Just like the best comics, the most popular movies of the last 15 years are studded with characters who are already larger than life: “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “Rocky,” “Jaws,” “Star Wars.” It’s not hard to imagine an artist’s hand drawing “Back to the Future” it’s no surprise that ‘RoboCop” is already between the pages of a comic book. “Conan” was eight years ago, and the gap between the style of comics and movies is getting smaller every summer. But the script, co-written by Milius and up-and-coming Oliver Stone, nicely brought to life the bloody, pagan never-never land, and Arnold Schwarzenegger easily filled the role of the muscular pulp hero. On the other hand, John Milius’ “Conan the Barbarian” had the makings of a Steve Reeves howler. But director Robert Altman couldn’t hold it all together and the picture sank in a sea of muttered dialogue (from poor Robin Williams, spitting his lines through the pipe stuck in the corner of his mouth). Paramount’s 1980 “Popeye” had a script by Jules Feiffer, who knows comics as well as anyone, and at least one star-Shelley Duvall as Olive Oyl-who seemed the physical incarnation of her comic strip character.
#Big l put it on film movie#
Without that-an element as crucial as oxygen to life-it’s simply biff, bam, zowie!, and we’re hard put to give a damn.īut even with those elements in place-or NOT in place-you cannot predict how well the trip from page to movie picture will work.
When actors suggest a hint of wit, everything seems possible. It must be there in the screenplay, in the playfully exaggerated look of the film, and it has to exist in the chemical makeup of the actors. Or, as Warren Beatty has gambled, a highly stylized look that seems to engulf audiences for two hours without a murmur.Ĭasting, conception, humor: for a comic strip movie to soar, it can’t stint on humor. Older-fashioned Saturday matinee heroics? (“Prince Valiant”). You might think a man in a duck suit would have signaled disaster from the first floating feather then again, four kids in turtle drag didn’t sound very promising either.įor filmmakers, a firestorm of anxiety begins with what style to use to move from the everything-is-possible world of the cartoonist to the sets-and-actors reality of a movie. But just what makes some comic book characters click as they move from the flatness of the page to the seductiveness of flesh on film? What made Superman and Batman soar, while Howard the Duck waddled to a watery death? You might make a modest bet on Tracy’s chances.
#Big l put it on film plus#
Ready to take it on the chin in the tradition of such comics heroes as Superman, Batman, Popeye, Conan, Prince Valiant, Li’l Abner, Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, the Ninja Turtles and Howard the Duck, as one Who Dared Make the Leap.Īnd we should not forget the heroines: Barbarella, Blondie, Modesty Blaise, Little Orphan Annie, Wonder Woman, Supergirl and Sheena plus Brenda Starr, Reporter, who will reportedly make it out of video-rights hell and onto the screen at last this fall. Into the glare of the police line-up strides Dick Tracy, fearless as ever.
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