MovieChat Forums > The Dead Zone (1983) Discussion > It's like a 12 year old wrote this - but...

It's like a 12 year old wrote this - but I still liked it

posted 5 years ago by WrepDrep (380)
4 replies | jump to latest

To start off, I know the movie is not like the novel, and I haven't read the novel, so this isn't a dig at Stephen King.

The dialogues....especially the ones between Johnny and Sarah...jeez, it sounds like stuff out of the stories I wrote at elementary school. Or something an autistic/Asperger adult would write.

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"Johnny, wait!
I'm so crazy about you."

"I'm going to marry you, you know?"

"You'd better."
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I thought I was watching The Room for a second.

Ok, forget about the dialogues. Let's move on to the Sarah character and the actress portraying her.
Not only had Sarah decided to move on after 5 years....she had found a new man, married him, got impregnated(not necessarily in that order) and then gave birth to a son that is now 10 months old!
Widows tend to face criticism or feel guilt when they remarry many years after their partner's death. Hers wasn't even dead yet, and she was pregnant with another man's baby just 3 years after the accident.
As if that's not enough, she shows no signs of guilt, remorse or shame, despite deciding to visit him. I don't know how much of that is on the actress, but the facial expressions showed no sympathy or concern for him. It felt like she was mocking him, the way she was smirking during the whole thing.
Then she kisses him and has sex with him - as if her husband was out of the picture - before returning to her husband, and in the final scene she hugs him and says she loves him, in front of her husband, after Johnny had endangered the lives of everyone like a deranged moron.
We're supposed to sympathize with her? Find her sensible and mature?

Let's move on to the premonitions.
Johnny feels extremely bad about not helping Alma - a stranger to him - even though he wasn't actually present at the time of the murder, and didn't even know about the murder until afterwards.
Where was this compassion for the 2 kids who drowned in the melting hockey rink? He was okay with the deaths as long as Chris wasn't among them? He could've easily prevented it by asking Chris where it takes place.

Assassination of Stillson. You have to be completely out of your mind to think this was the best way to deal with that problem. Johnny had become somewhat of a celebrity. There were already tons of people who believed in his ability, and he could've easily convinced millions more by solving very high-profile cases or preventing major disasters, which would've made headlines all over the world. This would've made him into an extremely influential man. Heck, in reality the Dodd case alone would've made him a very influential man in the country.
Now if this proven psychic person tells you to not vote for Stillson then I'm pretty sure enough voters would be deterred from voting for him. Stillson wasn't even a senator yet, let alone President. He had time for a plan A, plan B, plan C, etc.
But nah, Johnny thought it was better to break into the hall and then sleep with a rifle in his hands for a few hours in a not so hidden spot before trying to assassinate him from distance with a lousy hunting rifle that doesn't even have a scope while the target would obviously be surrounded by a bunch of civilians.
And we're supposed to find him sensible?

With all that said, this silly, simple movie was still enjoyable. The concept is great. The movie is so simple that it's also very easy to follow. I love early 80s movies and I expect cliches, poor acting and silliness in them.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

Three years isn't enough time to move on? Come on, man.

You're really going out of your way to find things to complain about. Calling these gaping flaws that make it look like a 12 year old's work? I'd say most of them make sense if you give them a just a little thought.

Johnny didn't feel guilt about the hockey players who died? How do you know that? He was relieved that he saved the kid he knew, but there wasn't anything he could do about the other kids. He thought he'd stopped them from practicing. His powers don't allow him to see everything.

I didn't have any problems with the dialogue either.

"I'm going to marry you, you know?"

"You'd better."

This is how people talk in the real world. What did you want, poetry? Read Shakespeare. He's a religious guy and she's trying to convince him to let her stay the night.

[–] WrepDrep (380) 5 years ago

"Three years isn't enough time to move on? Come on, man. "

My issue is with how the movie deals with the character. She's coming back to his life, not emotional, not in tears, not in regret. She shows up, smiling and telling him about her life as if she's meeting up with an ex from high-school again. Then she kisses him and has sex with him as if she never met her husband and the accident didn't happen, before returning to her husband and trying to disappear completely out of Johnny's life. What a sweet, wonderful lady!

To be fair, I think most of it is on Brooke Adams, the actress. She makes the dialogues seem awkward and ridiculous. Her facial expressions and the way she delivers the lines make the character seem careless, unsympathetic and downright bizarre.
Cronenberg could've easily done something about it though.

"I'd say most of them make sense if you give them a just a little thought."

I'd say a lot of it is silly if you just give it a little thought. And I'm not even referring to the sci-fi part, which I do like.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

The reason she sleeps with him is because she does feel some guilt and remorse. She shouldn't, because he was out for several years, but that's human nature, you know? She felt sorry for Johnny, but she wasn't going to leave her husband, who she had a family with, for him.

The way you describe their first meeting after he wakes up isn't very accurate either. It's awkward and uncomfortable, she's hardly cheerful, smiling and telling him about her husband like it's just any other high school friend. They don't have sex until later in the movie.

[–] WuchakTheBitch (100) 4 years ago

I think a lot of the public thought Johnny was some kooky fortune teller, and slander against Stillson would probably just add fuel to his campaign. Who would honestly believe Stillson would start a nuclear Holocaust just became some crazy guy claimed so? Would that stop Hitler? No, his only real chance was to kill him.