31:15 The towel thing is explained in the book. If you're hitchhiking and you have a towel with you, people you meet will assume that you're the sort of person who travels well prepared for everything, and will therefor not mind lending you stuff that you accidentally forgot to bring with you. Perfectly logical.
The towel was such an important part of the book that when we went to see the movie on opening night, most of us brought towels with us to the theater.
When Alan Rickman was cast as Marvin... I cried... because there has never been a more perfect casting in the history of any casting... and that includes castings of fishing lines, dice, and spells.
Yup, perfect. OTOH I think Martin Freeman was very wrong. He's a great actor but he's not right for Arthur Dent. PS Zooey Deschanel is also very wrong for her role.
I love the story of the plutonium rock band, Disaster Area. Not just the loudest band in the galaxy, but in fact the loudest noise of any kind. They play from orbit and the audience sits in concrete blast shelters. The Hitchhiker's guide is full of gold.
They're based on Pink Floyd and Douglas Adams was friends with the band. He played guitar on stage with them at one of the Earls Court Pulse gigs in 1994...on his 42nd birthday😉. The Disaster Area idea of a sun-dive may come from the PF song 'Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun'. In fact, in the Original Records 1979 album version, Arthur says 'Ford..do you realise that Robot can hum like Pink Floyd?'. Adams died suddenly in 2001 and Gilmour later played guitar at a memorial service for him.
@@mark-nm4tc Not surprised he was friends with them, as well as having other notable friends. There was even a brief musical clip of Pink Floyd (with explanatory dialogue) in one of the Hitchhiker radio episodes, but it was cut when those were transferred to CDs by the BBC for sale. Expect it had to do with royalties and copyright. Douglas Adams also worked on Doctor Who for a while.
"The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't.” I mean, seriously... That line from fairly early in the first novel is just - wow! I loved how Douglas' mind worked.
My favorite Adams quote is "A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.". Every application developer should have the sentence framed on the cubicle wall.
I've visited his grave in Highgate Cemetery. People leave pencils on it instead of flowers, which is quite appropriate. He was very good friends with Stephen Fry, who narrates the film. My personal favourite quote of his is "Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-two million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea" - which I'm reminded of every time I see an ad for an apple watch.
The books do get existential at times but can also be a chaotic mess of absurd humor. They're wonderful. They've taught me not to take life too seriously.
Eh, not really, in the books Arthur was much braver and much prouder. At one point he stood up to and outsmarted Thor the God of Thunder who’s a giant.
Agreed. Some of the subtext is a lot more pronounced and center stage in the movie, and some of the main plot in the book vanished. All in all, not bad. Nothing compares to the book though.
The only thing that does the book justice is the original BBC TV serial. I would also add the original BBC radio play, but that actually came before the books.
The line from the book that really stuck with me is, “A time when men were real men, women were real women, and little furry creatures from Alpha Centauri were real little furry creatures from Alpha Centauri!” That was just delightfully absurd to me for some reason.
And a whale working out what wind and its tale is, in its very short life, is less absurd than knowing why a bowl of petunias says "Owe no, not again" when you know why.
@@malomodo Yes it was. The bowl of petunias was one of the incarnations of the creature (or consciousness) called Agrajag. And in every one of it's lives it was killed by Arthur. Agrajag is reincarnated 14 or 15 times in the books.
@@thegreatgreenarkleseizure I know. I was being intentionally vague so that I wouldn't give away the plot. It's not really funny when you explain the joke beforehand.
11:10 The bathrobe look is one of the more iconic outfits in ScFi by now - and purely accidental. Douglas Adams simply didn't notice he never gave Arthur the chance to change clothes when he first wrote the story... :)
This movie captured the spirit of the first book and really is a nice way to dip a toe inside the world that Douglass Adams created. It only loosely covers the first book of the "trilogy of five parts" which the first book is titled "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy". The five part trilogy thing, even though there are now six books, is a little joke at and nod to Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and how there are many more books than just the big three parts of the trilogy. The whole towel thing you notice if you pay attention to Ford throughout the movie, he displays how useful a towel is by constantly changing how he uses it: pillow, shawl, weapon, etc.
The other thing with the towel is, if you hitchhike the galaxy and still have one, then normies assume you've just got it together in general, and you can bum some other small item off of them without them thinking twice about it.
One thing I noticed was in the books it seems like all hitchhikers were obsessed with towels. In the movie it just seems like it's Ford, which is even funnier.
The movie is great, but the author died half way through making the movie and he was involved as a producer. You can definitely see his absence in the later half of the film but I still think it is a great adaptation.
A fun adaptation that doesn’t get enough love. FYI: Betelgeuse is a red giant star in the constellation Orion. The book series is off the wall. In the third book we learn how to fly: throw yourself at the ground and miss. It’s a bummer that they cut the whole towel bit because it’s classic. This movie only is adapted from the first book. The second book is called “The Restaurant At The Edge of The Universe,” and picks up where the first left off.
Sorry to be overly picky, but the sequel book is the Restaurant at the END of the Universe, not the EDGE. You have to time travel to get there, and to leave. Since your meal is the last thing in the universe to happen, you make your reservation on the way out.
At the end, the starship Heart of Gold turns into the face of Douglas Adams, and it brings a tear to my eye every time I see it. The movie tangentially references the many uses for a towel by showing Ford using his towel in various different ways, including hiding his face while running through oncoming laser fire.
25:00 That planet in the background has the face of Douglas Adams (1952-2001). His face is also the final image of the film, as the Heart of Gold enters Infinite Improbability Drive. Adams was a tireless advocate for the preservation of endangered species, a theme woven into the film in a satisfying way. Please read his "Last Chance to See", a tour, along with a wildlife photographer, to Madagascar (to visit the Aye-Aye, the rarest lemur), New Zealand (Kakapo, a flightless parrot), Komodo (the eponymous dragons) and to the plains of Africa to visit the white Rhinoceros. The book is based on a BBC Four Radio series, which ran from 1978-1979, and is the best incarnation of the franchise. It played on NPR in the United States in 1980, and I (age 11) taped it off the radio every time it was on (12 episodes in all, later expanded as someone below has commented). The sound was done by Paddy Kingsland of the BBC Radiophonic workshop, successor to the great Delia Derbyshire of "Doctor Who" and electronic music pioneer. Adams wanted the series to sound like a modern rock album (his friends, Pink Floyd, were recording The Wall around the same time, and there are music cues from Pink Floyd, Gyorgi Ligeti, Richard Strauss, and many others). The sound design was lush and in full crisp stereo, and I'm happy that the movie is carpeted with sound effects cues. The world building in the original series was so good that you could see it on radio, so to speak. I've performed the first 12 radio scripts in community theater and science fiction conventions, and Marvin is always an audience favorite. We always have an A4 sized photo of Adams to bring out with us at curtain call, so Douglas can take his bow along with the cast.
They actually made a series of the remaining books on Radio Four a few years ago (even got the authentic cricket commentators in for the cricket scene).
The TV adaptation is worth looking into for the Deep Thought scene alone. 30 years after I first saw it and I still can't say the number '42' without making it a booming proclamation. Also, the holographic head that appears when they arrive at Magrathea(?) is the actor who played Arthur in the series.
The TV adaptation is absolutely fantastic. What they did for the time and budget was amazing (specifically the visualisations of the guide), so good in fact that they hold up today. It's also pretty much a straight recreation of the original radio play (because yes, the books are themselves adaptations, although a lot of it was probably written concurrently) to the degree that the Show/Play share a lot of the same actors. It's a lot more dry witted, sarcastic and absurdist where this movie tends to skew towards the slapstick.
