NIGHTFLYERS
A film review by Mike Caplinger
Copyright 1987 Mike Caplinger
You'd think I'd have learned after DUNE and 2010 that Hollywood is usually incapable of transforming a science fiction work to the screen without trashing it. Still, both DUNE and 2010 had their moments. So when I read about a year back that George R. R. Martin's novella "Nightflyers" was being made into a movie, I was awaiting it with some anticipation.
I needn't have bothered. There are a number of liberties I expected would be taken with the novella. For example, Martin's heroine is a black, very athletic woman--though her being black was an incidental in her society, so the casting of Mary Catherine Stewart was perhaps forgivable--as were the name changes and the almost total disappearance of the enormously detailed background universe that gives a Martin story an extra enjoyment. In fact, in general I have no complaints with the casting, the name changes, or the illogical throwaway moving of the story's timeframe into the 21st Century.
But they ruined and bastardized the plot. Even the massive amount of violence present in the novella, while still here in large part, is made completely gratuitous--few of the violent events from the novella even happen. And the subtle interplay of the characters' personalities, which made the novella so terrific, is gone here. The most glaring omission is the absence of the heroine's superior generic makeup (though at least they didn't make her a screamer).
The special effects are poor by today's standards, but if they had gone with the resources they had, casting, sets, and all, the producers could have made a credible film version of "Nightflyers." What they did make is celluloid trash. And what they did to the Volcryn!
I'll be interested in seeing what people who aren't Martin fans think of this film; I think it's poor by anyone's standards, but I've been a Martin fan for a long, long time. I give this film 0.5 stars out of 4.
I'd like to hear the story behind this film's scripting. I hope Martin got a good deal for the rights, because he couldn't have been involved afterwards.
By the way: the main theme of the movie is a note-for-note steal of one of the themes from BLADE RUNNER. If I were Vangelis I'd sue, but I don't think this turkey is going to make any money.
Mike Caplinger
mike@bellcore.com
{decvax,ihnp4}!thumper!mike
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