'The idea's an eagle, but film is a turkey'
By Chris McCubbin
Staff Reporter
“Nightflyers,” Plaza 4
First of all, “Nightflyers” is a
great story. It’s a hard science fic
tion/ghost story/fairy talc. This is a
plot with everything — hauntings,
possessions, lasers, giant space
ships, a wicked queen and an en
chanted prince, an intrepid band of
adventurers, undead monsters, a
mad wizard and a kindly old scien
tist— everything.
Movie Review
Based on a novella by George
R.R. Martin, “Nightflycrs” is a
first-rate premise for a science fic
tion adventure. The story takes all
sorts of neat effects from folklore,
literature, religion and psychol
ogy, and gives them all a theoreti
cally plausible scientific explana
tion. It has infinite potential.
However, “Nightflycrs” is a
pretty poor movie. The perform
ances arc lackluster, the pacing
doesn’t build and the script gener
ates no excitement.
Nothing’s really bad* you
understand. The entire movie is
determinedly, grimly competent.
But nothing ever takes off, nothing
shakes you, nothing, in short, that
can even begin to live up to the
infinite potential of the premise.
But some of the movie is quite
good, really. The sets arc beauti
fully designed for one thing. There
arc heavy borrowings from
“Alien,” but that’s fine. Somebody
managed to come up with a film
that's often fascinating to look at,
even when nothing fascinating is
happening on the screen.
The violence is restrained and
u ell photographed. There’s a lot of
carnage in this movie, but cheap
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tricks like splatter and gore are
used with restraint, sometimes
even providing something resem
bling a genuine chill.
Actually, this is an infuriating
movie.
It’s too well done to hate it, but
you can’t really find any reason to
like it.
Here’s the plot. A research sci
entist assembles a team of young,
attractive, well-dressed specialists
to track down a race of starfaring
immortals.
They rent a huge, opulently fit
ted freighter called the Nightflycr.
Once aboard they discover that
there’s no crew, and the captain
will only talk to them from a holo
gram, never in person.
Weird things begin to happen.
People start to get hurl and killed.
The Nightflycr’s secrets arc dis
covered, one by one, in a race
against time.
It’s indicative of my schizo
phrenic emotions about this movie
that even though the plot develops
turgidly, the plot developments
themselves arc interesting enough
that I don ’ t wan t to give them away.
Somebody, director, producer
or whoever, just went the wrong
direction with “Nightflycrs, “ ex
pending all their energy in exactly
the wrong direction.
Remember the old “Star Trek’’
episodes? They were done with
primitive special effects, on a low
budget, with wildly implausible
plots.
But the plots always made
sense, on their own terms, and they
started with a bang and they carried
you along. The acting wasn’t great,
but it was likeable and animated.
Cheap. Dumb. Great.
So here’s“Nightflycrs,” w ith its
meticulous design and its state-of
the-art special effects and wonder
ful baroque plot.
The action puts you on the edge
of your seat all right. And it puts
your head on the back of your seat,
and your eyelids slowly draw to
gether. The characters drop like
flies and you don’t care.
Some of the blame for the
movie’s ennui can be laid at the
door of Catherine Mary Stewart,
“Nightflyers” narrator and hero
ine. There’s something about most
actresses today that makes it al
most impossible to find a woman
who can play a character who’s
strong, active and competent with
out coming across as a cold fish or
the great stone face. How much
would it cost to clone Sigourney
Weaver a few dozen times?
Michael Praed, as the ship’s
mysterious captain, is a pretty-boy
wimp. Over the course of the
movie he’s supposed to grow into a
hero, but Praed, and “Nightflyers,”
isn’t up to that kind of character
development.
The happiest find in this movie
is pop singer Michael Des Barres as
Winderman, a fey, half-mad pro
fessional telepath who comes to a
grisly end. Des Barres makes an
intriguing flash in “Nightflyers”’
dark night of characterization. I’m
looking forward to his next adven
ture movie.
Maybe in 15, 20 or 30 years
some really first-rate director of
the future will pick up
“Nightflyers” again and make a
great movie out of this great con
cept. There’s so much here that
nothing is ever finished. It echoes
of fairy tales, those earliest, earthi
est, most fundamental parables for
life in all its terror and beauty.
Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and
Cinderella all lurk in the shadows
but are never allowed to come into
the light.
Classical references are also
rife. The voyage home, the descent
into hell, the succubus, the mino
taur and the greatest potential
Oedipus complex ever put into a
movie.
All of this is there in plain sight,
fascinating, inert. The difference
between “Nightflyers”as it should
be and “Nightflycrs” as it is, is all
the difference between the play
and the prop room.
Maybe, even if it was made as
well as it could be made,
“Nightflyers” could never be a hit.
What does the average audience
care about classical allusions and
archetypal resonance?
The plot is big and strange. And
let’s face it, if the viewer has to
think about what’s happening, he’d
probably much rather see some
thing blow up.
Whatever its flaws,
“Nightflyers” is science fiction,
and the movie-going public wants
sci-fi. They want space battles and
cute robots, or if they do want to be
scared they want a big black penis
with teeth to chase a girl in her
underwear.
If you’re a real science fiction
fan, the kind who doesn’t mind
using your mind or your imagina
tion, if you like to look beyond the
familiar and the predictable,
maybe you should sec
“Nightflyers.” It will interest you
and stimulate your imagination.
J ust don ’ t expect to have a lot of
fun.
Opera hits
on KRNU
Twenty Metropolitan Opera pres
entations will be broadcast live on
KRNU radio station, FM 90.3, from
the University of Nebraska-Lincoln
College of Journalism beginning Dec.
5.
The broadcasts are sponsored by
Texaco, Inc., and the Metropolitan
Opera Radio Network.
Beginning at 1 p.m. every Satur
day, these broadcasts are scheduled to
be aired:
December
5 — Puccini’s “Tosca”
12 — Mozart’s “Die Entfuehrung
aus dem Scrail”
19 — Verdi’s “II Travatore”
26 — Verdi’s “La Traviata”
January
2 — Offenbach’s “Lcs Contes
d’Hoffman”
9 — Strauss’ “Die Fledermaus”
16 — Wagner’s “Das Rheingold”
23 —Verdi’s “Macbeth”
30 — Debussy’s “Pellcas et Mei
sande”
February
6 — Verdi’s “Luisa Miller”
13 — Puccini’s “Turandot”
20 — Donizetti’s “L’Elisir
d’Amorc”
27 — Verdi’s “Otello”
March
5 — Wagner’s “Seigfried”
12 — Strauss’ “Ariadne auf
Naxos”
19 — Wagner’s “Die Walkuere”
26 — Mussorgorsky’s “Khovan
shchina”
April
2 — Berg’s “Lulu”
9 — Mozart’s “Cosi fan tutte”
16 — Massenet’s “Werlher”
Before the start of the regular Sat
urday broadcast, the Metropolitan
Opera will broadcast the “Met Mara
thon” Nov. 28 at 1 p.m., a program of
highlights from past Metropolitan
Operabroadcastsas well as interviews
_ with opera artists.
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