vhsparrow Blog

Fair Trade -Good Enough, I Suppose for Mass-Appeal

Was this review helpful? [Be the first to tell us!]

Under discussion:

I Am Legend (2007)

Though Richard Matheson’s novella has been adapted for the screen 3 times and served as the inspiration for George Romero and John Russo’s ‘Living Dead’ franchises, but this is the first time that a film has borne the original title. With each incarnation the story has played against its own specific cultural background:

1964’s ‘Last Man on Earth‘ starring Vincent Price, was quintessentially an Atomic-age Cold War stor; Romero and Russo played their story as an American Civil Rights morality tale while a politically disenchanted Charleton Heston found fit to illustrate Matheson’s story as a reaction against the late ’60’s and early ’70’s culture of protest – against the Vietnam War, Voting Rights, Black Power and the rise of cults, such as Charles Manson’s ‘Family’ in 1971’s ‘Omega Man‘.

That said, the Manhattan depicted in this most recent rendition of ‘Legend’ has been transported to New York City and from the city’s appearance,it looks as the WTC had only been the hors d’oeuvre of a 9-11 attack as all the bridges into Manhattan have been demolished and the city an open funeral-garden. Given recent events like Katrina, 9-11 and the collapse of the I-35W highway bridge in Minneapolis might give us greater pause about the state of our civilization, c. 2007.

Of course, the Protosevich portion of the script had been kicking around Hollywood since 1994, when Warner Bros. commissioned Mark Protosevich to write it and the draft drew attention and intent from talent as varied as Ridley Scott, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Douglas and Tom Cruise throuout the ’90’s. Early drafts of the Protosevich script were bore greater resemblance to Matheson’s novella as Protosevich looks past the American situational politics of the moment (the ’50’s, ’60’s, ’70’s and the 90’s) to acknowledge, like Matheson before him, that Robert Neville is a being who has survived past his usefulness as his enemies and antagonists represent the next step on the ladder of human evolution, whether that be productive or measurable on a human scale.

But the politics of Hollywood are that of expediency and it’s always necessary to get a sympathetic actor into the starring role and ‘asses into theater seats’. So, once Will Smith became attached to the project, his personal touch-up scribe, Akiva Goldsman stepped-up to recast the story in a fashion better-tailored to Mr. Smith’s strengths and Warners’ economic necessity. (For what it’s worth, the movie is devoid of Smith’s folksy and signature “Hell, nos“.)

The resulting movie is a whole two heads above the last Goldsman-Smith collaboration, ‘I, Robot‘. With Protosevich’s script to work from,‘Legend’s first hour is remarkable, a piece of drama that’s been admirably compared to Tom Hanks’ performance in ‘Cast Away’ and ”The Quiet Earth'. I only wish they had stayed closer to Matheson’s original ideas and engaged the late-arriving Anna in a more productive way. As with I, Robot, though, I wish that Goldsmal had taken some time to reflect on his story to elevate it above the level of an SFX spectacle and explore the high-concept parameters of his story just a bit more.

Earlier this year, Protosevich pitched a Legend sequel to Warner Bros., but without Smith starring in it, it’s unclear how far the bid will go.

***-1/2 out of 5

Posted Monday, December 17, 2007 1:58 PM by vhsparrow | with 0 comments

The Final Bow of a Great Sci-Fi Talent

Was this review helpful? [Be the first to tell us!]

Under discussion:

The Man From Earth (2007)

This film was an entirely happy surprise! ‘Man From Earth’ came out as an extremely limited release at a few festivals ib 2007 and a had a sneak preview in San Francisco. It is a science fiction film by its premise, but unlike every science-fiction film of the past 70 years, there are no action sequences and no special effects.

For those that don’t know, Jerome Bixby’s claim to fame are the teleplays he wrote for the original Star Trek back in the ’60’s and a couple that he wrote for Rod Serling’s original iteration of The Twilight Zone and a little story he wrote called “It’s a Good Life”.

But ‘Man From Earth’ has it’s start in one of Bixby’s Star Trek contributions, specifically Season 3’s “Requiem for Methuselah“. There, the Enterprise, fighting a ship-wide outbreak of Rigelian fever docks at an apparently uninhabited planetoid to mine Ryetalyn to maufacture an antidote. As was the convention with many early Trek episodes, the planetoid turns out not to be uninhabited and Kirk, Spock and McCoy must make fast friends in order to accomplish their mission.

In this case though, the planetoid is inhabited by an apparently immortal human being, who has lived for 16,000 years as Alexander the Great, Leonardo DaVinci and a host of other historical figures. There’s something of a romantic diversion in the Trek episode, but it was the immortal that Bixby was still interested as he finished the screenplay for Man From Earth on his deathbed in 1998.

Certain friends of mine are fond of saying that the best ’special effect’ is that of writing and that Bixby achieves here by the deft execution of a fairly plain situation : The apparently young college professor, John Oldman invites several faculty friends to his home for a going-away party. After a successful decade at his college he has announced his ‘retirement’ and plans to move on despite his popularity and the entreaties of the University. Faculty from almost all of the departments are represented, Math, Biology, History, Physics, Chemistry, Geology, Psychology, etc. What they hadn’t planned on was the ’secret’ he decides to impart to them that afternoon, the ‘fact’ that he’s 16,000 years old, born a caveman and lived through ALL of the formative ages of mankind.

Certainly, it is impossible to prove Olman’s claims within the setting of the filmscript, but what ensues in the film’s 90 minute runtime is a multifaceted debate over Oldman’s claims - whether he’s lived that long, the events he’s experienced vis-à-vis the informal panel of experts gathered at the home Oldman is evacuating.

And it works. Where somone might expect a boring, single-camera, ‘My Dinner With Andre type of affair, the whole thing comes together as a remarkable tour de force that plays as a powerful extended improvisation rather than a scripted piece.

‘Man From Earth’ is a remarkable piece of scripted drama and far from any of the fare that typically shows up at the local Cineplex. If it turns up at your local videostore or on cable, be sure to give it a look.

***** out of 5 stars

John Billingsley ... Harry
Ellen Crawford ... Edith
William Katt ... Art
Annika Peterson ... Sandy
Richard Riehle ... Dr. Will Gruber
David Lee Smith ... John Oldman
Alexis Thorpe ... Linda Murphy
Tony Todd ... Dan

Posted Sunday, December 09, 2007 12:01 AM by vhsparrow | with 0 comments