It (1990 film)
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| It | |
|---|---|
 DVD cover |
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| Directed by | Tommy Lee Wallace |
| Produced by | Mark Basino Allen S. Epstein Jim Green |
| Written by | Stephen King (novel) Lawrence Cohen Tommy Lee Wallace |
| Starring | Harry Anderson Dennis Christopher Richard Masur Boyd Norman Annette O'Toole Tim Reid John Ritter Richard Thomas Tim Curry |
| Music by | Richard Bellis |
| Cinematography | Richard Leiterman |
| Editing by | David Blangsted Robert F. Shugrue |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Television |
| Release date(s) | November 18, 1990 (USA) |
| Running time | 192 min. |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
It (also referred to as Stephen King's It) is a 1990 horror miniseries based on the Stephen King novel of the same name. Directed by Tommy Lee Wallace, the film stars Tim Curry as It (Pennywise the Dancing Clown), Boyd Norman as Gas Attendant, Richard Thomas as Bill Denbrough, John Ritter as Ben Hanscom, Annette O'Toole as Beverly Marsh, Harry Anderson as Richie Tozier, Dennis Christopher as Eddie Kaspbrak, Richard Masur as Stan Uris, and Tim Reid as Mike Hanlon. The younger actors playing the flashback versions of the older characters were, respectively, Jonathan Brandis, Brandon Crane, Emily Perkins, Seth Green, Adam Faraizl, Ben Heller, and Marlon Taylor.
As in the novel, the central character of the film is the writer Bill Denbrough, a thinly-veiled analogue of King himself. One of Denbrough's novels, The Glowing, is seen on display in the Derry public library; this is a reference to King's novel The Shining.
Radio Times magazine in 2004 held a survey for the scariest programme aired on television, in which It came first. The X-Files came second. Others on the top ten list included Twin Peaks, Ghostwatch and Tales of the Unexpected. The Sci Fi channel announced a 4 hour remake of the film which will appear in the year 2007 or 2008.
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[edit] Storyline
It aired as a two-part television minseries on November 18, 1990 on ABC, and loosely follows the plot of the novel. The first half of the film, set in 1960- and not 1958, as in the novel-, introduces the group of social outcasts, the "Losers", as they meet and form a tight-knit group in the face of a cruel and intolerant world. They each individually come into contact with the child-killing monster haunting their hometown of Derry, Maine, which they name "It". It usually appears as Pennywise the Dancing Clown before taking the form of whatever its child victim most greatly fears.
Spurred on by Bill Denbrough's desire for revenge on It for killing his younger brother Georgie, the Losers resolve to locate Its home in the sewers and destroy the threat to Derry once and for all. Despite managing to inflict serious injuries upon the monster, they fail to finish the job, allowing It to escape and recover over the years.
The second half of the film, set in 1990- and not 1985 like the novel-, focuses on the now-adult Losers who reluctantly agree to return home (all of them except Mike Hanlon have left Derry) to locate and destroy It once and for all. The Losers must again face not only the terrible creature and the diminishing of their circle after the suicide of Stan Uris, but also Henry Bowers. The bully who made their childhoods miserable and is now an incarcerated madman under Its influence, Bowers is determined to kill them all.
[edit] Novel vs. Miniseries
The television miniseries was done on a fairly modest budget, and thus events in the book had to be ignored, especially if they would have required expensive special effects. Wallace, the director, notes on the DVD commentary that he was unhappy with the final result of the spider-like "true" form of It. Many parts of the book are twisted, either changed completely, or have different characters.
[edit] Omitted elements
The following elements that were important to the book's plot are all either removed or represented very differently in the film.
Violence: Many of It's extremely graphic and gory attacks are merely implied in the film, and are not shown onscreen. The Losers' findings of many mutilated corpses are also omitted, as are several instances of cruelty to animals, such as when Patrick Hocksetter suffocates many animals inside an abandoned refrigerator, and Henry Bowers poisons Mike Hanlon's dog, Mr. Chips.
Homophobia: In the book, It's first attack during its modern cycle is not on a little girl on her front lawn, but on a homosexual man named Adrian Mellon who had just been gay bashed. The movie drops this scene entirely, and never refers to it at any point. Other scenes involving homosexuality are left out, including a bar named the Falcon, rumored to be a gay bar, and when Patrick proposes to have oral sex with Henry.
Profanity: Vulgar dialogue is omnipresent throughout the entire novel. It also features an aspect of characters developing their own abilities to curse. The amount of profanity is significantly lowered in the film, and many parts of dialogue are altered to become less harsh. For instance, Eddie yells "This is battery acid, you slime!" while spraying his apirator in It's face, as opposed to "BATTERY ACID, FUCKNUTS!" in the novel.
Racism: Racism, particularly towards the Hanlons for being black, is a significant issue almost entirely ignored in the film. Despite establishing Henry Bowers and other characters as racists, the film does not feature some of the novel's racist attacks, such as when Henry drenches Mike in mud in order to make a "tar baby", or a thorough analysis of the word "nigger". In addition, Stan being a Jew results in some stereotypical views of Judaism in the novel, though this issue is also never analyzed in the film.
