#7 APR 21, 2017 · 9 yr ago
Well, we talked about that since, the post will be going up this weekend.
The funny thing with the MacLean film adaptions is that, apart from The Guns Of Navarone, the best film adaptions are the ones where he wrote his own screenplay - Where Eagles Dare, When Eight Bells Toll, Puppet On A Chain and Breakheart Pass. I guess it makes sense, they were his stories, his characters, he knew what he was doing with them.
The Golden Rendezvous and The Satan Bug are worth watching, both faithful to the books, and work OK. Fear Is The Key is also faithful to the book, but there's a feeling of "oh, is that it?" at the end. It's all right, but nothing special.
Ice Station Zebra was a huge disappointment for me. The book was amazing, one of his very best, but the film just went off on a tangent. OK, maybe that tangent is passable if you haven't read the book, but I have and know that the film could have been so much more. Apparently they're remaking it. I'll be interested, but will withhold judgement until I've seen it.
Caravan To Vaccares was also a disappointment, but in a different way. Yes, they changed the story quite a bit, although they sort of changed it to something resembling one of his other books, The Last Frontier/The Secret Ways (US title, also used for the film). So it's more weird than anything else for me. It's a little bit identikit. It could have been better.
Bear Island was also a let-down, but at the same time, I suppose I can see why they changed it. The book is good, but at the same time, it's not an obvious one to film. The film bears little relation to the original text, and may possibly be OK if you haven't read the book. It's one of those I need to watch again. I've seen it 2-3 times, and am leaning more towards the hating it camp, but maybe I need to appreciate it in its own right. Not sure though.
I haven't seen the films of The Secret Ways, The Way To Dusty Death and River Of Death, so can't comment. None of the books are among his very best - all worth reading once, maybe twice in the case of The Last Frontier (The Secret Ways), but nothing special. Well, The Last Frontier is a good book, but it's a shade too long before we have any idea at all of what's happening and what the hero is even doing.
But the real doozy in the film adaption stakes is Force 10 From Navarone - sequel to The Guns Of Navarone. The Guns Of Navarone, I've said before, is the best of the MacLean film adaptions, Force 10 From Navarone is the worst. Out of the ones I've seen at any rate. It takes a meandering course through the text, making changes that don't make sense or are completely gratuitous, before eventually ending up somewhere near the book again at the end, in terms of basic plot objective. The irony here is that the book had the makings of a great film, all they had to do was stick to the text . . .
As for the books that weren't filmed, well, most of them would probably have made good films. HMS Ulysses, Night Without End and The Dark Crusader would certainly have been great, and, with careful handling, South By Java Head. The last of those is a good book, but I think MacLean struggled in how to weave all the characters together at the start - the way the scene suddenly shifts in chapter 3 and the focus is on a new set of characters. A film would have enabled them to start with those characters, then add in the characters from chapters 1-2 the way they were found in chapters 4-5, and reveal their backstories that way. I wonder if that's what MacLean meant to do when he wrote it, but decided the earlier bits needed to be properly shown. I don't know. The shift is comparable to The Count Of Monte Cristo, but I digress.
As for later books that weren't filmed, well, that's more of a mixed bag. The Golden Gate would surely have made a decent film, as would Santorini. So too would Goodbye Calirofnia - despite the book being tedious, it has that feeling that it would make a good film. Athabasca, much as I enjoy it, might need a little work doing, it's one where he tried to be too complicated, but it's OK enough for all that (he made the same error with Bear Island). San Andreas, nothing to do with earthquakes, I'm not sure either way about. It's not bad, a film would probably be OK, but nothing special. Seawitch, well, that's high on action but low on character interest, and neither side is really worth rooting for. Partisans is weird, because there is potential for a film, but it would involve going into more depth on the bits that were glossed over - namely the action scenes! Floodgate is best forgotten about, it's that dull. As for Circus, well, it's clunkingly obvious, but fast-paced enough. Maybe it could have worked, maybe not.
