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Say what you will, this was a true original


These days it seems everything is based on something else, using terms like "Inspired by", "Derived from", "A tribute to", etc. But in 1980 it was apparently still possible to make a thoroughly original film from a thoroughly original screenplay inside the Hollywood studio system.

Thirty-two years later there have been more than a handful of films about people driven mad by being the subjects of covert scientific experiments, as well as about humans who thought they were aliens (K-PAX comes to mind). But in 1980 this was a storyline that had never been tried. People are generally polarized in their opinions (loved it and thought it hilarious, or hated it and condemned it as irredeemable garbage), but it the film still has a cache that very few films can match: it wasn't based on anything but the imagination of Oscar-winning screenwriter Marshall Brickman (ANNIE HALL).

For this alone he deserves kudos and to be remembered as an innovator in today's Hollywood, where every pitch has to be "Generic Box-Office Hit Meets Generic Critical Darling", where new ideas are laughed out of the development office, and where innovation is anathema to entertainment.

FWIW, I'm the rare exception to the polarized audience. I enjoyed it, and completely revere its originality, but I didn't find it quite as funny as those who say they loved it.

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i agree.


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