star of this movie is the animation. Over a hundred artists hand-painted every frame in oils, using images from van Gogh's paintings as starter backgrounds and continuing from there in his style. (Some flashback scenes are in black-and-white but still painted.)

Highly recommended.

[GuitarGeek]

Did you watch the clip I posted?

I've seen the entire movie, so yes, I've seen the scene you posted.

These people you refer to sound like Yes fans.

The word you're looking for is geeks. And so far as music is concerned, I don't think it's limited to just Yes.

But you get that with everything. You get people who argue about stuff in practically every significant movie or TV show, every comic book, every whatever. That's just how it is.

[gojikranz]

quickly back to dune. while I appreciate a lot of what Lynch did the ending of the film is unforgiveable. the miniseries is a much better adaptation it has some awkwardness from the format but as a fan of the book I very much enjoyed it. I am hopeful the new film is well done.

I do think the best king adaptations are the various tv movies though obviously the best film is the shining regardless of how it fares as a faithful adaptation.

he was fairly involved in pet sematary, I think that is a pretty good one, and bringing it full circle about to be remade. Not sure what else they can really do it is such a bleak story .