The best adaptation of a Heinlein novel, ever

[james_davis_nicoll]

"Sarah Brightman & Hot Gossip - I Lost My Heart To A Starship" (Watch on YouTube)

Comments

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

So, apparently professional-level choreography in music videos wasn't a thing back then.

[harvey-rrit.livejournal.com]

Blurring the lines between bad taste and humorless snottiness was, though.

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

Now, now. The Puppet Masters feature film had it's moments.

"I can fly a helicopter!"

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Have you read this? (http://dvdnewsflash.wordpress.com/what-went-wrong-with-the-puppet-masters-1994/)

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

Yep. Pretty much a classic examination of how a novel never survives first contact with Hollywood.

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

...even though Hot Gossip was supposedly a professional dance troupe.

My god, was that really 36 years ago?

Sarah Brightman is now of course training for a mission to the International Space Station. I for one will be very disappointed if she doesn't follow in the footsteps* of Chris Hadfield and do an updated cover version from orbit.

* If you can do that in free fall.

[reynardo.livejournal.com]

Recently in Australia they've been doing ads for free-to-air TV, that span all the channels (Govt funded as well as commercial). I, for one, cannot take them seriously as they consist of a jazz ensemble performing "The moon belongs to everyone, the best things in life are free", which song gets used as a piece of advertising hype by Harriman in "The Man who Sold the Moon".

[glaurung-quena.livejournal.com]

Wow, that was very disco,very 70's. Especially weird is how all those women seem oblivious to how the barechested men they are fawning over are all 150% gay.

Speaking of which, worthy of your attention, the

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Wow, that was very disco,very 70's. Especially weird is how all those women seem oblivious to how the barechested men they are fawning over are all 150% gay.

Speaking of which, worthy of your attention, the <a href＝http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1kTgofG1Q-Q>star trek lesbian subtext remix</a> of the same song.

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

Tip o' the hat to Tunnel in the Sky at 2:17, as the intrepid explorers march through the Gate.

[glaurung-quena.livejournal.com]

That should have read, speaking of which, worthy of your attention, the star trek lesbian subtext remix of the same song.

[sean o&apos;hara (from livejournal.com)]

“I hated the dialog. I hated the story. I hated the characters. It doesn’t work on any level.”

That's exactly how I react to Heinlein, too. Thankfully a few years later we got Starship Troopers from a director who realized the only way to adapt Heinlein is straight-up kitsch comedy.

[narmitaj.livejournal.com]

The founder/choreographer of Hot Gossip was Arlene Phillips (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arlene_Phillips#Hot_Gossip), who up until 2009 was one of the judges on the UK's Strictly Come Dancing (which spawned several Dancing With The Stars international offshoots), until being dropped, possibly for being too old and a woman, though the BBC denied that.

However, maybe someone at the Beeb saw this video* and decided that she was indeed no professional-level choreographer and had not earned the right to judge other people.

*I vaguely remember it from times gone past but this youTube says it is Not Available In My Country (UK) so I haven't been able to refresh my memory.

[bruce munro (from livejournal.com)]

Since that wasn't a very good movie even on entirely non-Heinlein merits, perhaps we should just call Heinlein unfilmable and quit while we're ahead? :)

[agoodwinsmith.livejournal.com]

Do you realize that video contains the hapless remains of over 300 years collected experience of young girls dreaming of becoming the next world-celebrated prima ballerina?

[sean o&apos;hara (from livejournal.com)]

I don't know what you're talking about. Starship Troopers is the best comedy of the '90s. Neil Patrick Harris playing a Heinleinian superman as a Nazi dominatrix is funnier than everything Kevin Smith's ever done.

[mcbadger.livejournal.com]

My phone declared "This video is not playable". Going by the comments above, and some disturbing childhood memories of TOTP, good call, phone.

[tandw.livejournal.com]

...as a Nazi dominatrix....

I didn't realize he played the part in drag.

[fridgepunk.livejournal.com]

Rocky Horror Picture Show was the best adaption we could hope for of any of the late heinlein novels.

[(Anonymous)]

Wow, that was very disco,very 70's. Especially weird is how all those women seem oblivious to how the barechested men they are fawning over are all 150% gay

This was picked up by “Not the Nine O’Clock News” with their parody: “Batant Pornography" starring "The Nancy Boys”: (http://youtu.be/Y9GzmbiSTT0).

Arlene Philips would go on to choreograph the Annie movie and also Monty Python’s meaning of Life.

- matthew davis

[matgb]

I think the only thing that detracts from the movie is that the satire is too subtle, far too many people watched it and thought it was lauding the society, an some of them even thought it was a good societal model. Which surprised me as I thought the attack was quite blatent. Ah well, YMMV.

[seth ellis (from livejournal.com)]

Plus one.

[bruce munro (from livejournal.com)]

I suppose I just don't care about "Starship Troopers" either positively or negatively for a satirical take to have much of an impact.

[martinl-00.livejournal.com]

Why were they so parsimonious with the glitter?

[ross-teneyck.livejournal.com]

I really despised the Starship Troopers movie.

I have mixed feelings about the book myself, but I think I'm willing to formulate as a general principle, "Movie adaptations of books ought not to be made by people who actively hate the book." If you're not willing to take the work on its own terms, then find something else to adapt.

Also: get off my lawn, kids these days, etc.

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure Have Space Suit Will Travel could be filled as a surrealistic European comedy, with Ace Quigley showing up as a hallucination.

[dbdatvic.livejournal.com]

... ... I know better by now than to ask just WHAT sort of trail you were following through YouTube, or RSS feeds, or wherever, that had you end up _there_.

Thank you for this. I have now acquired a sufficiently low level of disturbance to stay awake for a bit.

--Dave