OFF: Starship Troopers and a connection to the Tick

[Andy Gilham]

On Monday, January 12, 1998 2:01 PM, Dave Berry
[SMTP:daveb at HARLEQUIN.CO.UK] wrote:

> SF though, doesn't do so well.  Why is this?  Blade Runner was excellent,
> but only shared some of the background with Dick's novel.  Total Recall
> also threw away most of Dick's ideas to make a passable film.  I'm hard
> pressed to think of any other examples of SF movies from books.  (I'm
> deliberately discounting 2001: A Space Oddysey, because the book and
> the film were developed in tandem).  Dune, of course, was crap, as
> was Damnation Alley (dragging the message back to vaguely on-topic
> at last).
>

Truffaut's _Fahrenheit 451_ was more successful. :)

I think it's that film science fiction has a tradition that's very
different from written science fiction; they're not even really the same
genre.  Film sf came through the monster movies of the 50s, is still
regarded as the heir to those films, and is part of mass culture.  (Go go
Godzilla!)  Written sf is a minority pursuit at best, and has developed
almost independently of the cultural mainstream.

Also, the best written sf is cerebral and idea-based; movies have to be
visual, and convey their ideas quickly, with a few images and fewer words.
 So there's an immediate tension.

Plus, and I think this is important, an sf fan's idea of a good adaptation
is often at odds with a mainstream film viewer's idea.  Just as an example,
sf fans are often tolerant of long explanatory passages in their written
fiction, and would like to see them in films too.  Most viewers, I hazard,
wouldn't.

(Btw, _Total Recall_ is an easy film to read, but it seems many people miss
it - sf fans are the worst, because they harp on about the bogus science at
the end, without realising the bogus science is itself a big clue!  The key
scene is the one where Quaid is told that in his dream "you're going to get
the girl, kill the bad guys, and save the planet".  Which of course is
exactly what happens.  In his dream.  If there's a subtext, it's about
preferring escapist fantasy to dealing with mundane reality.  "The joke's
on you." :)  (Christ, I'm straining for these on-topic references!)

-Andy

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