#4177846 - 10/05/1510:09 PMMissing the Clancy-verse
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With the Rainbow Six beta last week, I got nostalgic for some Clancy gaming. Then movies. Now I need to pick up and finish Red Storm Rising. Even if the movies (the big 3) got re-written a good bit, they were still excellent. I wonder if we'll ever get movies again like that? These days intrigue gets replaced by political statements and being "pulled from the headlines." Not saying that's wrong, but I miss the tone of the Clancy books and movies. Military appreciation and respect, without having to get emotional. It's ok to enjoy the movies, it doesn't make you heartless to reality. Fiction is good too.
The games...I don't know how many more times I can play through Chaos Theory. The old GR's and Rainbow's are too dated to be enjoyable. The new ones aren't bad, but they aren't as "smart". I like the pace and patience of the old games. They hit the sweet spot between sim and fun, without being a dry simulation and far beyond your average fps. No one seems to be able to replicate that. STORY is important, as well as an attempt at realism.
Watched Red October the other night (I still think Baldwin was a better Jack)...Patriot Games last night...prob watch C&PD tonight. The books are of course better but I still enjoy the hell out of those movies.
WHY can't Hollywood gives us Without Remorse, Rainbow Six and Red Storm Rising? (after I finish it) Rainbow Six and Splinter Cell have been rumored and talked about for 10 years or so now. Supposedly, SC is set for 2017, but that's the pattern it's followed forever. Two more years! LOL 10 years ago:
Nope, not just you. My favorite Clancy novels will for me remain on a reading cycle of every 5 years or so. The Hunt for Red October is still my all-time favorite movie. And even though I am torn in some ways as to who is the better Jack Ryan, if I had to choose I would go with Baldwin.
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It's not that Harrison Ford isn't good, he just played him differently. More timid, but with bouts of backbone. A little too much in the extremes. Of course, HFRO was a very dynamic story and always moving, so it gave Baldwin more of a chance. Ryan seemed much smarter in that movie too though. Less luck and more brains. Gates McFadden was a better Cathy Ryan too, in the little bit she was on the screen. Anne Archer always had that same incredulous look on her face.
Baldwin's Ryan wasn't as close to the books as Ford's, which is why his wasn't as good a character, because Ryan isn't an action hero. They made him more like one in HfRO's film than he should've been. He was too confident. "I know Ramius!" No, he didn't, he was a reluctant participant the entire way in the book compared to the film where he gets all John McClain by the end. All that was missing was a yippy-kay-yay in the missile room.
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Originally Posted By: Raw Kryptonite
WHY can't Hollywood gives us Without Remorse, Rainbow Six and Red Storm Rising? (after I finish it)
Because Hollywood thinks there's not enough audience demand to make money. These films by the very nature of their plots would have to have big budgets and thus they would need a pretty big box office return.
And regarding the portrayal of Ryan by Ford: It doesn't matter if Ford's portrayal of Ryan was closer to the way it was in the books if that portrayal ON SCREEN is a forgettable one.
Last edited by PanzerMeyer; 10/06/1501:02 PM.
“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”
WR would be a standard-budget Vietnam flick, I don't think it would cost too much. R6...maybe you could do it without spending big bucks, but I don't think the ecoterrorist angle would appeal to them. Switch the bad guys to some PC not-quite-real group and perhaps.
RSR--not gonna happen.
You could perhaps just do Iceland or just do Germany or something, but it would lose too much since no one area was big enough in the book to make it work. Making it two locations MIGHT work but then you'd have the issue that the book has--no central characters. You have Mr USAF doing grunt work in Iceland, but a large part of the book has nothing to do with him. Make it about him, and you have a WWIII film about a few guys stranded in Iceland...which won't work.
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Originally Posted By: Raw Kryptonite
Gates McFadden was a better Cathy Ryan too, in the little bit she was on the screen.
LOL!! You're basing that on a 15 second scene she had in HFRO where she said like 2 lines?
“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”
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That's all it takes. LOL It's less about Gates and more about how annoying I find Anne Archer.
For the Rainbow Six movie, I *HOPE* they would seriously re-write the genocidal vegans. For such an enjoyable book, that was a terrible idea for the main antagonists. PETA on steroids is more laughable than scary.
Its major problem IMHO is that it was such a generic action/spy thriller that it was completely forgettable. I watched it once and quickly forgot about it and I still haven't felt compelled to watch it again.
By comparison, how often is HFRO quoted on SimHQ?
Case closed.
“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”
I was excited years ago when rumors of "Without Remorse" was to be put into movie form. Since then, I've given up on Clancy's movies. Jack Ryan was a bust and I dont see writers actually giving a crap about following a book, rather than following who's popular in Hollywood.
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Originally Posted By: ST0RM
rather than following who's popular in Hollywood.
-Jeff
Yeah it's pretty obvious that "Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit" was a star vehicle for Pine.
“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”
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I didn't see it, it just seemed false somehow. Nothing against Pine, and it isn't that other writers can't do what Clancy did (and did for him sometimes apparently). Ryan was just kind of dull normally. I want Clark and Ding now--some edge but maintaining the intelligence instead of going full action. If they want to reboot, follow that route and then consider some new material after a few movies.
The new author, Mark Greaney, that has taken over writing for the Ryan-verse has been very good so far.
While the books build on the previous books to an extent, they're also largely ignored and are more like the early Clancy novels where things happen locally on a small scale. So think pre-Sum of All Fears, before Ryan was continually involved in saving the entire planet from war between two large countries.
They should adapt one of those to film.
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The anteater is wearing the bagel because he's a reindeer princess. -- my 4 yr old daughter
Without Remorse would work best as a mini-series IMO. Too much to stuff into two hours.
Also, a remake of Clearance & Present Danger, please. One that is true to the book.
In all my years I've never seen the like. It has to be more than a hundred sea miles and he brings us up on his tail. That's seamanship, Mr. Pullings. My God, that's seamanship!
I'm two behind I think. I have yet to read Full Force and Effect and Support and Defend. LOL, I just realized that could be 2, 3, or 4 book titles with all the 'ands' used.
The Jedi Master
The anteater is wearing the bagel because he's a reindeer princess. -- my 4 yr old daughter