I’m really glad someone is reacting to this film, especially as a fresh viewer without the baggage of the books. It’s a great weird film that deserves more praise as a British classic
It's fun! But I always watch and feel like the early 80s TV show did some things better. The books did other things better. The radio show did other things better. The game did other things better. The opening dancing dolphins to So long and thanks for all the fish is just 10/10. And Stephen Fry is excellent as the Guide. And some really surreal movie only scenes are excellent. But I guess I just don't love the movie like a classic. Except for the opening. So yeah! Someone coming to it totally fresh is just lovely.
@Jamie_Pritchard I think there is room to enjoy this film without comparing it to the books. It's a nice way to for a new fan to enjoy Douglas Addams without taking a deep dive. If they love it sure read, listen to the rest etc. But this film can standalone
@@meropetied my biggest problem with this film is the ending is anti-climatic. It's all a bit easy and coincidental, no one really needs to grow or overcome. Even Arthur breaking out of the chair should have been set up. Super-intelligent mice dont realise their torrture device is flimsy?? Maybe the premise is too epic for one film. But I do like that it's self-contained, funny and asks existential questions. After all they cant be answered! Unless the answer is 42...
Theme footnote: the rock song that plays when we initially open the Guide at the beginning of the movie is "Journey of the Sorcerer" by The Eagles, Hitchhiker's eternal theme song. It also opens the older TV series adaptation. Listening to the full song gives me the chills. Another footnote: Marvin from the old TV series had a large boxy design, and had a cameo in the movie. He was in the queue at the Vogon office.
The Hitchhiker's Guide originated as a serialized radio program, which likely contributes to it feeling like a lot of little tiny stories stitched together (I've listened to the radio program, I do greatly enjoy it 🙂). The radio program was adapted to at least the first couple books where it was given a slightly more coherent storyline, and again here in the movie where the overall story can even be followed. The underlying DNA at its core is just a bunch of funny situations, many of which can be swapped in time without really detracting from the overall whole.
The book series was absolutely wild. This film is loosely based on the first one, and we never got to see the other four books get a similar treatment. It's a shame because as a kid I used to stay up till the early hours of the morning reading them. So many surprisingly powerful or emotional moments hidden amongst the absurdity.
The first 3 books in the trilogy sort of build on it.. but the last two is really just wacked out of here.. So maybe making 5 books in q A trilogy is not the best thing
I totally agree with you Natalie. I had the same reactions when I first read the books. 40 years later I'm still quoting the books; an endless quarry of intellectual & emotional finery. Occasionally scenes from the stories drift across my mind and I just spontaneously laugh. Still a delight.
I read the books many times before this movie came out. The movie does capture the spirit of the books pretty well. The books are veey small and quick to read because of the writing style. Most of the material comes from the first book with lore and some things coming from others. I highly recommen reading the books.
As I recall, the book opens with a long background on earth and humans, then inside of Author's house. The writing is very witty and clever. Very quick to read, and I recommend reading it. It's one of the few books I have physically read voluntarily.
When my kids were teenagers and big Doctor Who fans (still are btw), we ofcourse had to watch this film and as of that moment, when playing games (we do that a lot), a certain score (depending the game) is needed to win, yet when someone gets a 42 score, they win too. This houserule still holds till this day. And Alan Rickman is killing it as Marvin.
Nice, especially since Douglas Adams was the lead scriptwriter for Doctor Who around 1980, the Key to Time season. He also wrote one of the best Classic Who episodes, City of Death, the one set and partially filmed in Paris.
I had a chance to hear Adams speak at my university a few years before his passing. He talked about how much he enjoyed adapting this story for different media and how important it was to throw out whatever was necessary for adaptation. A radio play, tv series, book, text-based computer game, movie ... all need different things to work. He felt like each should stand on their own and not require the others or be required to include everything from the others. I love that take on adaption and it has flavored my enjoyment of different adaptations over the years and appreciation for good adaptations which made the tough choice to make changes which might even alienate original audience but which would make a better product. The Fellowship of the Rings (150 pages of wandering and lore cut to a short travel montage worked) and Ready Player One (replacing tasks that took years to solve and would've been boring to bring to the screen with action sequences worked) are great examples to me.
Something I love most about the writing style of Douglas Adams is the way he tends to take the hilariously scenic route to his punchlines. I was pleased to find a lot of that was kept in the movie adaptation. The books are still my favorite version because I think the medium works best for conveying his brilliant wordplay humor. If you’d like to have some rather wild and bizarre dreams, though, I highly recommend listening to the radio series while sleeping. It certainly worked for me. Don’t Panic, Shanelle. It was a lovely reaction.
The character of Marvin, the Paranoid Android, was based on the actual personality of a university contemporary of Douglas Adams called Andrew Marshall, who also, surprisingly, became a comedy scriptwriter. The original story was written in episodic form as a radio series, mostly in the couple of days leading up to recording (Adams would sometimes still be working on parts of the script when recording of the completed pages had started). Although the story of Arthur's failed attempt to win over Tricia MacMillan at a London party was part of the original story, he didn't find love and contentment until much later, in the book series.
I LOVE the book! Own it! I remember way back when I turned 42 my son said. "MOM! You are the answer to the meaning of life and the universe!" I was a proud mom.
As cute as the movie is, the radio show is better, the books are even better, (a trilogy in 5 books if you only count the ones Douglas Adams wrote), but my favorite is the TV show from 1981. Great reaction Shan. Marvin is certainly one of my favorite characters. Alan Rickman did a fantastic job.
Douglas Adams (the face you see at the end) truly had one of the greatest minds. I've loved the Guide since I was kid watching the BBC series, then the books (a trilogy of five). His Dirk Gently books are well worth a read too. Between these and the radio serials, it would be impossible to fit it all in to a single movie, but they did a good job of condensing it down to two hours here. Thanks for reacting to this, I could nerd out about it for days.
If you’re curious about the difference between this film and previous versions, I’d recommend Dominic Noble’s Lost In Adaptation HHG2G video. It also explains why fans of other versions found this one disappointing. That said, I’m glad Shanelle enjoyed it! Maybe I should view it as Hitchhiker’s lite, and accept it for what it is. It gives you a taste but doesn’t match the full course meal.
The simple answer is that this isn't really an adaptation of H2GT2G but a standard hollywood movie dressed in the clothes of one, jammed full of cliche and mainstream plot points (like the ham fisted love story and happy ending) and all the best bits are basically cribbed straight from the other versions.
I love The Hichhikers Guide series of books, the best trilogy in 5 parts ever written. This movie is ok but the B.B.C. tv series from the 80's is so much better as far as I am concerned. The movie tries a little too hard and lacks the soul of the tv and radio series. But over all is great to see another person discover the guide.
It didn't help that Douglas Adams died before the film got out of the development stage. The film is my least favorite adaption. I thought it should have stuck to the books, instead od adding their own ideas.
@@dnf-dead Yes the book “And Another Thing...” But I tend not too count that one as Douglas Adams did not write it. It was written by Eoin Colfer with the help of Adams widow Jane Belson. It was an ok book but it lacked the wit of Adams. I have it on my book shelf next to the other 5. But when I re-read the guide I always finish at “Mostly Harmless”
I've been a die hard Hitchhikers' fan since I was in high school in the 1980s. First, I watched the BBC TV show, then read the books. Then I learned that the whole thing started as a BBC radio show. I waited for years for a film version to come out. I was especially excited when I found out that Douglas Adams wrote the screenplay (mostly), and his son finished it when he died. In honor of Douglas Adams, May 25th is known as International Towel Day, started by fans in New Zealand. May 25 also happens to be my birthday. In 2008, I threw a huge sci-fi party for my 42nd birthday, more than 200 guests that I held as a fundraiser for a friend who needed help with medical bills. It was such a blazing success that it still comes up in conversation among my friends from time to time. I was disappointed with the movie at first, but on second and subsequent viewings, I enjoyed it more and more. The CGI was limited to things that couldn't be accomplished with puppets and miniatures. In 2005, Sam Rockwell said that he modeled the character of Zaphod as a combination of Elvis Presley and George W. Bush. Also, I have the number 42 tattooed on me in three places in binary, Roman numerals, and in ASCII. I discovered the question to the answer when I learned that Douglas Adams was a computer programmer. It all makes sense to me now. Also, the movie has so many fan-service cameos, that the fans being serviced always chuckle whenever they catch them.
