I think the 1984 movie, although it has some inspired moments, is average overall. Plus, it’s a movie adapation of only the first half of the book. The second half is IMHO the better half of the book, and for reasons that I’ll never understand, it has never been adapted to either a movie or TV treatment. (And yes, I’ve seen the dreadfully bad NES Pt 2 movie, which bears as much resemblance to the source material as a coal does to a diamond.) When I first read this book at the age of 11, it was the second half of the book that helped confirm it as my favorite book at that time. The chapter of the City of the Old Emperors is one of my favorite sections in the book, and I still remember being moved by the chapter involving Yor’s Minroud at the age of 11.
I still re-read this book about once a year.
And I think this book is ripe for a TV miniseries treatment.
Word. I’ve always wondered what thought process lead the movie-makers to make Falkor look like an immense and weirdly-shaped cocker spaniel.
Personally I think that Wolfgang Peterson had three masterpieces right in that same time period, Das Boot, The Neverending Story, and Enemy Mine. The main problem with the latter two, I think, is simply that he didn’t quite have the budget to do amazing things (and of course with the Neverending Story, he was limited to child actors.)
As a small child watching the movie, I recall the immense power of the rock giant looking down at his hands, or the horror as the (bare breasted) glowing stone guardian of the gate reduced the great warrior to dust. It was quite a shocking movie for the age range it was aimed at. I’m not sure you could still make it.
The book is better, of course, but that’s largely just because it is longer and didn’t have the limitations of a budget when it came to imagination.
Chapters M* and Y are the best.
I believe. The chapter where he creates the night forest from the sand.
The English edition I read used green and purple (not copper) ink, but kept the alphabetic chapters (complete with illuminated first letters). Which leads me to wonder: Doesn’t German have a slightly different alphabet than English? Was there a chapter ß? And if so, what happened to that chapter in the English edition?
Because to remain even remotely faithful to the book, it would be completely and utterly unfilmable. Sometimes a good book can be made into a good movie, sometimes a good book can only be made into a mediocre or poor movie, sometimes a mediocre or poor book can be made into a good movie, and sometimes a book can’t be made into a movie at all. The things that work in a book are not the same things as work in a movie. The first half of The Neverending Story is (mostly) a straightforward adventure, which is one of the sorts of things which can work well in both book and movie form, but the second half is much more of an inner journey, psychological and philosophical, and that’s something that doesn’t adapt to the screen nearly as well.
I was actually working in a movie theater when the movie came out. We could easily track the progress of the movie, because the first time the wolf-thingy showed up and growled, half the kiddies in the audience would immediately start shrieking and bawling. Two minutes later, the lobby would be full of mothers buying candy to quiet their kids down.
So it was successful at increasing concession sales, but rather dubious as a children’s movie, IMO.
That was my point. It was a movie which really challenged the kids who watched it. Of course, that’s not really a wise thing to do (in terms of making money), and is lost on us now as we watch it as adults, but so it goes.
