I've read the novel a couple of times over the past 10 years or so and enjoyed it both times. I had never realized they had made a film (from the reviews I've read, I may need to use that term loosely) out of it until recently. Has anyone else read this? I'm not referring to the short story "Air Raid", but the actual novel "Millennium". I picked up the movie for $1.50 and look forward to watching it...
shareNot me. I have read 'Air Raid', though - a few pages in, i thought 'hey, this is just like that movie ...', and whaddya know, there's the link. The story's pretty good; not Varley's best work, but still.
-- tom
I've read the actual Millennium book, and from what I can remember, the movie pretty much follows the book, but it doesn't show the future exactly like it was in the book..and the movie had a much sappier and happier ending...
shareThe novel is in fact Varley's novelization of the movie. Or of some stage of the movie. IMHO, the short story "Air Raid" was very, very good. The novel was weak in various ways, but it made somewhat more sense than the movie. (Admittedly, complicated explanations are a hell of a lot easier to handle on paper.) Still, even if I'd give it the lowest rating of the three, the movie was good, much much better than most celluloid labelled SF.
shareI also read the book years prior to the movie. I also was glad to see this movie follow the book pretty much. I find it interesting that the movie ending did not follow that 'happier and sappier ending'.
I also wonder, if this movie was done today, with better special effects and CGI, if they also could have portrayed the 'body skin' that covered the bodies of Louise and the rest of her kind. At the time, I imagined that was hard to do, considering you would have to film the characters without their 'body skin' and looking all organs and mechanical parts, so I understood why that didn't get put in the movie.
This movie is actually credited as being from a screenplay Varley wrote based on his short story "Air Raid", which in turn was expanded into the novel "Millennium". "Millennium" is one of my favourite novels. The problem with the screen play is that it leaves out some of the detail that made the novel so good (e.g. once the time travellers have travelled back in time on a mission they can leave messages for their future selves that will help them on particular missions and the twist at the end relating to the nature of the Big Computer running the future civilization). This is not a bad movie; it’s just not as good as it could have been. It might work better as a two or three part mini-series.
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No, it's an amazingly BAD movie. Michael Anderson was a hack as a film director.
Varley was EXTREMELY unhappy with the final version of the film as I recall and, if there was any way he could have taken his name off of it, I imagine he would have.
-"Honesty is the best policy, but insanity is a better defense." -Steve Landesberg
Varley was EXTREMELY unhappy with the final version of the film as I recall
Varley must accept his share of the blame here. He wrote the screenplay, based on his own source material. Why he added a survivor to one of the crashes, when the novel set the precedent that were no survivors within the premise is anyone's guess.
You can't palm off a second-rater on me. You gotta remember I was in the pink!
Same as you, I picked the book up cheap (at a Library clearance sale) and I loved it. The movie disappointed me as I recall but it's been years since I've watched or read the book.
"Zed is dead, baby. Zed is dead."
I had no idea there was a book! I saw this movie years ago with my then boyfriend and enjoyed it immensely. I wondeer if the book is still available??? My favorite line of course is when she flips open her wrist watch communicator and says "Sherman send the gate!" lol!!!
shareLightseeker - if you are still interested Amazon UK have the book for sale.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Millennium-John-Varley/dp/0441006779/ref=sr_1_9/026-7781168-4710014?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1186879020&sr=1-9
i read the book when it came out in the mid 80's and it became one of my favorites. personally i think the movie could have been done a lot better.
shareYes, I have read the book. Just watched the movie again. Had forgotten most of it except the premise. Very good, both the book and the movie, tho the movie was a bit more philosophical or even mystical at the en; the robot figures into it more than in the movie.
shareFriends,
I picked up the novel cheap at the Annual Greater Saint Louis Book Fair back in mid-April. I just read it. I could see the similarities to the movie, but of
course as far as I remember the movie, the book is different. I only saw the movie once (and would have swore it was in the mid-80s, NOT '89) and I seem to remember enjoying it, but felt the ending to be a bit of a cop-out (standard sci-fi "well we've got this far, how do we wrap it up" type ending"). The book... a decent read, if a little silly at times. And today it's a bit dated, since Robert Ballard found the Titanic years ago. That whole thing with the BC (Before Christ????) ending up being "God"? Please....
I read the book twice a long time ago (years and years) It does clear up a few things that seem confusing in the movie: (Luise's pregnancy, where the time gate comes from etc.) This is often the case with book to movie translation as it is very hard to put everything in a book into movie form due to budget,time and effect constraints. Many times something simple in the book becomes almost impossible to put in movie form for one reason or another. A good example would be how the kids (losers club) bonded in Stephen kings book "it". They couldn't put that in the movie version with 12 year old kids acting. It was not doable due to the public outcry that would have resulted.
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