Michael Crichton Passes Away-II
In continuation of my tribute to Michael Crichton, this is the second post.
Barry Levinson had made a mess of Sphere, but he did a good job with the other Crichton work Disclosure. I think reason being Levinson is strong with dramatic subjects like Rainman, Tin Men, Good Morning Vietnam and Wag the Dog., but he was clearly out of depth with Sphere’s sci fi, pyschological ethos. Disclosure was a novel, that had many feminists hating it, not surprisingly, because the hero in this book, accuses the heroine of sexually harassing him. Basically the protagonist Tom Sanders working for a high tech firm Digi Com, finds himself being bypassed for promotion, and instead its his former girl friend Meredith Johnson, who gets it, and is now his boss. When he spurns her advances, she files charges of sexual harrasment against Sanders. With his career in jeopardy, Sanders now files counter sexual harrasment case against Meredith. This is a novel, that would make the anti outsourcing lobby in the US, happy for sure, because Crichton contends, that cost cutting in the name of outsourcing is hitting the quality of the products.
Crichton does have an antipathy to external forces influencing American business. In Rising Sun, he is openly critical of many Japanese business practices and their loyalty culture in the corporate world. And in Disclosure he attacks the concept of outsourcing, and this was much before outsourcing and Bangalored became buzz words in the US.
The movie version starred Michael Douglas as Sanders and Demi Moore as Meredith Johnson. However the promos were highly misleading, with the poster indicating that it was a sleaze flick. In fact when the movie was released, crowds flocked the theater on first couple of days, thinking this was another Basic Instinct, which by then had made Sharon Stone into the nation’s sex symbol. Well i remember watching Disclosure with not much expectations, but the crowd was huge, thanks to the poster. But as the movie unfolded, it left me impressed, especially the court room scenes and the dialogues. However the large crowd had become restive, as the “scenes” they expected were not there, and they started booing, and whistling, due to which i missed out some vital dialogues.
So i again went for the second time, this time the crowd was moderate, i guess the word got around, there were no “scenes” in the movie. And i could catch the dialogues well, and that really made me like the movie more. In fact though the people who went for the “scenes” were let down, many other movie lovers liked this movie, especially the plotting, the dialogues, the script and excellent performances from both Michael Douglas and Demi Moore. I think Barry Levinson was able to do justice to the book, because it was more or less, a straightforward legal drama,though at the end, there are some virtual reality effects.
Also some of the dialogues were really top notch.
You stick your dick in my mouth and NOW you get an attack of morality?
Sexual harassment is not about sex. It is about power. She has it, you don’t.
After the movie i wondered, if this could be remade into Hindi or Telugu. My friend said Forget it, i mean do you think they would be able to translate those dialogues, and that was in the 90’s. Well there has been an adaptation, Aitraaz, by our remake specialists, Abbas Mustan. And some time back i caught the movie on TV, and as i watched the final court scene, the dialogues in that scene made me want to smash the TV set. Geez man, you wanna remake something, ok, but for heavens sake, can’t you pen proper intelligent dialogues.
Congo was basically an adventure novel, about an expedition searching for diamonds in a lost city called Zinj. Video images show a breed of gray gorillas, killing the explorers. Karen Ross, a businesswoman, leads another expedition to find out the diamonds, and assisting her are a South African mercenary Munro, Peter Eliiot and his female pet gorilla Amy, who can communicate with humans using sign language. This is basically in the tradition of King Solomon’s Mines, and the storyline takes from a novella At the Mountains of Madness.
The book was made into a 1995 movie directed by Frank Marshall, who was one of the executive producers for the Indiana Jones series. But while Marshall had an impressive record as producer, especially in collaboration with Steven Spielberg(Indiana Jones, Color Purple), Manoj Night Shyamalan(Sixth Sense, Signs), Martin Scorcese(Cape Fear), as a director his record has been pretty spotty. The movie had Laura Linney as Karen Ross and Dylan Walsh as Peter Elliot.
The movie as again differed from the novel. Karen Ross is a more darker character in the book, a ruthless business woman. In the movie she is shown as searching for her ex fiance, while her more darker characteristics are transferred to another character Herkemer Homolka, a Romanian. I guess with the end of Cold War, Hollywood started to look at every East European character as a potential baddie. The novel actually was a rivalry between Karen Ross and a consortium of Japanese-European companies, and it was more of a look at the way multinationals exploit African resources. In the movie, however it became a straightforward adventure yarn, with a hero, heroine and a bad guy. The book also mentions explicitly how the killer apes were created, while in the movie this part is conveniently glossed over.
The main deviation was however in the diamonds themselves. Where in the novel, Crichton clearly mentions these were small blue diamonds, whose primary utility was in electronics, in the movie we have just one big blue diamond, for laser communications. I guess Frank Marshall, having produced the Indiana Jones series, wanted to make this more of a escapist yarn, but even on that count, barring some scenes like hippos attacking their boats, the action scenes, dont really enthrall you. In fact the final climax gives you a sense of deja vu, and the effects are not too great either. Among the performers, only Laura Linney stands out. Basically Frank Marshall was not sure, whether to make it like a thriller or spoof, and ends up neither. For me even as a cult flick,Congo does not really make the cut.
