Product: The Dead Zone [VHS] (1983)
Rating: 5.0
An Excellent Adaptation of an Excellent Novel.
David Cromemberg did an excellent job with the adaptation of Stephen King's novel, and Christopher Walken was superb in his portrayal of Johnny Smith (no middle initial). The supporting cast added to the film: Martin Sheen was a convincing Greg Stilson (was this a warm up for his West Wing role?), I'm a big fan of Tom Skerritt, and I didn't recognize Herbert Lom from his Pink Panther role.This movie (and the book) are put in the horror genre, but I would consider the story to be true science fiction. Smith's character was in a coma for several years, and the story's premise is that this coma enabled his brain to tap into psychic ablilities. There is nothing supernatural about the villains; they're just normal bad people.This movie is not completely faithful to the movie. Some of the changes are to make it fit a moderately lengthed movie (104 minutes) instead of a 400+ page novel. Some of the changes add moderate suspense, keeping the interest of someone who read the novel first. I do question the need for some of the changes -- I don't know why Johnny Smith's psychic abilities required personal contact in the movie (he could learn things touching people's clothes or a geographic spot in the book), and I didn't think it was necessary of having his tutoree be a younger boy in the movie instead of a teenager as in the book (this made for what I considered weaker parts of the movie).True science fiction is effective because it takes a normal person, puts them in an abnormal situation, and thus investigates the person's character. Due to the time constraints of the movie, it did not as effectively deal with the wrestlings of conscience Smith had, but they were not absent either. As a result, the story (both book and movie) have a feel of a classic tragedy.This movie is not for children, though it could have easily gained a PG rating (this movie came out the year before PG-13 was introduced). The R rating was gained by one usage of the F-word, a couple of seconds of a revealed breast, and a short gruesome scene involving the death of a character. (Cromemberg has a reputation for gruesomeness in his other movies, like "Scanners", "Videodrome", and the 1986 remake of "The Fly"; this movie had him more subdued, but very effective.)Besides the R-rating, there are aspects of the story (equally true in the novel as in the movie) that I find disturbing as a fundamentalist minister. This is because of its dependence on situation ethics. Adultery and murder are considered acceptable on the part of Johnny Smith because of the situations.In spite of these misgivings, I think this was an excellent movie. I think it was worthy of several awards, such as acting nominations for Walken and Sheen, for adapted screenplay, and for best picture.