Betelgeuse is a red giant star better known as The Shoulder of the Constellation: Orion. It is a star we expect to supernova soon and the only one we really expect to do so in the local region of the galaxy. It has been in the news A LOT over the past few years.
The books are actually really good, super funny and surprisingly intelligent, philosophical and thought provoking. Worth reading (they're not long books, easily consumable). My favorite chapter of all time is in the 3rd book, Marvin the paranoid android is stranded on a planet, in a swamp, and has a conversation with a mattress. I cry laughing at that one every time!
A movie based on a tv series based on book based on a radio show. There have been so many iterations of Hitchhiker's that anything that maintains the spirit of the original is totally legit. And Douglas Adams agreed.
This movie has some of the best commentary tracks. I binge watch this one three times in a row quite often, normal, amd once again with each commentary. So much info and great chats.
I was a junior in high school in 82 when I read this the first time. Always had a thing for british humor and a Sci Fi fanatic this seemed Monty Python in space, so great mix!
You're right. Marvin is the best character. If you like all the silly side stories and explanations you'll love the books. Usually I hate lots of narration in a movie, but the books are full of them so it would be hard to work around them. And when the narrator is Stephen Fry I just want to close my eyes, forget the movie and listen to him.
Your towel can be a cushion, a pillow, a sun shade, a shawl, and can dry you. You can also use it to flag someone down. You can touch things that are too hot or too cold for your bare hands. Your towel is essential for any serious traveler.
A few years back I went as Arthur to a friend's Halloween party- I was too lazy to think of a costume so I figured bathrobe, towel, bag of 'Babelfish' (gummy fish) and my copy of the Hitchiker's Guide book. It worked out quite nicely :p
My first exposure to Arthur, Ford, Trillian and Zaphod was when I was in elementary school. My father gave my brother and me a few audio cassettes of the original radio broadcast. (Arthur from the radio program, and subsequent BBC TV series, was played by the Magrathean hologram who sent the missiles at the Heart of Gold.) I’ve read the books, and they’re full of weird, meandering lore that’s brilliant fun, with universal themes and plenty of odd contradictions. Back before he wrote the first episode of the radio program, Douglas Adams wrote with a couple of the guys from Monty Python, and he wrote a number of episodes of Dr. Who. The towel bit had no intended meaning, but fans have declared May 25 to be Galactic Towel Day as a tribute to Adams and his works. My father got his first edition copy of So Long and Thanks for all the Fish signed by Adams back in 1984, which I now own and cherish. Thank you for reacting to this fun extension of my childhood!
For me, the British writer who has the most Douglas Adams-like writing style today is Jasper Fforde. Very quirky novels that are definitely for the literature college major that I was-my favorites are the Thursday Next series.
Douglas Adams was a genuis at writing! The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is one of the biggest and greatest sci-fi books ever. Ya gotta watch the old tv bbc mini-series. It has alot more than whats seen in thr movie! Alan Rickman as Marvin is Fantastic and EPIC.
I grew up with the books, and they are super funny. The movie pretty much covers much of the first book, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, they allude in the movie about the second book. The books are: Book 1: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1979) Book 2: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (1980) Book 3: Life, the Universe and Everything (1982) Book 4: So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish (1984) Book 5: Mostly Harmless (1992) The whole series has been a radio play, a book series, a TV series, and lastly the movie. There are many plot differences between all of these, but the style has always remained the same.
In some of its world building, The Hitchhiker's Guide parodies Asimov's Foundation Trilogy, which also features galactic empires and an essential reference source, in that case called the Encyclopedia Galactica. The ridiculous names, like Zaphod Beeblebrox, poke fun at Asimov's tin ear for the invention of common names.
My original copy of the book The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy long since fell to bits due to reading over and over. I am 65 and can still quote the book just as some people can quote Shakespeare. Towel Day is celebrated every year on 25 May as a tribute to the author Douglas Adams by his fans.
One of my favorite books. I read it when I was 14 and laughed so hard I fell off my bed! The movie is a little different from the books but Douglas Adams had a hand in the screenplay. I even got a tattoo of “don’t panic”. On a separate note, one of my mottos is: The world was made for those not cursed with self awareness.
I personally prefer the BBC's TV adaptation but this movie was a fun, if different, take on the story. I think the movie does well with adapting some of the major plot points (and jokes - the sperm whale and petunias is always a fun time) but they had to change a lot to fit it into one movie. I think they did pretty good with that, though, and I really like the cast, especially Freeman, who I think is a great Dent Arthur Dent (as Slartibartfast might call him).
From the Guide: "Any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the Galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through and still knows where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with."
I came across the book while living at a renaissance festival in upstate New York. Someone had left it in the kitchen trailer, so I started to read it... Have you ever heard of a book so engaging that you can't put it down? Well, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" was EXACTLY that. I could not put it down or stop to sleep until I'd read it cover to cover. I can't recommend it enough. So, it was made into a radio play, then an episodic TV series, all through the BBC. PBS brought it over for us Americans to enjoy. It took AGES to be made into a film, but finally resulted in this one. The film got panned BADLY by fans of the book and the earlier theatrical renditions, but I personally like it. The book is pure British absurdist humor; it comes out of the same generation that produced Monty Python's Flying Circus, The Goon Show, and The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band. The closest America ever got to this same type and quality of hysterical absurdism is Robin Williams. The same can be said of the sequel, "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe". In the same UK vein is the beloved show "Red Dwarf". (By the way, Ford Prefect is a type of automobile sold in the UK, like our Honda Civic or Nissan Altima.) Did you recognize John Malkovich and Bill Nighy in the cast? Or the Henson practical effects? Great film choice! Loved this!❣ Recommendation: "Warm Bodies".
Ah! I always understood the book came first. The book reads like the original material, so I assumed that was so. I could be wrong. Do you have dates on these things? I'd be very interested in hearing. @@CDNChaoZ
If you want even more Hitchhiker's Guide, ABSOLUTELY check out the 6 episode TV series from the 80s, based on the first 2 books. If you like Doctor Who, it'll feel similar.
A towel is very useful, it can work as a blanket, a barrier, a weapon, a filtering mask, a cleaner, a dryer, and can be simply cleaned. It can be traded, used as a blindfold; there is no downside to a towel, it can even be folded for storage.
The radio show is delightful. I don't know how you could react to a radio show but you should definitely listen to it. And yes, the books are delightful too. Again, reacting to a book would be ridiculous but for your own enjoyment you should check them out. They are delightfully hilarious.
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was originally a radio series which ran for two seasons. Then it became a series of books. Then a tv series, more books, then the original radio cast came back to dramatise the new books, and then this film. Overall the film was basically "The League of Gentlemen does their version of Hitchhiker" and a bit disappointing. The robot who waves at them in the waiting room is the ORIGINAL Marvin the Paranoid Android. I'm not sure if it truly is Stephen Moore (the original Marvin) in the suit or a nameless extra.
