LTBTM Write-off: The Running Man
Written: Oct 14 '00 (Updated Oct 14 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Vivid detail, imaginative subject, and, well, it's King
Cons: ending a little to abrupt
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| gwsmith's Full Review: Bachman Books: Four Early Novels |
This is part one of a two part write off entitled Loved The Book/ Hated The Movie. It is hosted by KateTPZ. The other writers involved are: Blackelve, ChrisJarmick, dandj, j3nny3lf, Jennifer gibbons, jiastar, KateTPZ, Kay67, pantazis5, redsox75, sterotomy, Sugarbugg23.
Basic Premise: This book is written in the year 2025. The Network controls all broadcasting and TV ( now called Free Vee). They host several game-show type programs, pitting people against unbeatable odds. The end-result is usually death for the contestants. Big industry has run amok, and the elite are in control. The network runs a game show called The Running Man, and in it a contestant is given a head start, some money, and if he can stay ahead of the Hunters for 30 days, gets a huge payoff.
Main Characters:
Ben Richards, an unemployed man, whose daughter is dying from the flu, decides to risk his life on the games.
Dan Killian, the producer of the most popular game, The Running Man
Evan McCone, in charge of the feared Hunters, who pursue the contestant
Bradley Throckmorton, Elton Parrakis, and Amelia Williams, three people who assist Ben during his stint on the run.
This is NOT from the book. This is something I wrote to try and give you an example of what the book is all about.
Except from Ben Richard’s Journal:
If you are reading this, then I have, at least in some small, insignificant way, won. I wanted people to understand why I did what I did, why I took on the Network and the Gaming Federation. It’s not just because they killed my family. It’s not just because they are trying to control us, keep us content, with the Free Vee. It’s because, in their infinite arrogance, they thought that they could live in their ivory towers and thumb their collective noses at us, the common people.
There are things I’ve discovered in my journey, and much of the credit goes towards the people who, for some unexplained reasons, helped me. They deserve the credit for opening the eyes of this street freak to the immense controlling power of the Network. They are Bradley Thockmorton, who’s street gang in Boston spends it’s time reading outlawed books about pollution, and about the atrocities of big industry and the Network. And there was Elton Parrakis, God rest his soul, who gave is life to help me stay alive in this “game”. His hope was that I could continue to elude the Hunters, and somehow break the fix that the Network has on us all. And then there was Amelia Williams. An upper-class wife and mother, whose only crime was being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Desperate to escape the Hunters, I took her hostage, and used her in a poker game of bluffs and calls, to help me outwit the Hunters, and give me a shot at completing my quest. They would have killed her, an innocent, without a second thought, just to get at me. But she realized that helping me was the lesser of two evils.
Big industry, like General Atomics, have worked with the Network, to cover up how badly they are screwing up our planet. They pour pollution into the air non-stop, and hide the consequences through control of the government. They use the Network to keep us submissive, “giving” us entertainment through the Free Vee. But they don’t realize that there is an underground movement out there. One that, while small in number, one day will rise up and revolt. Will they be successful? Probably not. They don’t have the weapons, the leadership, or the organization to do more than spit in the wind. But they will be heard, and maybe, just maybe, they can start to turn this run-away train around.
You need to know a few things, things that I have learned. You need to know that while many of us die terrible, agonizing deaths, and while they say innocuous words like “asthma”, what is really happening is emphysema and cancer, caused by the pollutants they pump day and night. And, even worse, is that there is a cheap way to protect yourself. They all have it, a nose filter that cost only a few dollars to make. But we don’t, the huddled masses of humanity. We are just a resource for them, cheap labor, easily controlled to maximize profits. And you need to know that they are killing you, your ability to think and to reason, with the mental interference they pump thorough the Free Vee.
I am, or was, just a single man, forced into poverty and despair because I "Showed Red", and would not follow others, like lemmings over a cliff. You are many, many more than them. I would not expect you to end you freedom (what there is of it), or end your lives in pursuit of a goal I once thought useless. I would just ask you to take control of your own lives. Maybe this singular act, in conjunction with others, will give them pause.
I have nothing left. They have taken my freedom, my family, and my hope of a future. But I will not go down easy. I have the one thing they fear the most…nothing to lose.
I have edited this review to add this section. Most comments stated that I did not really tell what I thought about this book. I tried to do that in the section above.
I have read almost every King/Bachman book. While this story in included in a 4 novella collection, I chose it for this write-off because it is a prime example of what happens to King books when they are transferred to film. They end up being corrupted by Hollywood influences, carelessly stripped of their most redeeming factors: attention to detail, emotional and psychological anguish. While his subjects, and this story is no exception, are mostly based on either para-normal or futuristic experiences by his main characters, the movies are dummed down to basic blood and guts/action flicks.
This book in particular exposes the underbelly of big business and corrupt government, taking us on a ride into a seemingly all too possible future. My impression was the King has simply amplified the human condition to make a point: to ignore, to live in blissfull naivete, is to invite our own destruction.
This book was written early in Kings career, but it is a great introduction to his work. It is a short story, that while filled with futuristic overtones, remains grounded in reality. Don't pass this one up. As for the other 3 works in this collection, The Long Walk is perhapse the only one more disturbing. If they do make a movie out of this one, do yourself a favor and wait for it on video.
Recommended:
Yes
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gwsmith
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Member: Geoff Smith
Location: East Taunton, Massachusetts
Reviews written: 124
Trusted by: 19 members
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Much older than I am, less knowing than I think...
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