Tracing The Trails Of Richard Bachman : The Running Man
So as much as I have kind of turned a blind eye to the movies of 
Stephen King, this is one that I can’t really skirt around the issue. I’m nearly forty years old so when I was hitting my stride as an action movie loving eleven year old, I thought The Running Man was one of the coolest movies ever made. Arnold was one of the biggest if not the biggest faces in Hollywood and his movies at that time were pretty much instant classic, box-office gold. Keep in mind also that while dystopian fiction is pretty much the flavor of the month now, at that time it was much more of a bold step into fictional waters less traveled.
The movie presented a view of the future that was bleak indeed, although looking around at the modern landscape of television and some of the popular reality series, I wonder how far off the mark it really was. I don’t want to give the impression that I really think that we will one day see game shows in which the contestants actually die. But as of now, one particularly popular reality show franchise has been to drop people naked in the middle of the jungle and see if they can survive. Obviously there is a certain amount of work that goes into making those shows seem more intense than they likely are, but our culture does seem to be developing an increasing amount of voyeurism and fascination with shows designed to bring out pain and conflict. All I’m saying is that looking back at the Running Man now, it’s hard to not think that some of King’s notions weren’t that outlandish. A large percentage of contemporary programming seems to be centered less around fictional creations and more on unscripted television, featuring those who often have no distinguishing talents, save for being horrible people. If you were to go back in time to the younger version of myself and tell me about some of the shows that would be on the air in thirty years, I probably wouldn’t have believed you. It’s probably also worth noting that as I am writing this, work is underway for an actual game show, produced by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, which is an actual reproduction of The Running Man, obviously without the contestants being murdered.
But let’s not get completely sidetracked. We are, after all talking about a book, right?
Despite being a Stephen King fan, I was completely unaware that this movie was based on one of his books. And as is so often the case, the story told in the book is quite a bit different than what ended up on the screen.
In the movie, Ben Richards is a man wrongfully accused of murder. As a contestant on the game show, if he is able to survive, he will win himself a pardon for his crimes. Of course, his chances of surviving are slim to none. In the book, Ben Richards is a man trying to save his daughter who is sic. He can’t get the medicine she needs because they can’t afford it. Participating in The Running Man is a chance for him to ease some of their financial burdens as he is driven down this insane course out of necessity.
I was surprised by how different the tone of the book was when compared to the movie. The sort of campy, action movie elements weren’t there and instead I found a really good, gritty sci-fi thriller. I appreciated the fact that Richards comes across as more complex of a character than he does in the movie. I will cop to the fact that Arnold was great at the one-liners. He did what he did and he did it well. It has always been his thing so it’s going to be assumed that the movies are going to focus on it. But in the book. Richards is stripped down to a more human character and I think is easier to relate to. He isn’t an action hero as much as a bitter man driven to the end of his rope in an attempt to save his wife and daughter.
Besides the differences in Richards himself, I also loved that the politics of the world became much more of an issue than in the movie. To be sure, there are elements of it but the oppression of the state over the underclass felt more present in the book to me and more authentic. You got the inherent tragedy of what was happening to the people in Richard’s world but without the arbitrary attempt at a happy ending that the movie went for. The book takes a much darker turn towards the end, a direction not taken by the film because obviously in a summer action flick, you need to send the audience off on a happy note. Had the movie ended the way the book did, I think that history would have come to view the movie differently than it does now.
I liked the concept of the game show itself in the book in that the citizens of the country themselves became participants, with bonuses awarded to those who gave tips leading to the apprehension of contestants. There is no arena, just the world itself which Richards has to escape into, with pretty much every person in the country trying to find him. This aspect adds an interesting side to Richards’ attempt to elude capture and the things he has to deal with during the course of his plans.
In all, this is probably my favorite Bachman book to date. I loved the dystopian, sci-fi feel to it and felt like the story was more tightly constructed than The Long Walk. It also didn’t have the kind of contrived, over-cooked feeling I had from Rage. It’s hard to compare it to Roadwork as the books are so radically different from each other so I guess I would place The Running Man slightly ahead, simply for being closer to my comfort zone in terms of what I normally like to read.
This brings me to the end of the primary era of Bachman’s career. Next week will be my review of Thinner, the book that ended up being the whistle-blower on the identity of Richard Bachman. The four books I have received thus far stand almost as artifacts, representations of King’s older works, written early on in his career. But Thinner was actually a contemporary book written by King after he had become more of a household name. It was interesting to see how this affected the overall tone of the book.
But that’s another review for another week.
Until then.
My name is Chad Clark and I am proud to be a Constant Reader.