You missed out the stage productions which took place after the radio series and roughly around the same time as the first two novels were published. Most notable were the two shows directed by Ken Campbell, first an eight-day run at the ICA Theatre London in May 1979, and later a £300,000 production at the Rainbow Theatre London commencing July 1980, which ran for three hours, performed badly, and closed several weeks early: Adams said it was a financial disaster. I actually saw a performance at the Rainbow - The Book was narrated by an actor in a flying saucer suspended above the stage, there were laser beams everywhere, and two-headed Zaphod was played by two actors wearing a single large costume!
According to Douglas Adams, the original idea was for a radio series called "The Ends of the Earth", but he liked the first story he'd written so much that he simply stuck with it and just used it as the start for the Hitchhiker.
In regards to the movie vs. the 5 books, this film only handles the very first of the books (and it differs greatly in many ways from the book itself). But the books differ from the original radio play that Douglas Adams originally wrote, so it's kind of a running gag that the film continues. The author referred to the 5 books as a trilogy, just to confound readers, but I highly recommend reading them, as they are hilarious, as are the Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency books (of which was made a 2 season TV series that was a hoot to watch).
Shanelle. It's not based on a book. It's based on a British TV miniseries, which is based on a book, which is based on an earlier draft of that book, which is based on a radio show. Honestly as a HUGE HHGTTG fan, this movie only scratches the surface of Douglas Adams's brilliancy. If you're a reader, you should read the complete works (like 7 novels all in one). After his death, other authors continued more books in the same world. So long, and thanks for all the reactions!
Absurdist comedy is strange and fantastic. Hitchhiker's guide, Monty Python, Fry & Laurie, Everything Everywhere All At Once, this type of comedy is so unreal, it's awesome. Also, the man's face that quickly pops up at the end is the story's creator Douglas Adams who passed away during the film's production.
I read the books and saw the movie in the theater. I can't imagine what it would be like to watch the movie without reading at least the first book, but my feeling is that the viewer would miss a lot of the jokes. The books are fantastic. I would have liked to see the other books adapted into movies.
If you are hitchhiking around the galaxy on less than 20 Altairian dollars a day, you have to keep your key every day carry items on hand. The towel is one of them and symbolic of the whole readiness thing. For example, if a bugblatter beast is about to kill/eat you, you wrap the towel around your head. The beast is so dumb that it figures if you can't see it, then it can't see you. So then it can't find you to eat you. The towels are also somewhat technologically advanced - covered in the book but not the movie.
Fun bits. The nose temple and iconography is Douglas Adams' nose. His face was scanned for a video game. The model data was used to create the props. His face is also one of planets in the background while they travel through Managethren's factory floor. His face also shows up as one of the improbable forms when the crew heads to the Restaurant at the End of the Universe.
It was first a radio drama before it was a book. Every iteration of it features different elements, and the ones that are always there get shifted around.
The beauty of the Hitchhiker's franchise is that, each time it moved to a different medium, Douglas Adams CHANGED IT. The radio series is where it started. The TV series made several changes. So did the record album. So did the stage play. So did (especially) the computer game. And of course so did the film.
Douglas Adams (the author of the Hitchhiker's Guide) was an avid programmer. One language he was fond of was ASCII, in which an asterisk is represented by "42". The asterisk means "anything you want it to be". That's the answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything c':
In 1982 I was in a small bookstore looking for another Piers Anthony novel. I saw a book with a hand holding up a thumb, a planet sticking its tongue out at me, the words "DON'T PANIC you can read this book before everyone else has!". I started to read the intro and laughed out loud. A book had never caused me to actually physically laugh before, let alone standing in a small quiet bookstore. A must read (you can still read it before everyone else has!).
When I was a kid, these books were my absolute favourite. I first heard the BBC radio version of this starting when I was 10. I used to hide my clock radio under my bed covers and listen to the hour long broadcast every Sunday night. I wouldn’t stop talking about it, and eventually got the series of books, the 5 part trilogy, as a Christmas gift when I was 11. Read them more times than I can remember, and it they definitely helped shape my perception of the world. Douglas Adams also wrote what is probably my favourite book of all time, Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency.
The books take about 48 hours to consume, each. A college buddy gave me Hitchhikers Guide, and I stayed up all night reading. The world is a less wonderful place without Douglas Adams in it.
I remember Douglas Adams saying in an interview that production on the theatrical movie was due to start "next week" and that it had been the same "next week" for several years.
Such a fun movie. Love it's quirkiness. Funny that the part that sticks in my mind to this day is that part when Yasin, who is our expert on all this, starts pressing buttons and spinning the wheel "wait, what is this, what is this!? this is nothing..."
31:15 The towel thing is explained in the book. If you're hitchhiking and you have a towel with you, people you meet will assume that you're the sort of person who travels well prepared for everything, and will therefor not mind lending you stuff that you accidentally forgot to bring with you. Perfectly logical.
Arthur does acquire a special hitchhiking towel at one point, with a nutrient corner.
And the _origin_ of the whole towel thing is explained in Adams' talk here - ruclips.net/video/_ZG8HBuDjgc/видео.html 😂
Ford's towel is soaked in nutrients so you can stuck on it for sustenance in a pinch.
There is also a ton of jokes from Ford using it in the background if you're paying attention.
The towel was such an important part of the book that when we went to see the movie on opening night, most of us brought towels with us to the theater.
When Alan Rickman was cast as Marvin... I cried... because there has never been a more perfect casting in the history of any casting... and that includes castings of fishing lines, dice, and spells.
But he wasn’t in the suit…..Warrick Davis was
@@shawnmiller4781 Yes. But the VOICE. That PERFECT VOICE!!!
Even better than Andre the Giant in the Princess Bride?
Yup, perfect.
OTOH I think Martin Freeman was very wrong. He's a great actor but he's not right for Arthur Dent.
PS
Zooey Deschanel is also very wrong for her role.
He's no Stephen Moore.
I love the story of the plutonium rock band, Disaster Area. Not just the loudest band in the galaxy, but in fact the loudest noise of any kind. They play from orbit and the audience sits in concrete blast shelters. The Hitchhiker's guide is full of gold.
Gold wrapped in a slice of lemon? 😋
"Currently spending the year dead, for tax purposes."
They're based on Pink Floyd and Douglas Adams was friends with the band. He played guitar on stage with them at one of the Earls Court Pulse gigs in 1994...on his 42nd birthday😉. The Disaster Area idea of a sun-dive may come from the PF song 'Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun'. In fact, in the Original Records 1979 album version, Arthur says 'Ford..do you realise that Robot can hum like Pink Floyd?'. Adams died suddenly in 2001 and Gilmour later played guitar at a memorial service for him.
@@mark-nm4tc Not surprised he was friends with them, as well as having other notable friends.
There was even a brief musical clip of Pink Floyd (with explanatory dialogue) in one of the Hitchhiker radio episodes, but it was cut when those were transferred to CDs by the BBC for sale. Expect it had to do with royalties and copyright. Douglas Adams also worked on Doctor Who for a while.
Black Desioto
"The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't.”
I mean, seriously... That line from fairly early in the first novel is just - wow! I loved how Douglas' mind worked.
He was an undisputed genius.
100% i read that line ONCE, DECADES ago and never forgot it. One of the few perfect lines in a book that i've ever read.
@@slchance8839 I'm so proud - my 16yo just quoted it to me! :)
My favorite Adams quote is "A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.". Every application developer should have the sentence framed on the cubicle wall.
I've visited his grave in Highgate Cemetery. People leave pencils on it instead of flowers, which is quite appropriate.
He was very good friends with Stephen Fry, who narrates the film.
My personal favourite quote of his is "Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-two million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea" - which I'm reminded of every time I see an ad for an apple watch.
The books do get existential at times but can also be a chaotic mess of absurd humor. They're wonderful. They've taught me not to take life too seriously.
PS: A simple explanation for the "42" - just multiply that number by 10
The books are a bit like a LSD trip at times.
