Film Reviews – Interesting Literature

Literary Film Review: Die Hard

Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) analyses the ultimate Christmas film: Die Hard

Based on a little-known 1979 thriller, Nothing Lasts Forever by Roderick Thorp, Die Hard (dir. John McTiernan, 1988) is one of those films that many people will sit down and watch every Christmas. And why not? It’s set on Christmas Eve, and it has at its heart one of the oldest stories in the world: the triumph of good over evil. But before I review Die Hard, as is my wont with these literary film reviews, a word about the film’s literary origins.

Literary Film Review: The Terminator

Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) analyses the inaugural film in the ‘tech noir’ genre, James Cameron’s 1984 powerhouse The Terminator

‘But The Terminator wasn’t based on a novel, surely?’ I hear you protest. You’re right, it wasn’t, so what’s The Terminator doing being featured in this monthly literary film review? Well, for one, because there are notable literary precedents for James Cameron’s 1984 science-fiction thriller, even if these are not direct influences per se.

Literary Film Review: The Running Man

Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) analyses The Running Man, the 1980s dystopian action movie based, and yet also not based, on a Stephen King novel

In J. W. Eagan’s sage words, ‘Never judge a book by its movie.’ The following is part of this new monthly ‘literary film review’ segment on this blog, and as such it’s a review of the film of The Running Man (dir. Paul Michael Glaser – yes, Starsky from Starsky and Hutch – 1987), but it’s important to go back to the – very different – source material for The Running Man: that is, the novel called The Running Man, by Richard Bachman, aka Stephen King.

Literary Film Review: Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991) was one of two popular screen retellings of the Robin Hood legend in the early 1990s. The other was Tony Robinson’s gloriously anachronistic and funny children’s sitcom Maid Marian and Her Merry Men, which even featured several humorous nods to the big-screen Kevin Costner version.