What I've been reading
Only two days left in my Contest to Win Scurvy Dogs! You know, just so you know.
Stupid Blogger sucks the past few days. I can't leave comments anywhere, and if I can't leave comments, you might as well castrate me. Guy, if you're out there, I'm trying to enter your contest, but damned Blogger won't let me!
Anyway, what I've been (re)reading:
Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner by Paul M. Sammon
441 pages, 1996, HarperCollins Publishers
I like books about movies being made, and this is a good one. Blade Runner is arguably the most influential science fiction movie ever made, and Sammon does an excellent job of showing us the behind the scenes stuff that went on during the entire movie-making process. It's well researched, well documented, and intriguing. He takes us from Philip K. Dick's fiction and the actual writing of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? through the optioning of the rights and the struggle to get the film made. He breaks down each scene and the various postproduction processes that every film goes through. He details the strife on the set between Harrison Ford and Ridley Scott and Harrison Ford and Sean Young and Ridley Scott and the crew. The wrangles over the film's ending and voice-over and given considerable page time - I remember, when I was young, not minding the voice-over, but now I can't imagine the film with it. He examines why the film was a box-office disaster and how it survived through the new technology of home movie viewing. And he finally looks at the discoveries of other prints of the movie and the triumphant release of the Director's Cut in 1992. By that time, of course, Blade Runner was a modern classic, and it did very well in limited release.
This is a fine book, although there's not much to say about any kind of deep philosophical point Sammon is trying to make, since he's not really making one. He does get into the subtleties of the movie, like whether Deckard is a replicant or not and what the replicants actually want, but that stems from the movie itself and not from any kind of philosophy Sammon is espousing. This is a fascinating book about a fascinating movie, and one you should read if you enjoy Blade Runner. And who doesn't like Blade Runner? Commies, that's who!
Well, that was short. I started reading Fast Food Nation, which will elicit a longer critique. Now that's a disturbing book!
Stupid Blogger sucks the past few days. I can't leave comments anywhere, and if I can't leave comments, you might as well castrate me. Guy, if you're out there, I'm trying to enter your contest, but damned Blogger won't let me!
Anyway, what I've been (re)reading:
Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner by Paul M. Sammon
441 pages, 1996, HarperCollins Publishers
I like books about movies being made, and this is a good one. Blade Runner is arguably the most influential science fiction movie ever made, and Sammon does an excellent job of showing us the behind the scenes stuff that went on during the entire movie-making process. It's well researched, well documented, and intriguing. He takes us from Philip K. Dick's fiction and the actual writing of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? through the optioning of the rights and the struggle to get the film made. He breaks down each scene and the various postproduction processes that every film goes through. He details the strife on the set between Harrison Ford and Ridley Scott and Harrison Ford and Sean Young and Ridley Scott and the crew. The wrangles over the film's ending and voice-over and given considerable page time - I remember, when I was young, not minding the voice-over, but now I can't imagine the film with it. He examines why the film was a box-office disaster and how it survived through the new technology of home movie viewing. And he finally looks at the discoveries of other prints of the movie and the triumphant release of the Director's Cut in 1992. By that time, of course, Blade Runner was a modern classic, and it did very well in limited release.
This is a fine book, although there's not much to say about any kind of deep philosophical point Sammon is trying to make, since he's not really making one. He does get into the subtleties of the movie, like whether Deckard is a replicant or not and what the replicants actually want, but that stems from the movie itself and not from any kind of philosophy Sammon is espousing. This is a fascinating book about a fascinating movie, and one you should read if you enjoy Blade Runner. And who doesn't like Blade Runner? Commies, that's who!
Well, that was short. I started reading Fast Food Nation, which will elicit a longer critique. Now that's a disturbing book!
posted by Greg | 10:15 AM
2 Comments:
Blogger's comments system has been real buggy the past couple of days, perfect timing for both of our contests. Please do enter mine, though, if for no other reason than to spread some retailer and/or indie love. Or, if you prefer, rag on a lowly shop that deserves to go out of business!
I was going to enter yours, but I always feel guilty what with my relatively easy access to most of that stuff. From all the positive reviews I've seen, I figure Scurvy Dogs is either going to be really good, or give Larry Young another reason to go digging through my old poetry! ;-)
Enjoy Fast Food Nation! I've been meaning to read The Jungle, just to see how far we've come...
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