The books taught me what humour is...
It really is both, though. If the Hitchhiker's Guide as an entire body of work has a uniting theme, it's that existence *is* absurd.
The movie does not do the books justice, but the movie is definitely serviceable.
He does make a good Arthur Dent, though.
Eh, not really, in the books Arthur was much braver and much prouder. At one point he stood up to and outsmarted Thor the God of Thunder who’s a giant.
I loved the book, hated the movie.
Agreed. Some of the subtext is a lot more pronounced and center stage in the movie, and some of the main plot in the book vanished.
All in all, not bad. Nothing compares to the book though.
The only thing that does the book justice is the original BBC TV serial. I would also add the original BBC radio play, but that actually came before the books.
The line from the book that really stuck with me is, “A time when men were real men, women were real women, and little furry creatures from Alpha Centauri were real little furry creatures from Alpha Centauri!” That was just delightfully absurd to me for some reason.
"The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't."
And a whale working out what wind and its tale is, in its very short life, is less absurd than knowing why a bowl of petunias says "Owe no, not again" when you know why.
@@stuartanderws5705 That Bowl of Petunias was such an absurdly funny payoff, and wasn't it explained like three or four books in?
@@malomodo Yes it was.
The bowl of petunias was one of the incarnations of the creature (or consciousness) called Agrajag.
And in every one of it's lives it was killed by Arthur.
Agrajag is reincarnated 14 or 15 times in the books.
@@thegreatgreenarkleseizure I know. I was being intentionally vague so that I wouldn't give away the plot. It's not really funny when you explain the joke beforehand.
11:10 The bathrobe look is one of the more iconic outfits in ScFi by now - and purely accidental. Douglas Adams simply didn't notice he never gave Arthur the chance to change clothes when he first wrote the story... :)
This movie is slightly amusing. The books are absolutely astounding. I have read them 5 times over the years.
This movie captured the spirit of the first book and really is a nice way to dip a toe inside the world that Douglass Adams created. It only loosely covers the first book of the "trilogy of five parts" which the first book is titled "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy". The five part trilogy thing, even though there are now six books, is a little joke at and nod to Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and how there are many more books than just the big three parts of the trilogy. The whole towel thing you notice if you pay attention to Ford throughout the movie, he displays how useful a towel is by constantly changing how he uses it: pillow, shawl, weapon, etc.
The other thing with the towel is, if you hitchhike the galaxy and still have one, then normies assume you've just got it together in general, and you can bum some other small item off of them without them thinking twice about it.
One thing I noticed was in the books it seems like all hitchhikers were obsessed with towels. In the movie it just seems like it's Ford, which is even funnier.
Obviously a hoopy frood who really knows where his towel is.
The movie is great, but the author died half way through making the movie and he was involved as a producer. You can definitely see his absence in the later half of the film but I still think it is a great adaptation.
*The book needs to be adapted again to get the whole story. And all the funny bits therein.*
A fun adaptation that doesn’t get enough love.
FYI: Betelgeuse is a red giant star in the constellation Orion.
The book series is off the wall. In the third book we learn how to fly: throw yourself at the ground and miss.
It’s a bummer that they cut the whole towel bit because it’s classic. This movie only is adapted from the first book. The second book is called “The Restaurant At The Edge of The Universe,” and picks up where the first left off.
"The Vogon ships hung in the air in exactly the same way that bricks don't."
In fact, Betelgeuse is Orion's right shoulder.
Sorry to be overly picky, but the sequel book is the Restaurant at the END of the Universe, not the EDGE. You have to time travel to get there, and to leave. Since your meal is the last thing in the universe to happen, you make your reservation on the way out.
@@matt2027 oops. Typo.
another interesting FYI.... Betelgeuse is currently in the latter stage of life and is thought that it could go supernova in our lifetime
At the end, the starship Heart of Gold turns into the face of Douglas Adams, and it brings a tear to my eye every time I see it.
The movie tangentially references the many uses for a towel by showing Ford using his towel in various different ways, including hiding his face while running through oncoming laser fire.
25:00 That planet in the background has the face of Douglas Adams (1952-2001). His face is also the final image of the film, as the Heart of Gold enters Infinite Improbability Drive. Adams was a tireless advocate for the preservation of endangered species, a theme woven into the film in a satisfying way. Please read his "Last Chance to See", a tour, along with a wildlife photographer, to Madagascar (to visit the Aye-Aye, the rarest lemur), New Zealand (Kakapo, a flightless parrot), Komodo (the eponymous dragons) and to the plains of Africa to visit the white Rhinoceros.
The book is based on a BBC Four Radio series, which ran from 1978-1979, and is the best incarnation of the franchise. It played on NPR in the United States in 1980, and I (age 11) taped it off the radio every time it was on (12 episodes in all, later expanded as someone below has commented). The sound was done by Paddy Kingsland of the BBC Radiophonic workshop, successor to the great Delia Derbyshire of "Doctor Who" and electronic music pioneer.
Adams wanted the series to sound like a modern rock album (his friends, Pink Floyd, were recording The Wall around the same time, and there are music cues from Pink Floyd, Gyorgi Ligeti, Richard Strauss, and many others). The sound design was lush and in full crisp stereo, and I'm happy that the movie is carpeted with sound effects cues. The world building in the original series was so good that you could see it on radio, so to speak.
I've performed the first 12 radio scripts in community theater and science fiction conventions, and Marvin is always an audience favorite. We always have an A4 sized photo of Adams to bring out with us at curtain call, so Douglas can take his bow along with the cast.
They actually made a series of the remaining books on Radio Four a few years ago (even got the authentic cricket commentators in for the cricket scene).
Radio series, books, TV special, and movie. Their all good and all different in their own ways.
@@raphaelperry8159Yes, with Douglas Adams posthumously voicing Agrajag!
Agreed 😊
The first radio series was remade as a series of LPs (now available as CDs) and that was even better.
The TV adaptation is worth looking into for the Deep Thought scene alone. 30 years after I first saw it and I still can't say the number '42' without making it a booming proclamation.
Also, the holographic head that appears when they arrive at Magrathea(?) is the actor who played Arthur in the series.
The TV adaptation is absolutely fantastic. What they did for the time and budget was amazing (specifically the visualisations of the guide), so good in fact that they hold up today. It's also pretty much a straight recreation of the original radio play (because yes, the books are themselves adaptations, although a lot of it was probably written concurrently) to the degree that the Show/Play share a lot of the same actors. It's a lot more dry witted, sarcastic and absurdist where this movie tends to skew towards the slapstick.
Definitely watch the TV ADAPATION
I’m really glad someone is reacting to this film, especially as a fresh viewer without the baggage of the books. It’s a great weird film that deserves more praise as a British classic
It's fun! But I always watch and feel like the early 80s TV show did some things better. The books did other things better. The radio show did other things better. The game did other things better. The opening dancing dolphins to So long and thanks for all the fish is just 10/10. And Stephen Fry is excellent as the Guide. And some really surreal movie only scenes are excellent. But I guess I just don't love the movie like a classic. Except for the opening. So yeah! Someone coming to it totally fresh is just lovely.
@Jamie_Pritchard I think there is room to enjoy this film without comparing it to the books. It's a nice way to for a new fan to enjoy Douglas Addams without taking a deep dive. If they love it sure read, listen to the rest etc. But this film can standalone
@@meropetied my biggest problem with this film is the ending is anti-climatic. It's all a bit easy and coincidental, no one really needs to grow or overcome. Even Arthur breaking out of the chair should have been set up. Super-intelligent mice dont realise their torrture device is flimsy?? Maybe the premise is too epic for one film. But I do like that it's self-contained, funny and asks existential questions. After all they cant be answered! Unless the answer is 42...
