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Reviews
Nightfall (2000)
Great Asimov story but poorly presented
I first read Isaac Asimov's sci-fi story, Nightfall, in the 1980s when I was asked to help find financing to make a film version by the person who then owned the movie rights. I read the book and was moved... Asimov's story says much about the nature of scientific knowledge and religious superstition, and it says much about how we are locked into our world and often not able to transcend it. At the end, the scientists of the day discover that the religious nuts were right all along about one basic fact... but their interpretation of this fact was quite wrong. Asimov had a long and prolific career as a writer of sci-fi but Nightfall, written when he was only nineteen was one of his more (most?) famous stories.
I couldn't raise the money for its filming and lost track of the project. So I was excited to see the film. What a disappointment. It had been filmed in India (is that we they got the money finally?) and the story greatly expanded. It had been made into a love story - it did not explore the nature of knowledge at all. The lead actress was quite unconvincing, pathetic, actually. I had my whole family watch the movie with me and was quite embarrassed. They kept asking me what I thought but I would say nothing as they would have all walked out... I kept hoping is would improve. But it didn't.
Firelight (1997)
Sexy but really about child-raising and parenthood
This movie was a surprise and a joy - it may be my all-time favorite. The movie is sure sexy but that was not its big appeal to me. It is really about child-raising - handling spoiled brats, reaching them, turning them around, teaching good values. It is also about parenthood - the instincts that drive us, love for our own children. It is about marriage - the loyalty we owe our spouse, the sort of person we might marry and be happy with. It it also about education - how a child learns to read and the need to be educated. But what I found most interesting was how the big advances in relationships happened when the mother/daughter and then the mother/father were set free of normal behavioral constraints... this only happened when they had a fire going in the fireplace (firelight) and when time stops still and what happens never really happened. People were freed to express themselves honestly and that is when the relationships changed. Perhaps Las Vegas's new advertising theme, What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas, was inspired by this movie... but I don't think Las Vegas is looking for growth in human relationships! This movie is very satisfying, and it is happy... leaving the viewer upbeat about family and life.