My Life in Movies

As a kid growing up in the 1980’s, I was exposed to most of the popular films of the decade–at least the ones I was allowed to watch.  When Joe Valdez first posted notice of  The Class of ‘84 Blogathon, I quickly thought of all the movies I grew up on.  I was surprised to find that so many of my favorites were released in that year, movies like Terminator, Gremlins, Splash, Ghostbusters, Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom, The Karate Kid.  While I can’t claim every one of these as a favorite still, I can’t deny their place in my consciousness growing up.  Many of the favorite movies during the 1980’s were fantasies like The Dark Crystal, The Secret of NIMH, and Time Bandits, which my siblings and I would watch over and over again (sometimes to the extent of wearing out tape!).  So I was pleased to see that a fantasy movie  I loved as a kid, The Neverending Story (directed by Wolfgang Petersen of Das Boot fame), was also released in 1984.  A few years ago, I bought the novel on which it was based and decided that this blog-a-thon would be a perfect opportunity to read the book and revisit a classic from my childhood.

Like many fantasies, The Neverending Story begins in the real world where a young boy named Bastian is coping with the death of his mother.  The boy loves to read and often retreats into his own fantasy world, neglecting his duties at school while his practically minded father pushes him to focus his attention on the real world.  Harassed by some boys on his way to school, Bastian retreats into a musty old bookshop (my dream of how every bookshop should look), where he meets a crochety old bookseller who tries to encourage him to fight back.  When the bookseller leaves to answer the phone, Bastian takes a book and runs out of the shop.  Instead of going to class, he steals away to the school attic, where he begins to read the book.

The action unfolds onscreen with the boy’s narration.  We learn of a world called Fantasia that is piece-by-piece being destroyed by a mysterious entity known as The Nothing.  The Childlike Empress, is dying, unable to help in the wake of possible destruction.  The only one who can find a cure her illness and save Fantasia is the warrior called Atreyu, who turns out to be a young boy about Bastian’s age.  Atreyu travels throughout the land, seeking answers from the wisest creatures of Fantasia.  Morlock The Old One, a tortoise-like creature the size of an island, tells him to ask The Southern Oracle.  After passing through the gates to reach The Oracle, Atreyu is told that he must go beyond the boundaries of Fantasia to find a human boy to give The Empress a new name.  With the help of the luck dragon, Falkor (a shimmery, iridescent, and ultra-friendly version of the fierce dragons most are accustomed to), Atreyu searches the land far and wide, but is unable able to find any way out of Fantasia.  Thrown off Falkor’s back during a storm, he meets a frightening wolf-like creature called Gmork, who is seeking to aid The Nothing in destroying the world.  He tells Atreyu that Fantasia has no boundaries, that is created from the fantasies of our world.  The Nothing is not so much an entity as the fading of our world’s hopes and fears.  Atreyu kills Gmork and, finding Falkor, returns to The Childlike Empress’s chamber to tell her the bad news.

As Bastian reads the story, the boundaries between Fantasia and the real world begin to melt.  After Atreyu passes through the first gate at The Oracle, he  comes to the Magic Mirror Gate, where he sees his true self.  Atreyu looks into the mirror and Bastian realizes, with shock, that he is the boy in the reflection.  He begins to wonder if maybe he’s the boy destined to give The Empress her new name.  How real is this world between the pages?

Watching the movie again, it’s easy to remember what I liked about it as a child.  The world of Fantasia is, by 1984 standards, convincingly portrayed.  The fantastical creatures that appear are the result of makeup, costuming, and puppetry.  The world they inhabit is created from the judicious use of sets, locations, and some gorgeous matte painting.  In a few scenes the blue screen is hard to ignore (especially at the end), the puppetry on Falkor a bit stiff, but otherwise the internal reality of the film is cohesive and believable.  It is “spectacular” in the best sense of the world.  Of course, plenty of fantasy movies look good without having much emotional, human appeal.  The Neverending Story also works because its lead, Barret Oliver, has a natural, unforced charisma that helps to make Bastian an engaging character.  His counterpart, Noah Hathaway as Atreyu, is suitably bold and courageous.  As I watched the movie unfold more than two decades later I was impressed by how engrossing I found it.   Which is not to say that it isn’t a bit dated.  Beyond the afore-mentioned blue screen, the film opens with the New Wave pop hit by Limahl, also titled “The Neverending Story,” which has definitely not aged well.

One thing that now strikes me about the movie is how few people who grew up watching it realize that it was based on a book.  I myself had no clue until a German acquaintance online mentioned the disappointment of many fans at Peterson’s well-known adaptation.  This might be due to the author of the book, Michael Ende, asking not to be included in the opening credits, though his name does appear in the closing.  In any case, the novel was first published in Germany in 1979 and went on to become a bestseller in that country; Ralph Manheim translated an English edition, published in 1983.  The Petersen adaptation only encompasses the first half of the novel, which continues Bastian’s adventures after entering Fantasia.  Reading the book, I was really struck by how the second half of the story enriches the themes and constitutes a whole cycle in the character’s growth.  The Neverending Story is a novel about the ambivalent nature of fiction, how imagination has both the power to enrich our lives and how that same power can create lies.  Petersen’s adaptation simplifies this idea by ending the film with the fantasy world invading the real one; Bastian’s basic struggles are never concretely resolved.  Furthermore, the infinite nature of “The Neverending Story” as a book within the narrative is never precisely explained, only vaguely implied.

Of course, it’s hard to imagine how a single film could have contained the richness of Ende’s original story.  Cutting the book down to its first half and building a story on makes for more economical cinematic storytelling.  Judged on its own terms, Petersen’s adaptation is a solid children’s fantasy film worth revisiting.  While not quite as richly or brilliantly conceived as the novel on which it was based (which should deservedly be ranked as a fantasy classic), The Neverending Story nevertheless has a memorable charm all its own.

Tags: 80's, children's fare, Fantasy, internal & alternate realities

This entry was posted on Monday, October 26th, 2009 at 6:49 pm and is filed under Children's Literature, Cinema, Fiction, Literature, Wolfgang Petersen. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.