@Jamie_Pritchard depends on your perspective. I think you can be a fan of hitchhikers without being a fan of all hitchhikers
Theme footnote: the rock song that plays when we initially open the Guide at the beginning of the movie is "Journey of the Sorcerer" by The Eagles, Hitchhiker's eternal theme song. It also opens the older TV series adaptation. Listening to the full song gives me the chills.
Another footnote: Marvin from the old TV series had a large boxy design, and had a cameo in the movie. He was in the queue at the Vogon office.
and just to verify, yes, those Eagles. The "Hotel California" band.
I had no idea! That's wild!
OG Marvin alert @ 20.32 :)
It's also in the Radio version.
The Hitchhiker's Guide originated as a serialized radio program, which likely contributes to it feeling like a lot of little tiny stories stitched together (I've listened to the radio program, I do greatly enjoy it 🙂). The radio program was adapted to at least the first couple books where it was given a slightly more coherent storyline, and again here in the movie where the overall story can even be followed. The underlying DNA at its core is just a bunch of funny situations, many of which can be swapped in time without really detracting from the overall whole.
also the TV version and the INFOCOM game
The book series was absolutely wild. This film is loosely based on the first one, and we never got to see the other four books get a similar treatment. It's a shame because as a kid I used to stay up till the early hours of the morning reading them. So many surprisingly powerful or emotional moments hidden amongst the absurdity.
The first 3 books in the trilogy sort of build on it.. but the last two is really just wacked out of here..
So maybe making 5 books in q
A trilogy is not the best thing
I totally agree with you Natalie. I had the same reactions when I first read the books. 40 years later I'm still quoting the books; an endless quarry of intellectual & emotional finery. Occasionally scenes from the stories drift across my mind and I just spontaneously laugh. Still a delight.
I read the books many times before this movie came out. The movie does capture the spirit of the books pretty well. The books are veey small and quick to read because of the writing style. Most of the material comes from the first book with lore and some things coming from others. I highly recommen reading the books.
As I recall, the book opens with a long background on earth and humans, then inside of Author's house.
The writing is very witty and clever. Very quick to read, and I recommend reading it. It's one of the few books I have physically read voluntarily.
those pesky humans and their neat digital watches
When my kids were teenagers and big Doctor Who fans (still are btw), we ofcourse had to watch this film and as of that moment, when playing games (we do that a lot), a certain score (depending the game) is needed to win, yet when someone gets a 42 score, they win too. This houserule still holds till this day.
And Alan Rickman is killing it as Marvin.
Nice, especially since Douglas Adams was the lead scriptwriter for Doctor Who around 1980, the Key to Time season. He also wrote one of the best Classic Who episodes, City of Death, the one set and partially filmed in Paris.
I had a chance to hear Adams speak at my university a few years before his passing. He talked about how much he enjoyed adapting this story for different media and how important it was to throw out whatever was necessary for adaptation. A radio play, tv series, book, text-based computer game, movie ... all need different things to work. He felt like each should stand on their own and not require the others or be required to include everything from the others.
I love that take on adaption and it has flavored my enjoyment of different adaptations over the years and appreciation for good adaptations which made the tough choice to make changes which might even alienate original audience but which would make a better product. The Fellowship of the Rings (150 pages of wandering and lore cut to a short travel montage worked) and Ready Player One (replacing tasks that took years to solve and would've been boring to bring to the screen with action sequences worked) are great examples to me.
No musical numbers but "So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish" (1982) is the title of the fourth book in the series.
Something I love most about the writing style of Douglas Adams is the way he tends to take the hilariously scenic route to his punchlines. I was pleased to find a lot of that was kept in the movie adaptation. The books are still my favorite version because I think the medium works best for conveying his brilliant wordplay humor. If you’d like to have some rather wild and bizarre dreams, though, I highly recommend listening to the radio series while sleeping. It certainly worked for me.
Don’t Panic, Shanelle. It was a lovely reaction.
The character of Marvin, the Paranoid Android, was based on the actual personality of a university contemporary of Douglas Adams called Andrew Marshall, who also, surprisingly, became a comedy scriptwriter.
The original story was written in episodic form as a radio series, mostly in the couple of days leading up to recording (Adams would sometimes still be working on parts of the script when recording of the completed pages had started). Although the story of Arthur's failed attempt to win over Tricia MacMillan at a London party was part of the original story, he didn't find love and contentment until much later, in the book series.
I LOVE the book! Own it! I remember way back when I turned 42 my son said. "MOM! You are the answer to the meaning of life and the universe!" I was a proud mom.
There’s an unintentionally funny moment in this film if you watch with subtitles on. When the earth explodes, it says in tiny font - [boom]
😊
The hologram missile warning head is the actor who played Arthur Dent from the BBC TV series. The original radio series was absolutely the best HHGTTG
Marvin the Paranoid Android from the BBC TV Series shows up in the line on Vogsphere.
As cute as the movie is, the radio show is better, the books are even better, (a trilogy in 5 books if you only count the ones Douglas Adams wrote), but my favorite is the TV show from 1981.
Great reaction Shan. Marvin is certainly one of my favorite characters. Alan Rickman did a fantastic job.
My all time favorite book! 🙌🏼
The movie is fun for what it is but the book is life changing
Douglas Adams (the face you see at the end) truly had one of the greatest minds. I've loved the Guide since I was kid watching the BBC series, then the books (a trilogy of five). His Dirk Gently books are well worth a read too. Between these and the radio serials, it would be impossible to fit it all in to a single movie, but they did a good job of condensing it down to two hours here. Thanks for reacting to this, I could nerd out about it for days.
“I love deadlines! It’s the sound they make as they go whooshing by.”
-Douglas Adams
I want that played at my funeral - "So long and thanks for all the fish!"
If you’re curious about the difference between this film and previous versions, I’d recommend Dominic Noble’s Lost In Adaptation HHG2G video. It also explains why fans of other versions found this one disappointing. That said, I’m glad Shanelle enjoyed it! Maybe I should view it as Hitchhiker’s lite, and accept it for what it is. It gives you a taste but doesn’t match the full course meal.
I never read or witnessed any other incarnation of it and I loved this. So there's that
The simple answer is that this isn't really an adaptation of H2GT2G but a standard hollywood movie dressed in the clothes of one, jammed full of cliche and mainstream plot points (like the ham fisted love story and happy ending) and all the best bits are basically cribbed straight from the other versions.
This is one of the best examples of a good adaptation. It captures the spirit of the book without just redoing the book. I love it so much.
I love The Hichhikers Guide series of books, the best trilogy in 5 parts ever written.
This movie is ok but the B.B.C. tv series from the 80's is so much better as far as I am concerned.
The movie tries a little too hard and lacks the soul of the tv and radio series.
But over all is great to see another person discover the guide.
It didn't help that Douglas Adams died before the film got out of the development stage. The film is my least favorite adaption. I thought it should have stuck to the books, instead od adding their own ideas.
There is a 6th book in the trilogy 😊
@@dnf-dead Yes the book “And Another Thing...” But I tend not too count that one as Douglas Adams did not write it.
It was written by Eoin Colfer with the help of Adams widow Jane Belson.
It was an ok book but it lacked the wit of Adams. I have it on my book shelf next to the other 5. But when I re-read the guide I always finish at “Mostly Harmless”
I've been a die hard Hitchhikers' fan since I was in high school in the 1980s. First, I watched the BBC TV show, then read the books. Then I learned that the whole thing started as a BBC radio show. I waited for years for a film version to come out. I was especially excited when I found out that Douglas Adams wrote the screenplay (mostly), and his son finished it when he died. In honor of Douglas Adams, May 25th is known as International Towel Day, started by fans in New Zealand. May 25 also happens to be my birthday. In 2008, I threw a huge sci-fi party for my 42nd birthday, more than 200 guests that I held as a fundraiser for a friend who needed help with medical bills. It was such a blazing success that it still comes up in conversation among my friends from time to time. I was disappointed with the movie at first, but on second and subsequent viewings, I enjoyed it more and more.
