RIP Michael Crichton
On Tuesday novelist/filmmaker Michael Crichton died of cancer in Los Angeles, at the age of 66.
Crichton was a prolific, best-selling novelist, and many of his works were adapted for film, most prominently the Jurassic Park novels. His scientific and medical background informs many of his books, which combine hard science with sure storytelling. Charles McGrath, in his appreciation in the New York Times, said of Crichton’s books: “As a writer he was a kind of cyborg, tirelessly turning out novels that were intricately engineered entertainment systems…very few readers who started a Crichton novel ever put it down.”
But Crichton was also (among many other things) an accomplished filmmaker, and in this capacity created several memorable (and downright lunatic) fantasy films. His very first film, Westworld, remains a cult favorite to this day, containing the vision of technology and science run amok that runs through much of his work. More memorably, it was the film that had Yul Brynner playing a berserk android cowboy.
That last sentence contains all the genius that anyone needs for a stellar filmmaking career, but Crichton went on to make other memorable films: a faithful and exciting adaptation of Robin Cook’s medical thriller Coma; the Victorian heist classic The First Great Train Robbery (starring Sean Connery and Donald Sutherland); and (my personal favorite) Looker, a glossy early-80s concoction of plastic surgery, computer-generated spokesmodels, guns firing hypnorays, mustachioed muscleman Tim Rossovich, and a hilariously subversive final-reel showdown.
Richard Donner’s film Timeline, adapted from Crichton’s novel of the same name, is available on Jaman. Though many fans were upset with the film’s disregard of the novel’s meticulously detailed science, the fast wits of the film’s protagonists and the gonzo insanity with which Donner delivers the action serve, in this writer’s mind, as a fine tribute to the brilliant, free-spirited madness that lurked not far below the surface of much of Crichton’s work, in any medium.
Thanks, Doc. Good night.
