Book vs. Movie

[digitaldiscipline]

Just finished reading Starship Troopers [saw the movie first].

I'm glad I did it in this order, though I suspect that, much like the case with The Princess Bride, the fact that the book is so much more detailed in some respects lets you retroactively appreciate the movie more, as opposed to Tolkien purists being annoyed by the LotR movies' adaptation. . . a Heinlein purist might be unwilling or unable to give the movie the benefit of the doubt and go in "innocent."

That said, delicarose, I think you -would- appreciate the movie - it's far from faithful to the book, but, having now read it, there's a lot more meat on the animated caricature that I had previously slotted it as.

Any of you who have not yet read TPB. do yourselves a favor and get the 25th or 30th anniversary edition and sit down with it. Read the preface. Read the foreward. Read everything but the frigging publication page, because the backstory on the making of the movie is almost as entertaining as the story itself, and the original Morgenstern text is a fucking -riot-. You'll still love the movie afterwards. I promise.

Comments

[angel-renewed.livejournal.com]

Under no circumstance should one read 'Battlefield Earth' before going to see the movie. The book is pulp drivel, but its at least readable. The movie? Unbearable. Seeing the movie first will at least provide some small matter of improvement when one gets to the book. I read the book and then, pretty much immediately, went to opening night of the film.

I still cringe thinking about it.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

I think "BE" falls into the category of "avoid the whole thing at all costs, or at least get outside of a fifth of liquor before trying."

[smaugchow.livejournal.com]

The book was fine - up to a point. At about the time when the humans, who had been beaten down into near-extinction, start being smarter and more clever than ancient space-faring races, I had to raise and eye and say, "let's pretend this didn't happen and just enjoy the book up to here." Actually, I didn't finish it for that very reason - it went south in a hurry.

The film was just dumb.