Nightfall

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.

Okay, in Asimov's story, a technologically secure and superficially confident society falls to ruin because they burn books and civilization itself in the one night they experience in a 1000 years.

In the movie, a superstitious voodoo society on the verge of collapse is made no worse by the first night in a thousand years.

The written story can be compared to the Heart of Darkness -- oh, the horror of letting go of reason.

In the movie, the poorly acted characters go from nowhere and nothing to nowhere and nothing.

To have a story, something must happen. One would think that the first nightfall in centuries would be something. But, the film-makers manage to make this something into something boring.

For a long time nothing happened, then, suddenly and without warning, nothing continued to happen.

"If the stars were to appear but one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which they had seen." So goes the quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson that inspired editor John Campbell to pose it as a story idea to Isaac Asimov.

The result was the classic short story, "Nightfall". Every thousand years, a world bathed by the perpetual light of six suns, experiences total darkness. What would happen to society? How would people react? What kind of society would evolve where lights aren't needed... Asimov's short story touches on all these.

Unfortunately, where Asimov succeeded Hollywood has not. While this is a far better movie than the 1988 production, it still falls short.

Mainly, it is not really true to the story, but as best as I can tell takes place 1000 years after the time of Asimov's story, at the next nightfall. The plot and the acting aren't bad, but they aren't great either.

If you've never read the short story, it's worth a rental. If you have read Nightfall, it's worth a rental just to finally get rid of the sour taste from the 1998 production.

Wow, this is a stinker. They took a great SF short story and turned it into utter rubbish. Isaac Asimov is spinning at 3000 RPM in his grave. Why would they do this? Why would the Asimov estate consent to let this buchery be done?

My favorite line: "I projected an image into their minds", Brooks explaining his strange. Funny how Goodman failed to ask how he managed to project into a bunch of snakes minds that they would blow up and they actually did...

Dante has a special place for people who make films like this. I wish them an eternity in it...

I was very disappointed by this movie. I thought it could have been a lot better. I mean, talk about low budget...it was so low, that it would have been better reading the book and coming up with your own imaginative world...Acting was absolutely terrible and the storyline was very bleak! David Carradine really made a mistake throwing himself into this one. Read the book, don't even waste your time with the movie...Isaac Asimov must be turning in his grave on this one!