Posted on 03/04/2012 5:16:17 PM PST by rrebo
Just saw a pre-screening of "John Carter", a new Disney movie scheduled to open on March 9. It pretty much followed the Edgar Rice Burroughs Martian books. We saw it in 3D and it was quite good. Action all the way. Pretty sure there will be sequels by the way it ended.
Yes, I still remember how exciting the stories were. Who cared if they were plausible, the stories were hard to put down.
The first three are the absolute best.
A Princess of Mars.
The Gods of Mars.
Warlord of Mars.
After that the stories leave John Carter behind (he is the hero perfected) in order to tell more classic stories of the heroic ideal being achieved by lesser characters - first his son “Carthoris” romancing the titular princess in the 4th book....
Thuvia Maid of Mars.
Chessmen of Mars (about the romance of John Carter's daughter Tara of Helium by a new hero, Gahan of Gathol).
The Mastermind of Mars (new hero from Earth, Ulysses Paxton)
A Fighting Man of Mars (new hero Hadron of Hastur, relative of the husband of Tara of Helium).
Swords of Mars (back to John Carter, fighting a league of assassins!!!)
Synthetic Men of Mars (new hero Vor Daj)
Llana of Gathol (about John Carter's granddaughter)
John Carter of Mars (back to John Carter again).
I got curious and looked it up last night as to why they changed the title. I actually found that they changed it twice! The director has stated that he thought no boys would go and see a movie with ‘Princess’ in the title. I reckon that the term has become a tad more frilly and pink laced since the days of ERB, but come on. So then it was going to be ‘John Carter of Mars’ but then the director thought no girls would go and see it, since girls hate planets and scifi or something. So now it is simply John Carter.
Freegards, cleaned limbed fighting man #456t out
No way that men watched it and saw a great movie and made its more hilarious points of duologue known by those who haven't even seen the movie....
“My name is Inigo Montoya....”
“Have fun storming the castle!”
“You keep using that word, I don't think it means what you think it means.”
Etc, etc, etc.
Just started reading the series, liking it alot so far.
Years ago I read quitre a few of the Tarzan ones
I am all for putting John Carter on the big screen, finally. One of the best series from the Golden Age of Science Fiction.
I had some disparaging remarks about seeing how Disney works in some political correctness, but I’ll leave it at that.
And a Southerner, to boot. Damned fine books!
Written by a Chicago native no less.
Frazetta, rest his soul, was a master. He captured the essence of a great many exceptional works of American fiction.
I read my first ERB books in the mid 1960’s, read them all.
BTW most of these ERB John Carter books are free for the Kindle from Amazon, my 18 year old son devours them, they have all the classic values missing from todays society.
Yeah. It’s amazing that he went on to paint great stuff with his off-hand after the stroke. He was quite a character. That documentary ‘painting with fire’ is really neat—”I threw a ball over my school!” He actually was scouted for the Dodgers if I recall.
Freegards
Well done Sir. Great post, and most excellent quotes.
See my previous posts. The books still falling under copyright in the U.S. due to our insane copyright laws are available from PG Austrailia. I've downloaded all the books at PG-AU, and am in the process of converting them to epub from the raw text available there. I've done 3 so far, and will be sending the finished copies to PG-AU to see if they'll post them as epubs. If you'd like another format, contact me and I'll create them as well. I think I can convert to just about any current ebook format.
I still have my uncle’s original hardbacks from the ‘40s of most of those Tarzan / Martian / Venus books.
Most of them still have the jackets intact, too.
Thanks! This is the line I most wanted to see Dejah Thoris deliver, but somehow I think the anti-communist message was left behind....
“Why, oh why will you not learn to live in amity with your fellows, must you ever go on down the ages to your final extinction but little above the plane of the dumb brutes that serve you! A people without written language, without art, without homes, without love; the victim of eons of the horrible community idea. Owning everything in common, even to your women and children, has resulted in your owning nothing in common. You hate each other as you hate all else except yourselves. Come back to the ways of our common ancestors, come back to the light of kindliness and fellowship. The way is open to you, you will find the hands of the red men stretched out to aid you. Together we may do still more to regenerate our dying planet.” *Dejah Thoris
Yup. That’s a great quote, and a true sentiment. I love Burrough’s writing style. I like reading older books because they don’t talk down to the reader. Writers who consider their readers more literate than a ten year old appeal to me.
So Tim Riggins grew up to be a superhero? Cool!
I remember in “Uncle Tom's Cabin” a particularly striking looking slave from Africa was named “Scipio” and it was said as a joke that the reader should be aware of and laugh at - but to be “in” on the joke you had to know that Publius Scipio was the Roman General who defeated Hannibal and was given the title “Africanus”.
She just assumed the reader would know this!!! She was obviously writing for an audience with an education level far in excess of what is generally attained in this benighted age.
I thought the movie was a little slow and needed something. It seemed a little flat. Action wasn’t that much. I did enjoy it, however.
As far as the box office, I think it will bomb. Most will find it boring and not enough action. The long runtime will limit showings.
The Lorax was great.
Just came back from the movie. I admit she looks kinda plain in the paparazzi shots I’ve seen. But in the movie, she’s mighty fine.
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