Damnation Alley

Damnation Alley was a great science fiction novel written by Roger Zelazny. It was the story of an outlaw named Hell Tanner, who was coerced into taking a vaccine to the East Coast, but first he had to cross a post-apocalyptic wasteland known as Damnation Alley. It was also the name of the movie adaptation featuring Jan-Michael Vincent and George Peppard. That Peppard was in it was the first sign that the movie would suck. Though I find Peppard to be a fine actor, his character was not in the book, and instead of an outlaw on a solo trip through a living hell, it was about a military unit on the mission. The second sign of how bad the movie would be, Tanner's first name was changed from Hell to Jake. Readers of the book were confronted by a wholesale change in action and emphasis. What should've would've could've been a movie as good as Escape From New York instead became one of the biggest pieces of crap ever produced. Why someone would turn a great book into a rotten movie is beyond me. Stanley Kubrick was faithful to the novel A Clockwork Orsnge, and his filming of that novel was one of the greatest pictures of all time, whereas the producers of Damnation Alley put out one of the biggest wastes of film ever made. It goes to show that when an adaptation is true to the author's vision, something good is the result. I still am shaken by this lamentable failure to this day, and it brings me to the subject of remakes. No movie should ever be remade unless it was total garbage, so Damnation Alley screams for a remake. Cast someone like Hugh Jackman as Hell Tanner, and tell the story the way Zelazny intended, not as some hacks screwed it up. For example, the first movie version of Treasure Island was rather dull, but the second version featured an amazing performance by Robert Newton as Long John Silver, and was a very good film indeed, so good that subsequent versions are a complete waste of time. As the philosopher king of America, I would punish anyone who messes up a great book by thinking they are showing creativity by changing what doesn't need changing. If one wants to show creativity, write an original story. Quit screwing up good books Hollywood.