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“DON’T
PANIC!”
The list of classic books that are in need
of movie interpretations is not a very long
one. In reality, as most books run circles
around their adaptations, I can count them
on my hand… minus my thumb. But there
are books that have begged to be made into
movies by fans that have a glimmer of hope
that someone… somewhere… will
get it right. Unfortunately, these fans
are usually wrong and the films fall far
short of the expectations. The only one
I can think of off the top of my head that
managed to get the job done was the “Lord
of the Rings Trilogy” (which I guess
is really three films, not one…).
“The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the
Galaxy” is another classic book that
fans have wanted to see produced for years.
Actually, it’s a series made up of
five books written by the late author Douglas
Adams. The books are extremely funny, as
Adams had a style of writing that successfully
mixed sarcastic humor with sci-fi adventure
in ways that no author had before or since.
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Adams had also written a few other books in the
same vein, but they never reached the popularity
of the “Hitchhiker’s” series.
I am going to stray off the course for a moment
to promote one that should not be overlooked.
“Last Chance to See” is a non-fiction
piece chronicling the author’s travels around
the world to see several animals on the verge
of extinction. It is written in the same sarcastic
style he is known for, but also teaches a bit
about man’s selfish encroachment on the
homelands of the planet’s other creatures.
It is a brilliantly written book, offering a highly
enjoyable read that is not to be missed.
Getting back to the subject at hand, “The
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”
revolves around Arthur Dent, a regular guy, living
a regular life. Until the day comes that he discovers
that his home is about to be destroyed in order
to make way for a bypass. As much as this might
be considered enough to give a regular guy a bad
day, an ironic turn of events are revealed that
the Earth itself is also about to be destroyed
in order to make way for an interplanetary bypass.
Go figure. Fortunately, Dent’s best friend,
Ford Prefect, is actually an alien who ‘hitchhikes’
his way across the galaxy. Prefect takes Dent
off the planet with him just seconds before it
is completely and totally obliterated.
What follows is an adventure of silly proportions
involving Vorgons (the bureaucratic aliens responsible
for Earth’s demolition), Babel Fish (which
is a small creature that can be inserted into
the ear, allowing one to understand any language),
Zaphod Beeblebrox (the somewhat wacky president
of the galaxy… who also happens to have
two heads) and Trillian (another human who was
saved… and just happens to be a girl that
Dent had fallen for shortly before the ‘Big
Boom.). The Hitchhiker’s Guide of the title
is a small book that holds the sum total of all
of the galaxy’s knowledge and is a perfect
companion for all interstellar travelers. It can
tell you the history and customs of every known
alien culture as well as where you can find the
galaxy’s finest plate of Eggs Benedict (for
under $3.43… a great deal to be sure…).
The book series had been semi-succesfully brought
to life previously in the form of a British radio
play, and later a TV series. Both were fairly
good adaptations, at least good enough to appease
most fans. But still they held out hope that a
big screen, big budget adaptation would be made.
Adams himself was hard at work on a screenplay
for many years, but as you might surmise from
my earlier use of the term ‘late’,
passed away before he could see it come to fruition.
Work continued on the screenplay by writer Karey
Kirkpatrick, and earlier this year, fans (including
myself) finally got to see what a big screen adaptation
had to offer. And while I’d like to say
it was a stellar success, I can’t. Admittedly,
the written work is without a doubt difficult
to translate, and to the film’s credit it
got about as much right as it got wrong. This
is first apparent in it’s casting, which
is a 50/50 proposition. In the role of Arthur
Dent, we get Martin Freeman, a brilliant British
comic who recently starred in the original version
of “The Office.” He was a great choice
for Dent, as he has that ‘Everyman’
quality needed. His performance was near perfect,
the only thing missing was the air of British
indignation that Adams wrote so wonderfully into
the character.
The filmmaker’s also did a great job casting
the role of Marvin, the paranoid robot, with the
team of Warwick Davis and Alan Rickman. Rickman
provided the voice for the weary, self-defeating
attitude that Marvin has, while Davis got the
unenviable job of walking around in the costume.
I thought Rickman delivered his lines perfectly,
but couldn’t help but think that Davis was
rather screwed over (much in the way that David
Prowse was screwed over when Darth Vader’s
voice was done by James Earl Jones). Davis provided
the proper body language in the suit, but I have
little doubt he could have delivered the dialogue
as well. In spite of this oversight, I love Alan
Rickman, and again applaud his voiceover work.