The Lost World, the follow up to Jurassic Park, was in fact the only time, Crichton had ever written a sequel. The novel took it’s name from Arthur Conan Doyle’s book of the same name, and even the basic thread was similar, of an expedition to find dinosaurs. The book takes off from where Jurassic Park, had ended, with the mathematician Ian Malcolm, trying to get the details of the mysterious site B, where the dinosaurs were actually bred. Malcolm’s friend Richard Levine, disappears mysteriously, and Malcolm feels he might have discovered Site B. And so he mounts a rescue operation to find Levine.
In the meanwhile Lewis Dodgson, an geneticist at a rival company of InGen, make a parallel expedition, hoping to steal the dinosaur eggs. Sarah Harding, a wildlife observer, and Malcolm’s ex girlfiend also accompanies them, but is pushed off the ship in mid way. In meanwhile, Sarah who has survived, meets Malcom on the island, and they try to fix the broken leg of a baby T-Rex. However they are attacked by the T-Rex’s mother and manage to survive.The novel also explores issues like the evolution theory and how dinosaurs became extinct.
Crichton wrote this novel, basically on Spielberg’s urging, who adapted it into a movie in 1997. Jeff Goldblum played Malcolm, while Julianne Moore played Sarah. The movie however was typical Jurassic Park, special effects, action scenes heavy, while the characters are as bland. Or maybe somewhat better than part I. Also here the dinosaurs are presented in a more humane way, like the T-Rex showing an attachment for its infant son. Again performances by Jeff Goldblum and Julianne Moore are strong too.
Spielberg totally changed the relationship between Sarah and Malcom in the movie. Whereas in the book it was more professional, here in the movie it was more romantic. Also the main villian and his motivations are totally different. In the novel, Dodgson the main villian, goes to the island to retrieve the dinosaur eggs, for his company. But in movie version, the chief baddie is Peter Ludlow, who goes on a hunting style expedition to capture dinosaurs for his new Jurassic Park. I guess Spielberg wanted to show some Hatari style hunting scenes and made this change.
The major change is however in the ending, in the book, the characters escape the island, and Malcolm tells Levine that the Velociraptors are now infected with prions and will thus infect the other species, due to which all dinosaurs will be wiped out. Spielberg however makes it a King Kong kinda climax, with the captured T Rex rampaging through San Diego and smashing up everything. The Lost World novel was actually a very scientific look at the evolutionary and extinction theories, Spielberg however just turned it into another summer blockbuster, with CGI effects and high voltage action scenes.
Comming to other Crichton works that have been adapted to movies, i have not seen Timeline and the 13th Warrior( based on Eaters of the Dead). Michael Crichton was one of the best sci fi writers. His technical detailing and research, was excellent, though somehow i never liked his paranoia about Japanese and outsourcing. Also the way he tries to dismiss Global Warming and environmental activism in State of Fear was something i never liked. All said and done, i would be missing Crichton, the sense of anticipation regarding his novels. And yes time for me to create my own Michael Crichton collection of his novels. Sadly his movies were rarely interpreted in the proper way and did no justice to his works. Here is hoping that his death would get some auteurs to really interpret his work as is, instead of trying to make a summer popcorn blockbuster of it.
Tags: Barry Levinson, Congo, Disclosure, Frank Marshall, Laura Linney, Michael Crichton, steven spielberg, The Lost World
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excellent writeup, ratnakar. I found the last few works of Chrichton quite mediocre, particularly timeline,Prey and Next. They all felt like made for an action-thriller movie adaptation, rather than a genuine science and technology adventure . “State of Fear”, well, the paranoia is definitely overboard, but you have to admit he is right about some of them.
Thank God you were spared the torture of not watching Timeline and The 13th Warrior. Both were pinnacle of bad taste and lazy film making. But both movies were made by iconic film directors – John McTiernan and Richard Donner. Guess Crichton had a curse going on that no other director than Spielberg (Joe Johnston for JP3?) could work magic with his novels brushing aside the faithfulness to the source material.
What is really strange is the talent involved in adapting these novels to the big screen. You got Kurt Wimmer, Paul Attanasio (Donnie Brasco), William Wisher Jr. (T2), Jeff Maguire (In The Line Of Fire) & George Nolfi (The Bourne Ultimatum).
I’ve read Jurassic Park, The Lost World and Prey and thought of them as very complex ideas from a man of science. For instance, The Lost World is built on the process of Chaos Theory. Prey was nanotech gone awry. All these ideas looked at future technological issues with a high dose of post-modern context. They were lovely to read though. I always thought the guy as a mad scientist knowing the inner sanctums of the scientific world and reporting back to the common man. He will surely be missed.
Nice writeup. Keep em coming.
Director and Writers source – IMDB
Superb tribute to a man who had so much of variety in his writings.Another excellent book I would recommend is Airframe and after reading the same you really feel scared to get into a plane.
Hi,
i would differ with Saad Nawab as far as 13th Warrior is concerned, can’t comment on Timeline as I haven’t seen it.
Thing is most junta would have viewed 13th Warrior with the knowledge that a movie starring the then very hot at the BO, Banderas, and directed by Tiernan, was sent to the DVD circuit straight in USA and probably even in Europe.
It got theatrical release only in the Asia-Pacific belt.
however, if you see it with an open mind and don’t have too much expectations and also don’t expect a Speilbergian adaptation of a Chricton book, then it might just work for you.
Of course at the end of the day more people have said nay as opposed to ayes for this one, me being in the minority over here. So make your call after viewing it for yourself.
cheers