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Conference noted::sf

Title:Arcana Caelestia
Notice:Directory listings are in topic 2
Moderator:NETRIX::thomas
Created:Thu Dec 08 1983
Last Modified:Thu Jun 05 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:1300
Total number of notes:18728

536.0. "NIGHTFLYERS" by DICKNS::KLAES (I grow weary of the chase!) Mon Oct 26 1987 08:00

Path: muscat!decwrl!labrea!rutgers!bellcore!faline!thumper!mike
From: [email protected] (Michael Caplinger)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf-lovers,rec.arts.movies
Subject: NIGHTFLYERS, the movie (no spoilers)
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Date: 25 Oct 87 21:17:00 GMT
Organization: Bell Communications Research
Lines: 45
 
    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 was Vangelis I'd sue,
but I don't think this turkey is going to make any money. 
 
	Mike Caplinger
	[email protected]
	{decvax,ihnp4}!thumper!mike

T.RTitleUserPersonal
Name
DateLines
536.1Another thumbs down!DICKNS::KLAESI grow weary of the chase!Tue Oct 27 1987 11:4143
Path: muscat!decwrl!decvax!ucbvax!ucbcad!ames!sri-spam!rutgers!daemon
From: [email protected]
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf-lovers
Subject: NIGHTFLYERS
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Date: 27 Oct 87 04:08:02 GMT
Sender: [email protected]
Lines: 31
 
From: <HAXT2860%[email protected]>
 
    NIGHTFLYERS:  SF we have seen many times before.  Computer out of
control takes over spaceship, the crew must stop it!  There is more to
it than that, but that is basically what it boils down to.  In
watching this movie I got the feeling I was watching a 1945 B-movie. 
The costumes - ridiculous, the sets - ridiculous (I mean we are
suppose to believe that this is taken place in the far of future and
they are cooking in a modern day microwave, gas stoves, etc...).  I
found myself talking to myself (well, I do that alot anyway, but
that's beside the point).  The physics in this movie was...yes,
ridiculous! One scene the side of the ship is blown out.  Three crew
members and everything else in that compartment are being blown around
like someone just opened an airline door.  You know, being sucked out
and everything.  I have seen this before in other SF movies.  I would
like to know from someone with better knowledge if this is possible?
(I guess since the cabin is pressurized, when there is an opening it's
like a balloon spewing out air...I don't know?).  What I do know is
that after about ten minutes without oxygen the 2 surviving members
would have been brain dead, but no, they simply crawl to an exit. 
Also, there is a scene where the ship is falling apart - keep in mind
that the ship already has this gigantic hole in the side - well
anyway, pieces of the ship are raining down on our heros due to the
effect of gravity, I guess but, what gravity?!!  Not to mention the
last 2 survivors are *walking* around without *pressure suits*. 
 
    I guess two young guys walking out behind me summed the movie up
best.  When asked by an usher "How'd you like the movie?", their
response was, "It was jive!". 
 
R. Haxton
Univ. of DC
Computer Science

536.2Yet another downwards thumbDICKNS::KLAESNobody hipped me to that, dude!Fri Nov 06 1987 11:1245
Path: muscat!decwrl!labrea!rutgers!sri-spam!mordor!lll-tis!ptsfa!ihnp4!homxb!
From: [email protected] (Kimiye)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies,rec.arts.sf-lovers
Subject: NIGHTFLYERS review
Keywords: movie, review, science fiction Hollywood style
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Date: 5 Nov 87 15:11:15 GMT
Organization: AT&T, Maitland, Florida
Lines: 33
  
    I read the George R.R. Martin novella last year and was looking
forward to the movie.  He seemed to have taken the best ideas from
ALIEN and 2001 and combined them with a drawing room murder
mystery--not the most original science fiction but great drama. 
 
    Unfortunately, I couldn't even recognize his novella in
NIGHTFLYERS. Instead of interesting and different female characters,
we got three women who looked so much alike I couldn't figure out who
was supposed to be whom (all blond, beautiful cheerleader types).  The
male characters went to the other extreme, with emphasis on physical
differences (giant black chef, diminutive blond wimp) rather than
character. 
 
    The special effects seemed decently done (I admit I wasn't
concentrating) but the logic of what occurred was absent.  I was too
appalled at people without spacesuits conversing in a spaceship with
the hull breached above them to notice whether the underpinnings were
showing. 
 
    But it was the ambience of the movie that proved to be the most
crushingly boring part.  Maybe we could call it spaghetti space opera.
 It's that dark, monotonous pacing that I associate with poorly dubbed
Italian s-f or horror movies (the kind Commander USA features).  I
began wishing for major faux pas (sp? false steps) so I could find
_something_ to enjoy in this picture.  Well, there was one howler when
a couple of women were trying to break into the ship's computer,
getting garbled machine language, and one of them suggested, "Look for
a menu!" 
  
    This is the kind of film that gives science fiction a bad name.  I
rate it 2.5 on a scale of 10.  Don't even rent the video (probably due
next month). 
 
Kimiye  {ihnp4, ulysses, houxm, clyde, cpsc6a, mtune, moss}!ablnc!kimi

536.3LUDWIG::RUDMANSiliconwafersrequirealow-sodiumdiet.Fri Nov 06 1987 11:343
    A "menu"?  In a computer?!?  Preposterous!!!
                                               
    						Don (who never Woops'd)