The CGI was limited to things that couldn't be accomplished with puppets and miniatures.
In 2005, Sam Rockwell said that he modeled the character of Zaphod as a combination of Elvis Presley and George W. Bush.
Also, I have the number 42 tattooed on me in three places in binary, Roman numerals, and in ASCII. I discovered the question to the answer when I learned that Douglas Adams was a computer programmer. It all makes sense to me now.
Also, the movie has so many fan-service cameos, that the fans being serviced always chuckle whenever they catch them.
Betelgeuse is a red giant star better known as The Shoulder of the Constellation: Orion.
It is a star we expect to supernova soon and the only one we really expect to do so in the local region of the galaxy.
It has been in the news A LOT over the past few years.
Is it just me who tears up a little with a smile on my face when Douglas Adam's face appears right at the end of the film?
Thank you, Shanelle! 🌌 There's a BBC tv series version from 1981; only 2 and a half hours total. Might be worth comparing, since it's rated higher.
The towel has MANY practical uses, but only ONE specific purpose.
For this reason, I never leave home without one.
The books are actually really good, super funny and surprisingly intelligent, philosophical and thought provoking. Worth reading (they're not long books, easily consumable). My favorite chapter of all time is in the 3rd book, Marvin the paranoid android is stranded on a planet, in a swamp, and has a conversation with a mattress. I cry laughing at that one every time!
Yeah that's one of my favorites too.
A movie based on a tv series based on book based on a radio show. There have been so many iterations of Hitchhiker's that anything that maintains the spirit of the original is totally legit. And Douglas Adams agreed.
This movie has some of the best commentary tracks. I binge watch this one three times in a row quite often, normal, amd once again with each commentary. So much info and great chats.
I was a junior in high school in 82 when I read this the first time. Always had a thing for british humor and a Sci Fi fanatic this seemed Monty Python in space, so great mix!
You're right. Marvin is the best character.
If you like all the silly side stories and explanations you'll love the books. Usually I hate lots of narration in a movie, but the books are full of them so it would be hard to work around them. And when the narrator is Stephen Fry I just want to close my eyes, forget the movie and listen to him.
I loved that you noticed the woman at the bar, she was the leading lady of the original hitchhikers guide to the galaxy show back in the day.
Your towel can be a cushion, a pillow, a sun shade, a shawl, and can dry you. You can also use it to flag someone down. You can touch things that are too hot or too cold for your bare hands. Your towel is essential for any serious traveler.
A few years back I went as Arthur to a friend's Halloween party- I was too lazy to think of a costume so I figured bathrobe, towel, bag of 'Babelfish' (gummy fish) and my copy of the Hitchiker's Guide book. It worked out quite nicely :p
My first exposure to Arthur, Ford, Trillian and Zaphod was when I was in elementary school. My father gave my brother and me a few audio cassettes of the original radio broadcast. (Arthur from the radio program, and subsequent BBC TV series, was played by the Magrathean hologram who sent the missiles at the Heart of Gold.) I’ve read the books, and they’re full of weird, meandering lore that’s brilliant fun, with universal themes and plenty of odd contradictions.
Back before he wrote the first episode of the radio program, Douglas Adams wrote with a couple of the guys from Monty Python, and he wrote a number of episodes of Dr. Who.
The towel bit had no intended meaning, but fans have declared May 25 to be Galactic Towel Day as a tribute to Adams and his works.
My father got his first edition copy of So Long and Thanks for all the Fish signed by Adams back in 1984, which I now own and cherish.
Thank you for reacting to this fun extension of my childhood!
For me, the British writer who has the most Douglas Adams-like writing style today is Jasper Fforde. Very quirky novels that are definitely for the literature college major that I was-my favorites are the Thursday Next series.
1:22 “Maybe this Hitchhiker will be hitchin’ his way around the Galaxy…”
In a word: yes.
Douglas Adams was a genuis at writing! The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is one of the biggest and greatest sci-fi books ever. Ya gotta watch the old tv bbc mini-series. It has alot more than whats seen in thr movie! Alan Rickman as Marvin is Fantastic and EPIC.
I grew up with the books, and they are super funny. The movie pretty much covers much of the first book, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, they allude in the movie about the second book. The books are:
Book 1: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1979)
Book 2: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (1980)
Book 3: Life, the Universe and Everything (1982)
Book 4: So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish (1984)
Book 5: Mostly Harmless (1992)
The whole series has been a radio play, a book series, a TV series, and lastly the movie. There are many plot differences between all of these, but the style has always remained the same.
In some of its world building, The Hitchhiker's Guide parodies Asimov's Foundation Trilogy, which also features galactic empires and an essential reference source, in that case called the Encyclopedia Galactica. The ridiculous names, like Zaphod Beeblebrox, poke fun at Asimov's tin ear for the invention of common names.
My original copy of the book The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy long since fell to bits due to reading over and over. I am 65 and can still quote the book just as some people can quote Shakespeare. Towel Day is celebrated every year on 25 May as a tribute to the author Douglas Adams by his fans.
One of my favorite books. I read it when I was 14 and laughed so hard I fell off my bed!
The movie is a little different from the books but Douglas Adams had a hand in the screenplay. I even got a tattoo of “don’t panic”. On a separate note, one of my mottos is: The world was made for those not cursed with self awareness.
The book was legendary and passed among nerds and artists, many years before this movie came out.
This series caused some deep and important conversations to take place in junior high school.
I personally prefer the BBC's TV adaptation but this movie was a fun, if different, take on the story. I think the movie does well with adapting some of the major plot points (and jokes - the sperm whale and petunias is always a fun time) but they had to change a lot to fit it into one movie. I think they did pretty good with that, though, and I really like the cast, especially Freeman, who I think is a great Dent Arthur Dent (as Slartibartfast might call him).
Agreed, except for Trillian's casting. Sorry, Sandra Dickinson. That was an interesting casting choice but didn't really work.
From the Guide: "Any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the Galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through and still knows where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with."
I came across the book while living at a renaissance festival in upstate New York. Someone had left it in the kitchen trailer, so I started to read it...
Have you ever heard of a book so engaging that you can't put it down? Well, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" was EXACTLY that. I could not put it down or stop to sleep until I'd read it cover to cover. I can't recommend it enough.
So, it was made into a radio play, then an episodic TV series, all through the BBC. PBS brought it over for us Americans to enjoy. It took AGES to be made into a film, but finally resulted in this one. The film got panned BADLY by fans of the book and the earlier theatrical renditions, but I personally like it.
The book is pure British absurdist humor; it comes out of the same generation that produced Monty Python's Flying Circus, The Goon Show, and The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band. The closest America ever got to this same type and quality of hysterical absurdism is Robin Williams. The same can be said of the sequel, "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe". In the same UK vein is the beloved show "Red Dwarf". (By the way, Ford Prefect is a type of automobile sold in the UK, like our Honda Civic or Nissan Altima.)
Did you recognize John Malkovich and Bill Nighy in the cast? Or the Henson practical effects?
Great film choice! Loved this!❣
Recommendation: "Warm Bodies".
Technically the radio play came first, at least for the plot before Restaurant at the End of the Galaxy.
That's what I said; radio play THEN the TV series... @@CDNChaoZ
@@chris...9497 Maybe I read you wrong. Radio play -> Book -> TV. Roughly speaking.