Where the film misfired was in the casting of
Mos Def as Ford Prefect. Def is a well known rap
artist, and has recently proven himself as an
adept actor, but his interpretation of the character
of Prefect was as off the mark as it could possibly
be. In the books, Prefect gets to deliver a tremendous
amount of the funny payoff lines and the few Def
gets to say, are lost in his understated performance.
It’s difficult to adequately describe just
where he went wrong, but suffice to say, he just
didn’t work for the character.
The other place I was (surprisingly) disappointed
was in the choice of Sam Rockwell as Zaphod Beeblebrox.
Rockwell is an awesome actor, and I’ve yet
to see him deliver a sub-par performance. But
where Def was terribly understated, Rockwell went
way too far over the top. He was funny in the
role, but he was so broad and over the top that
he made the character less funny and more annoying.
Then as Trillian, the lovely Zooey Deschanel was
just kind of… there.
Another area that hit the halfway mark was the
script. Like any good adaptation, a lot has to
be cut out in order to have a watchable running
time, but where they chose to make the cuts, sometimes
didn’t make sense. The book is full of wonderful
adventure sequences and hysterical dialogue and
described visuals. It looked like in most of the
scenes, they kept the humorous visuals but either
cut the funny lines, or left them in such a way
that they were thrown away when delivered. The
best scenes were the ones where the visual humor
took over.
What they got totally right was the book itself,
which would often be shown full-screen, telling
the viewers some piece of information important
to upcoming scenes. These vignettes were delivered
with some great little animated clips, and the
voiceover narration delivered with just the right
amount of dripping sarcasm. These were some of
my favorite parts of the film.
I also take my hat off to the production crew
on the incredible work they did on all the sets
and computer generated environments. Everything
looked perfect, from the little props to the sprawling
cities. These guys did their homework. Also I
have to mention the geniuses at Jim Henson’s
Creature Shop for the outstanding work they did
on the alien races.
Touchstone is beaming the DVD into stores this
week, and a part of me really hoped that the parts
that I found painfully unfunny would be better
the second time around. When I saw the movie at
a screening, the vocal track was a little low,
so I thought that might have hurt the experience.
Upon watching the DVD, I can say that wasn’t
the problem. I could hear everything this time,
and a lot of the dialogue was still just not funny.
The DVD release however, is awesome in terms of
the transfer of the film, which is as pristine
as you can get. The extra features aren’t
too bad either. There are a handful of deleted
as well as ‘fake’ deleted scenes (which
are quite funny). You’ll also find an additional
entry in the ‘Guide’, which I absolutely
loved. The two commentaries available, one by
director Garth Jennings, who is joined by producer
Nick Goldsmith and actors Martin Freeman and Bill
Nighy. The other was done by executive producer
Robbie Stamp and Sean Solle (who is a colleague
of Douglas Adams).
Along with these, they’ve included a short
“Making of…” featurette and
a word game featuring Marvin the Robot. The absolute
coolest feature comes from one of the best parts
of the movie… the opening credits. It is
a sing along of the song, ‘So Long, and
Thanks for All the Fish” which is sung by
the Earth’s second most intelligent creatures…
the dolphins. (They happen to be aliens, who were
smart enough to leave just before the Earth was
annihilated.)
“The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”
is a worthwhile endeavor and an entertaining watch
in spite of some of its shortcomings. You’ll
laugh enough times to make the experience a good
one. I just wish they had been able to up the
50/50 factor to something more resembling 80/20.
Directed by: Garth Jennings
Starring: Martin Freeman, Mos Def, Zooey Deschanel,
Sam Rockwell, John Malkovich
Extras: Commentary by Executive producer and Douglas
Adams' Colleague Sean Solle, Commentary by producer
and actors, Deleted Scenes, Fake Deleted Scenes
(Way, way too-far-out outtakes), "The Making
of The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy",
Additional Guide Entry, Sing-Along, Set-top game:
Marvin's Hangman
Specifications: Widescreen, Dolby Digital 5.1
Surround Sound, DTS 5.1 Digital Surround Sound
Studio: Buena Vista Home Video
Release Date: 9/13/2005
Region 1
MPAA Rating: PG
Website
We'll give Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
a C+.
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