Sexuality: One of the most blatant omissions in the film is the treatment of sexuality. In the novel, before the young Losers successfully escape from the sewer after encountering It, Beverly Marsh has sex with the boys. She also has sex with Bill earlier as an adult. It also makes some appearances in which It threatens the children with sexual assault. These scenes are dropped entirely from the film, as well as characters' viewings on sexuality as children, and details of their sex lives as adults. On the DVD audio commentary, director Tommy Lee Wallace states that he did not want to get into these sexuality issues.
Drugs: Many of the Losers in the novel smoke cigarettes while in their clubhouse. Beverly's protective father also shows some concern about his daughter drinking alcohol, claiming "everyone knows what a girl like that will do!"
[edit] Characters
The following characters were omitted from the film
- "It"'s natural enemy, the "Turtle"
- Dorsey Corcoran and Eddie Corcoran, victims of "It" (Dorsey indirectly)
- Mrs. Marsh, Beverly's mother
- Vincent "Boogers" Taliendo, a rumor-spreading boy in the Losers' class
- Patrick Hockstetter's younger brother Avery, whom he murders by suffocation
- Henry's insane father, Oscar "Butch" Bowers, whom Henry kills by a knife to the throat (he's only mentioned by Henry, very briefly in passing).
- Beverly's friend Kay McCall. Beverly's husband Tom attacks her, demanding to know where Beverly is.
- The parents of many of the Losers
- Eddie's wife
- Adrian Mellon, a homosexual who is Its first victim in the cycle in 1985.
- Dave Gardener, the man who finds Georgie's corpse. His son Harold, who is also omitted from the film, is a witness during the murder of Adrian Mellon
- Victor Criss (in the film Patrick Hockstetter acts as Victor from the book)
[edit] Attacks
While many of It's attacks are represented accurately in the film, some never appear in Stephen King's novel at all, and are completely unique to the film. These include the following.
- Pennywise coming out of a pipe while Eddie is taking a shower.
- Ben seeing his father, who died while serving in the Korean War, near the Barrens. Pennywise appears in his father’s place, and almost succeeds in dragging Ben into the swamp.
- As adults: Ben beginning to kiss Beverly, who later turns into Pennywise and yells "Kiss me, fat boy!"
The following attacks were removed from the film:
- Mike encountering It as a giant hawk.
- Eddie encountering It as a leper who wants to have oral sex with him.
- Ben encountering It on the canal.
- Patrick becoming covered in leech-like creatures until It drags him away into the Barrens and eats him alive.
- It leaving the kids a message reading "Stop now before I kill you all, a word to the wise from your friend Pennywise".
- It appearing in the place of a giant Paul Bunyan statue in Derry.
- Bill entering "the Void" while in the Barrens.
- Richie and Bill entering It's lair on Neibolt Street and encountering It as a werewolf.
[edit] Other differences:
- The controversy between Ben and Henry when Ben refuses to let him copy his math exam.
- In the novel, Mike goes to Neibolt Street Church School for religious reasons. In the film, he is shown as a student at Derry Elementary along with all the other Losers.
- The Losers never throw popcorn on Henry Bowers and his friends while at the movies. Their subsequent fight in the cafeteria because of this incident is also not in the book.
- The aspect of the childrens' scars from the attacks they went through as children reappearing as adults is left out of the film.
- The scene where Beverly spies on Henry Bowers and his friends in the junkyard is not in the film.
- Richie never hears Georgie's voice on the radio in the film.
- Stan's severed head, found in the refrigerator, is not that of an adult but that of the boy he used to be. Also, only Mike is there when this happens.
- The children never encounter It in its Pennywise form in the Barrens (except as part of a malevolent moving photograph in Mike's father's "Derry History" album).
- The various destructions in Derry during the groups' final encounter with It are never shown in the film.
- The structure of the story is changed. In the movie, each of the people who were affected by "It" while they were children receives a phone call asking them to return to Derry. When this happens, they each have a flashback from that year, and so this part of the story is revealed bit by bit. After the adults have all arrived back in Derry, the story is presented in chronological order throughout. Their rearrival in the book is told in between the events of June and July of 1958. The end of the book alternates between the characters going into the Barrens as children and as adults.
- Some of the major characters' backstories are either ignored or changed. In the novel, Eddie Kaspbrak eventually tells his friends that he married a neurotic woman similar to his mother, but in the television miniseries he tells his friends that he is still a virgin, and there is possibly a homoerotic undertone to his character as well.
[edit] Trivia
- According to the commentary on the DVD, Tim Curry's Pennywise was so unnerving that the cast and crew completely avoided him while on the set.
- Richie's worst fear is a werewolf in this movie. Seth Green, who plays young Richie, would go on to play a werewolf in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
- Two stars from this movie died in 2003. John Ritter died in September of an aortic dissection and Jonathan Brandis committed suicide in November.
- Adult Richie Tozier, per actor Harry Anderson, is 6'4". However, Seth Green, who played the young Tozier, only reached an adult height of 5'4".
- On Seth Green's TV show Robot Chicken, Pennywise's famous line, "Everything floats down here," was spoofed.
