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 Post subject: Buckaroo Banzai
PostPosted: Tue Dec 30, 2008 11:35 pm 
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Still Not A Dalmatian In A Jaunty Beret

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Finally saw it. (Thanks Amazwan)

I am impressed with how well it followed the book, quirks and all. The things left out, as there always are, are the little treasures uncovered when you read a book that a movie is based on. The added bits were not very far outside of reasonable canon. Altogether satisfying, well cast, and chock full of lovely '80s fashions, that I admit I like a lot and still own quite a bit of. Even the big padded shoulders.

And, yes, the closing sequence is one of the best I have ever seen. It has nothing to do with anything and everything to do with attitude. I need to watch again to see how many costume changes Perfect Tommy has.

Tomorrow I will start to delve into the special features.

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 Post subject: Buckaroo Banzai
PostPosted: Tue Dec 30, 2008 11:38 pm 
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Mr. IMWANKO

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Was that a Christmas gift to yourself? Nice in any event.
I may need to watch it again very soon.

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 Post subject: Buckaroo Banzai
PostPosted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 12:02 am 
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Emissary to the Prophets

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If you have the edition I have, you may find the director commentary disappointing. It's a gimmick of sorts that makes me roll my eyes.


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 Post subject: Buckaroo Banzai
PostPosted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 12:55 am 
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Still Not A Dalmatian In A Jaunty Beret

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Yes, it was a gift to myself, and it does have the director commentary. I have heard it isn't good, so I will probably skip it.

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 Post subject: Buckaroo Banzai
PostPosted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 2:10 am 
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Emissary to the Prophets

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The gimmick is that the boys pretend that BB is a real person, and the movie is essentially a documentary. They keep thanking the Banzai Institute for allowing them such unprecedented access to their exploits. Nothing about the actors or the effects or the camerawork or anything; just a lot of, "Ah, here's a sequence that Buckaroo was really generous to let us film" and stupid shit like that.

I listen to commentaries to learn about how the movies were made, not to encourage masturbatory delusions.


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 Post subject: Buckaroo Banzai
PostPosted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 3:27 am 
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Niatpac Levram!!!!!!

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I thought the movie came first, and the book was just a novelization of the movie.
Both are excellent BTW.
And agreed about the DVD commentary. It got old real quick.


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 Post subject: Buckaroo Banzai
PostPosted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 5:02 am 
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Hugh wrote:
I thought the movie came first, and the book was just a novelization of the movie.


No.


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 Post subject: Buckaroo Banzai
PostPosted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 7:48 am 
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Still Not A Dalmatian In A Jaunty Beret

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Yeesh. The whole idea of the commentary ls to break down the fourth wall and give some insight.

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 Post subject: Buckaroo Banzai
PostPosted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 8:29 am 
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It scorched

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I've still never seen this. During the 80's (when I spent hours standing in B.Dalton and Waldenbooks), I used to hold this book over and over, but I never pulled the trigger. Maybe I shall watch it.

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 Post subject: Buckaroo Banzai
PostPosted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 10:14 am 
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Frank L. Sisko wrote:
Hugh wrote:
I thought the movie came first, and the book was just a novelization of the movie.


No.


Hate to say "Source?" here, but I'd be very interested in reading more about the original book. I've been a fan of Banzai since the film's release and this is the first I've heard of a book being published before the film. The novelization did include a major subplot that wasn't in the film, but I was always under the impression that the novelization was just that.


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 Post subject: Buckaroo Banzai
PostPosted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 10:16 am 
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It scorched

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Deleted -- brain locked up.

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 Post subject: Buckaroo Banzai
PostPosted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 11:17 am 
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Still Not A Dalmatian In A Jaunty Beret

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After doing a bit of research, I think I may have found the answer. For those who don't want to delve, the gist is that EM Rauch is a novelist who started writing screenplays. WD Richter started to mentor him and was intrigued by the BB concept. It seems to me, reading between the lines a bit, that Richter channeled and directed Rauch and that the novel and movie are so entwined as to be inseparable. I think they must be considered two sides of one coin. And they both came out in the same year. What I find most interesting is the differences between the two. A strict novelization would have followed the story slavishly, possibly adding, but not changing. There is a lot in the book that is not in the movie and vice versa. Interesting.

http://www.worldwatchonline.com/earlmac.htm
(from Marvel Super Special Vol. 1, No. 33; interview of W.D. Richter by James Burns)

Richter tells how he got involved with Earl Mac Rauch and Buckaroo:

In the early seventies...

