The Running Man
One of my biggest complaints, when I was growing up, was when a book is turned into a movie and that the cinematic version turned out to be a turd. In the age of Harry Potter, where the books have been successfully converted to film, that does not ring as true as it used to. But during the last half of the 20th century, there were quite a few great books that just died on the table in the movie theaters. Sometimes, an obscure book was turned into a great movie. Stephen King has actually had several that turned out well. The Shawshank Redemption and Stand By Me are two memorable movies that were not big novels for the Master of Horror.
I just finished re-reading his short novel The Running Man. It was made into a relatively successful movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Richard Dawson. Arnold plays the lead role about a man who is forced to enter a game show where the prizes are big but to lose is to be dead. Dawson plays the host of the game show and plays his role to the hilt. Dawson makes the movies but he had plenty of practice as host of The Family Feud so it was not too much of a stretch. The idea behind the movie is for a game show contestant to avoid the plethora of goofy WWF style hunters, make it through the ghetto maze, and claim your prize. Of course Arnold takes out the bad guys, gets the girl, disgraces Dawson and wins the day.
The book is a darker tale of a heavily polluted future where the government has mandated television in all homes as a pacifier for the masses. The primary entertainment is game shows where they take the poor and down trodden and use them for amusement. The best game show is the Running Man where you have to avoid being hunted down for 30 days while on the run. All that time you are making $100 per hour for the ones you leave behind. You must submit two tapes per day to the network so they have fodder for their telecasts and this allows them to track you. The main character, Ben Richards, successfully avoids being killed for 8 days and ends up killing himself and the main antagonist at the end. All in all, I prefer the book but would watch the movie if the time was right and it was a severe thunder storm.
Icool
Cobb
I just finished re-reading his short novel The Running Man. It was made into a relatively successful movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Richard Dawson. Arnold plays the lead role about a man who is forced to enter a game show where the prizes are big but to lose is to be dead. Dawson plays the host of the game show and plays his role to the hilt. Dawson makes the movies but he had plenty of practice as host of The Family Feud so it was not too much of a stretch. The idea behind the movie is for a game show contestant to avoid the plethora of goofy WWF style hunters, make it through the ghetto maze, and claim your prize. Of course Arnold takes out the bad guys, gets the girl, disgraces Dawson and wins the day.
The book is a darker tale of a heavily polluted future where the government has mandated television in all homes as a pacifier for the masses. The primary entertainment is game shows where they take the poor and down trodden and use them for amusement. The best game show is the Running Man where you have to avoid being hunted down for 30 days while on the run. All that time you are making $100 per hour for the ones you leave behind. You must submit two tapes per day to the network so they have fodder for their telecasts and this allows them to track you. The main character, Ben Richards, successfully avoids being killed for 8 days and ends up killing himself and the main antagonist at the end. All in all, I prefer the book but would watch the movie if the time was right and it was a severe thunder storm.
Icool
Cobb
posted by Cobb at
6:25 AM
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