Michael Crichton.
Normally, I reserve tributes such as this one for actors such as Paul Newman or Charlton Heston who pass on. But Michael Crichton has meant a lot to the movie world. Even if his only book that got turned into a movie was Jurassic Park, he had a profound influence over the world of cinema. When Crichton died, surprisingly, on Tuesday at the age of 66, I felt it was worthwhile going over his contribution to cinema.
I have always liked, and in many cases loved, Michael Crichton’s books. For a mainstream, pop writer, his novels were incredibly well-crafted, well-researched and taut with suspense. In many cases, they seemed almost as if they were written more as movies than as books, because as I read I could visualize the movie adaptation of the book. One notable exception to this rule, however, was Jurassic Park. When I read that book as a child, I could not picture the movie. I loved the book, I read it about seven times during the year I was eleven, but no one had ever seen a movie like the one that would be made, and as such, how were we to picture it?
Like Stephen King, however, Crichton’s books created only a couple of great movies. Most of his works were sadly disappointing when brought to the big screen. Like King, this is not really Crichton’s fault, it is the fault of the directors who took those fine works and turned them into, say, Congo. Here is a short list of a few significant Crichton-inspired movies, and their impact.
1. Jurassic Park (1993). (**********10/10) The best movie made out of a Crichton book, made from his best novel. Steven Spielberg took what was a brilliant concept in genetic engineering (and theme parks) and created a movie the likes of which none of us had ever seen. It was followed by The Lost World and Jurassic Park III, and got worse with each successive installment. But both those sequels took elements from Crichton’s original novel, as well as from his own follow-up, The Lost World. Scenes from the two books are scattered through the three movies. The one thing I think Jurassic Park could have done better is if it had opened with the opening scene from the novel, where a kid on a beach gets attacked by an unknown creature, leading into the story. But it seems apparent that Spielberg wanted to make sure the dinosaurs were contained on the island for the purposes of the film. Oh - the film was about dinosaurs. In case you have been living under a rock since 1993.
2. The Andromeda Strain (1971). (*********9/10) The first one, the one that started the movies’ love affair with Crichton. This is one of his books I read early on, right after I finished Jurassic Park, and at the age of eleven I just didn’t get it. I revisited it years later, however, and I now think that The Andromeda Strain is one of the finest books I have read. A deadly extra-terrestrial virus comes to Earth, with devastating results. The film version was excellent, directed by Robert Wise and starring David Wayne and Kate Reid. Makes Outbreak look like crap. Well, moreso.
3. The Great Train Robbery (1979). (********8/10). Not one of Crichton’s better books, The Great Train Robbery was a rather dry and clinical tale of the first hold-up of a train in England. The movie, however, was a far more loose and interesting piece, starring Sean Connery and Donald Sutherland. Crichton himself adapted the novel to the screenplay, and directed the movie, and managed to make the movie better than his book.
4. The 13th Warrior (1999). (*****5/10). A sub-par book in Crichton’s catalogue (Eaters of the Dead), with a movie to match. Antonio Banderas is a warrior who must help a bunch of Vikings defend a village against marauding warriors who are even more barbaric and tough than the Vikings. They’ll eat your skin! Too bad they’re all so boring.
5. Rising Sun (1993). (****4/10). A lot of people were excited about this - another Michael Crichton adaptation released directly after Jurassic Park. It was a great book about race relations in business (and murder) between the Japanese and the Americans. Then it was turned into a below-average action movie starring Sean Connery and Wesley Snipes. Crichton wrote the book with Sean Connery in mind as the elder businessman who understands the Japanese better than anyone. I find it hard to believe that he wrote the other character with Wesley Snipes in mind.
6. Disclosure (1994). (***3/10). What was a reasonably taut legal thriller of a book became a reasonably awful movie designed to cash in on Demi Moore’s hot-chick status following A Few Good Men and the equally-awful Indecent Proposal. Also designed to cash in on Crichton’s cachet following Jurassic Park, and Michael Douglas’ status as the sexual-thriller leading man after Basic Instinct. The movie attempts to turn sexual politics on it’s ear by making Moore the aggressive stalker in the office, sexually harassing Douglas. But why anyone who looks like Demi Moore would want an aging Michael Douglas…I don’t know. Sorry, Catherine Zeta-Jones. I don’t get it.
7. Sphere (1998). (**2/10). What was a really cool idea for a book becomes a really bad idea for a movie. Frankly, this movie should have been awesome - it had the potential to become an underwater 2001: A Space Odyssey. Instead, it bowed to star power, with Samuel L. Jackson, Dustin Hoffman, and Sharon Stone mugging for the cameras for an hour and a half before finally coming to an ending that works terribly well in words, not so much on the screen.
8. Congo (1995). (*1/10). A decent book about a long-lost tribe of mountain gorillas becomes one of the worst movies of all time. How sad. The novel was tense, interesting, and although not a classic, it was effective. But this film adaptation was just laughable, making many B-movies look like works of genius in comparison. Laura Linney seems to be the only one taking her role seriously, while her cast mates couldn’t be more obnoxious. Tim Curry and Ernie Hudson are laugh-out-loud terrible, and the special effects range from pretty good to cheesy and ludicrious. The plot, while it made perfect sense in the novel, is almost totally incomprehensible in the film. Good gorillas vs. bad gorillas. How awful.
Although there were clearly some bad movies made from the solid works of Michael Crichton, I will say this for the man - he directed one of the better adaptations himself - The Great Train Robbery - and in doing so, made sure he would be remembered more favourably in film history than Stephen King, whose directorial effort in Maximum Overdrive made even Congo look like Jurassic Park.
Also of note: Crichton created the concept for the TV show E.R., and served as an executive producer on the series. He wrote Timeline, a good book that was turned into a 2003 movie that I have not seen, and The Terminal Man, another book I’ve read that was turned into a 1974 movie I haven’t seen. He was a screenwriter on several films that were not based on his books, among them Twister in 1996 and Coma in 1978. And he will be missed.