...Richter and his wife read a review of Dirty Pictures From the Prom, a debut novel from another Dartmouth grad, in their alumni association's newsletter. Richter bought the book, liked it, and decided to send its creator a fan letter.

Dirty Pictures From the Prom's author was Earl Mac Rauch.

Richter recalls, "I wrote, 'I think you're a terrific writer. If you're not happy doing what you're doing, come to Hollywood and try movies, because there really aren't that many good writers out here.' It turned out that, after Dartmouth, Mac had dropped out of law school, and was selling finance contracts for mobile homes in Texas. He took me up on my offer."

At one of Rauch's first dinners with the Richters, "He told us about Buckaroo Banzai (at the time, called Find the Jetcar, Said The President - A Buckaroo Banzai Thriller - ArcLight). Even though Mac's plot and characters were just in a beginning, sketchy phase, Susan and I were immediately attracted to Buckaroo's irreverence, and the concept of a multitalented hero who's always off on an unlikely adventure. We decided to subsidize a Buckaroo Banzai screenplay. I didn't know if I would direct it back then, though. I wasn't sure of what the project's future would be anyway. As strange as Buckaroo Banzai may seem today, ten years ago, it would have been impossible to explain to a studio how it could be successfully shot and marketed. I realized that funding Mac might just be an exercise in buying a very expensive story that I wanted to read, but my other, perhaps even more important impetus, was that I wanted to help him get started in the movie business."

Consequently, with the Richters' input, Rauch wrote several Buckaroo Banzai adventures. (Including The Strange Case of Mr. Cigars, which, according to Mac Rauch "was about a big, huge, King Kong-size robot, some big secrets, some exotic locales and Hitler's cigars. It was crazy." - ArcLight)

"Mac would get thirty or forty pages into a script, abandon its storyline, and start a new one," Richter says. "The plots involved several different nemeses from our present film, including the infamous Hanoi Xan, Boss of the World Crime League... Many of the characters, like Perfect Tommy and Rawhide, weren't created until later drafts. Members of the Hong Kong Cavaliers that Mac did include, as well as other roles, were eliminated or developed differently. Buckaroo, for instance, wasn't always half-Japanese.

"Mac just thought that the film was too outrageous to ever be sold," Richter explains. "He never showed those partial scripts to a studio, and let his inspirations carry him wherever they led. And, thought Mac is a brilliant writer, he's also a bit unorganized. If I hadn't kept copies of his various Buckaroo storylines, they'd have been lost."

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 Post subject: Buckaroo Banzai
PostPosted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 11:18 am 
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Bigger and Better!

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Wiki wrote:
W. D. Richter and writer Earl Mac Rauch met through the Dartmouth College Alumni magazine.[1] Richter had read a review of a book that Mac Rauch had written called Arkansas Adios, then bought and read it. He enjoyed the book so much that he wrote Mac Rauch a letter asking permission to adapt it into a film.[2] Mac Rauch was flattered and agreed. The two men began corresponding and when the writer told him about his interest in becoming a screenwriter, Richter offered him an open-ended invite to visit him in Los Angeles where he was attending the University of Southern California[1] and working as a script analyst for Warner Brothers.[2]


I never knew that there was any book that it was based on. When the movie was being publicized, they just said that they wanted to make a film version of a comic book (even though there was no Banzai comic at the time).


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 Post subject: Buckaroo Banzai
PostPosted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 11:20 am 
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Bigger and Better!

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Tuna wrote:
After doing a bit of research, I think I may have found the answer. For those who don't want to delve, the gist is that EM Rauch is a novelist who started writing screenplays. WD Richter started to mentor him and was intrigued by the BB concept. It seems to me, reading between the lines a bit, that Richter channeled and directed Rauch and that the novel and movie are so entwined as to be inseparable. I think they must be considered two sides of one coin. And they both came out in the same year. What I find most interesting is the differences between the two. A strict novelization would have followed the story slavishly, possibly adding, but not changing. There is a lot in the book that is not in the movie and vice versa. Interesting.


Sort of like 2001.


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 Post subject: Buckaroo Banzai
PostPosted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 11:22 am 
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Still Not A Dalmatian In A Jaunty Beret

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YES! Which worked very well in both media.

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 Post subject: Buckaroo Banzai
PostPosted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 12:02 pm 
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Okay, but no actual book was published prior to the movie's release, correct? I mean, the Star Wars novelization had a bunch of stuff not in the movie, but it can't be said that Star Wars was based on a book.


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 Post subject: Buckaroo Banzai
PostPosted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 12:03 pm 
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Bigger and Better!

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No book.

A movie based on a book that had yet to be written.


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