Ah! I always understood the book came first. The book reads like the original material, so I assumed that was so. I could be wrong. Do you have dates on these things? I'd be very interested in hearing. @@CDNChaoZ
Red dwarf is amazing! I wish it was as popular as Dr. Who in the states
Always needing a towel is actually some really good advice. Even more so when you have kids
If you want even more Hitchhiker's Guide, ABSOLUTELY check out the 6 episode TV series from the 80s, based on the first 2 books.
If you like Doctor Who, it'll feel similar.
A towel is very useful, it can work as a blanket, a barrier, a weapon, a filtering mask, a cleaner, a dryer, and can be simply cleaned. It can be traded, used as a blindfold; there is no downside to a towel, it can even be folded for storage.
The radio show is delightful. I don't know how you could react to a radio show but you should definitely listen to it. And yes, the books are delightful too. Again, reacting to a book would be ridiculous but for your own enjoyment you should check them out. They are delightfully hilarious.
I think you're going to love this. The genius of Douglas Adams is irresistible 😎
BTW you should totally watch the 2016 Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency from BBC both seasons. You will love it.
The Dirk Gently series was shockingly good.
I love that the robot is so depressed because he knows everything. I can relate.
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was originally a radio series which ran for two seasons. Then it became a series of books. Then a tv series, more books, then the original radio cast came back to dramatise the new books, and then this film.
Overall the film was basically "The League of Gentlemen does their version of Hitchhiker" and a bit disappointing. The robot who waves at them in the waiting room is the ORIGINAL Marvin the Paranoid Android. I'm not sure if it truly is Stephen Moore (the original Marvin) in the suit or a nameless extra.
You missed out the stage productions which took place after the radio series and roughly around the same time as the first two novels were published. Most notable were the two shows directed by Ken Campbell, first an eight-day run at the ICA Theatre London in May 1979, and later a £300,000 production at the Rainbow Theatre London commencing July 1980, which ran for three hours, performed badly, and closed several weeks early: Adams said it was a financial disaster. I actually saw a performance at the Rainbow - The Book was narrated by an actor in a flying saucer suspended above the stage, there were laser beams everywhere, and two-headed Zaphod was played by two actors wearing a single large costume!
According to Douglas Adams, the original idea was for a radio series called "The Ends of the Earth", but he liked the first story he'd written so much that he simply stuck with it and just used it as the start for the Hitchhiker.
The BBC 1980's mini series of Hitchhiker's was the first time I ever saw or heard of it (thanks Dad!) I was 6 years old, and I fell in love with it.
In regards to the movie vs. the 5 books, this film only handles the very first of the books (and it differs greatly in many ways from the book itself). But the books differ from the original radio play that Douglas Adams originally wrote, so it's kind of a running gag that the film continues. The author referred to the 5 books as a trilogy, just to confound readers, but I highly recommend reading them, as they are hilarious, as are the Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency books (of which was made a 2 season TV series that was a hoot to watch).
Shanelle. It's not based on a book. It's based on a British TV miniseries, which is based on a book, which is based on an earlier draft of that book, which is based on a radio show. Honestly as a HUGE HHGTTG fan, this movie only scratches the surface of Douglas Adams's brilliancy. If you're a reader, you should read the complete works (like 7 novels all in one). After his death, other authors continued more books in the same world. So long, and thanks for all the reactions!
Absurdist comedy is strange and fantastic. Hitchhiker's guide, Monty Python, Fry & Laurie, Everything Everywhere All At Once, this type of comedy is so unreal, it's awesome.
Also, the man's face that quickly pops up at the end is the story's creator Douglas Adams who passed away during the film's production.
My favourite line from the book describes how the Vogon ships hang in the air in the way that a brick doesn't. 😅
I read the books and saw the movie in the theater. I can't imagine what it would be like to watch the movie without reading at least the first book, but my feeling is that the viewer would miss a lot of the jokes. The books are fantastic. I would have liked to see the other books adapted into movies.
Your experience with this movie was so refreshing.
I absolutely love this adaptation and also the books. Just fantastic.
You only scratch the surface, it was a book first then a radio show then a TV show then a record album then finally a movie
If you are hitchhiking around the galaxy on less than 20 Altairian dollars a day, you have to keep your key every day carry items on hand. The towel is one of them and symbolic of the whole readiness thing. For example, if a bugblatter beast is about to kill/eat you, you wrap the towel around your head. The beast is so dumb that it figures if you can't see it, then it can't see you. So then it can't find you to eat you. The towels are also somewhat technologically advanced - covered in the book but not the movie.
One of my absolute favorite reading experiences.
Fun bits. The nose temple and iconography is Douglas Adams' nose. His face was scanned for a video game. The model data was used to create the props.
His face is also one of planets in the background while they travel through Managethren's factory floor.
His face also shows up as one of the improbable forms when the crew heads to the Restaurant at the End of the Universe.
It was first a radio drama before it was a book. Every iteration of it features different elements, and the ones that are always there get shifted around.
I saw this randomly in the movies on a date. No idea what it was but I loved it. Must have seen it 100 times.
You will now notice just how often "42" is referenced in films and shows... and realize how many fans of this book are out there.
The beauty of the Hitchhiker's franchise is that, each time it moved to a different medium, Douglas Adams CHANGED IT. The radio series is where it started. The TV series made several changes. So did the record album. So did the stage play. So did (especially) the computer game. And of course so did the film.
Douglas Adams (the author of the Hitchhiker's Guide) was an avid programmer. One language he was fond of was ASCII, in which an asterisk is represented by "42". The asterisk means "anything you want it to be". That's the answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything c':
35:15 The fact that there are 5 Hitchhiker's Guide books makes it the longest triology ever written 😁
My kids loved this movie when they were little. My daughter when she was 4 years old would randomly yell “HUMMA KAVULA”!
In 1982 I was in a small bookstore looking for another Piers Anthony novel. I saw a book with a hand holding up a thumb, a planet sticking its tongue out at me, the words "DON'T PANIC you can read this book before everyone else has!". I started to read the intro and laughed out loud. A book had never caused me to actually physically laugh before, let alone standing in a small quiet bookstore. A must read (you can still read it before everyone else has!).
When I was a kid, these books were my absolute favourite. I first heard the BBC radio version of this starting when I was 10. I used to hide my clock radio under my bed covers and listen to the hour long broadcast every Sunday night. I wouldn’t stop talking about it, and eventually got the series of books, the 5 part trilogy, as a Christmas gift when I was 11. Read them more times than I can remember, and it they definitely helped shape my perception of the world.
Douglas Adams also wrote what is probably my favourite book of all time, Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency.
I was introduced to Hitchhiker thru a radio theatre series on NPR, then the books, the BCC tv series, finally the movie. The radio series was amazing.
This will all end in tears.
The books take about 48 hours to consume, each. A college buddy gave me Hitchhikers Guide, and I stayed up all night reading. The world is a less wonderful place without Douglas Adams in it.
9:04 - That's literally *EVERYONE* in in high school! 😂
This is one of my favorites. It cracks me up the whole time
I remember Douglas Adams saying in an interview that production on the theatrical movie was due to start "next week" and that it had been the same "next week" for several years.
The first time I saw the movie was in a special fan screening, and we all brought towels.
When they get slapped in the face with the flyswatters I laugh out loud every single time. Even years of watching I still laugh.
Such a fun movie. Love it's quirkiness. Funny that the part that sticks in my mind to this day is that part when Yasin, who is our expert on all this, starts pressing buttons and spinning the wheel "wait, what is this, what is this!? this is nothing..."
Back in the 90s my friend had a big minivan. He named it Choad Nostromo Slartibartfast.
This began as a radio play, if you ever get a chance to listen to you it is even better than the book.