Bad Movies from Good Novels

 

For some reason I was thinking a day or so ago about bad movies made from good novels. It certainly is possible to make a really good movie based on a good novel. John Huston’s Maltese Falcon shows that. However, I think it is difficult because of the differences between the two forms, and very few of the very good movies I have seen are based on novels, good or otherwise.

On the other hand, there are plenty of bad ones. I do not know of any movie version of Tom Sawyer or Huckleberry Finn that I could stomach watching. The movie version of the Guns of Navarone is bad in an unpleasant way. The novel is a straightforward adventure story of daring and heroism in World War II. The screenwriter Carl Foreman was a (former?) communist who according to reports wanted to turn the story into an anti-war one. If that had been done in an upfront way, keeping the title and the names of some of the characters but telling a different story (in the way the Dean Martin Matt Helm movies turned grim, tough novels into silly comedies), the result probably would have been a bad movie, but not such a dishonest one. Instead there was a shady attempt to have it both ways – keeping enough of the novel’s daring events to get an audience while preaching a minor league Bridge on the River Kwai counterpoint on the futility of war.

The most disappointing  one I know about is the movie version of The Fountainhead. Almost everything about it is bad, starting with the cast. Gary Cooper was badly miscast as Howard Roark, and gave a wooden and unconvincing performance, particularly in his droning speech in the courtroom. Patricia Neal later became a fine actress, bur her Dominique Francon got very little of the character. The performance of the actor playing Toohey was bad enough to leave a person wondering if the film was going to end with him tying Dominique to the railroad tracks. Among the main characters, only Raymond Massey as Wynand was adequate. Ayn Rand’s script as shot (and the usual story is that it was shot as she wrote it) is stilted and uncinematic. Vidor’s direction captured nothing of the strength, fire, and intensity of the book, and some of the scenes are amateurishly bad. Even the architectural drawings and sets are lame.

It is too bad. It might  have been a possible to make good movie. A person can imagine what could have been done with, say, Orson Welles directing and playing Roark, Barbara Stanwyck as Dominique, Clifton Webb as Toohey, and some cinematic freedom from the rigidity of Rand’s script. But that is just pointless wishful thinking. Maybe someday somebody good will give it another try.

NATO

 

For over seven decades NATO has been a good thing in the world – good for Europe, good for the United States, good for defending and expanding liberal civilization. Armies from NATO countries - mainly German, British, and American - defended the front line against the Soviet Union during the cold war. After that war was won, NATO expanded to include and protect nations liberated from the Soviet empire. For most of its history, the value and existence of the alliance were accepted without any serious controversy in both Europe and the United States.. (Agents and leftist supporters of the Soviets and later the Russians were opposed, but their opposition did not have much effect.)

In the last few years that has changed, and NATO has a new set of enemies on the political right. Some are old fashioned isolationists who oppose alliances and involvement with Europe in principle. Some are Christian national conservatives who argue that Europe has become so decadent, irreligious, and authoritarian as to be no better or even worse than Putin’s Russia, and thus not being worth protecting from it. Some, including Trump, take the transactional view that the alliance is not a paying proposition. Others, now including Trump, believe the Europeans and Canadians are perfidious pseudo allies who expect America’s protection but will not reciprocate when their help is requested. Almost all of these critics see the alliance as an example of the evils of globalism.

All of this is wrong. The United States cannot return safely to isolationism. Our two oceans no longer provide adequate protection, and the Royal Navy no longer keeps the sea lanes open for the world’s commerce. The Europeans and Canadians have done things making it easier for their national conservative critics. With Finland punishing public expression of Christian doctrines, Britain arresting people for posting unapproved comments on line or praying in the wrong place, Canada planning to ban some religious expression, and many other examples, it is true that some members of NATO have become less liberal and more authoritarian in the last few years (as has Hungary, though in a direction the national conservatives generally like). However, Canada and the European members of NATO are still far more nearly liberal societies than Putin’s murderous dictatorship in Russia. The purpose of the alliance is not to make the United States treasury more flush. In keeping Russia from dominating Europe, the alliance remains beneficial to the interests of the United States, irrespective of whether the rest of the allies should be paying more of its costs. Then there is the war with Iran. The European allies made a mistake in denying our forces use of their bases and access to their airspace. But Trump started the war on his own without involving members of NATO (or the United States congress) in the decision or planning, and there was little or nothing European armed forces could have done to provide any direct help in the war in any fairly short time, if at all. (The Royal Navy, for one, demonstrated its uselessness vividly in the fiasco over Cyprus.) As to globalism, international trade and cooperation have contributed importantly to much of the economic and other progress in the world since World War II. Overall we are better for them.

The isolationists need to be ignored. The national conservatives with their dogmas need to be kept away from any influence over foreign policy, and Trump needs to calm down. The Canadians and Europeans need the alliance. So do the Americans.