Michael Crichton Was a Rare Talent

In baseball the term "five-tool player" means someone who can hit for average, hit for power, run fast, field well, and throw accurately.  Such rare players are almost like superheroes.  A couple months ago, Michael Offutt wrote this appreciation post of Michael Crichton and as I commented, Crichton was one of those rare writers who wrote in different areas.  He also worked in different mediums:  books, TV, and movies as a writer, producer, and director.  He was a five-tool player.  

The way the writing world works is that if you have success in one genre then generally you keep doing that for a while.  A lot of writers will pretty much do that the rest of their careers.  And there's nothing really wrong with that.  If you can do something well, why not keep doing it?  Getting back to the baseball analogy, some players are good at hitting but lousy at fielding (especially older players who lack the mobility they once had) or really good at fielding but not very good at hitting.  Then there are "left-handed specialists," or left-handed relief pitchers who basically come in to pitch to one left-handed batter and then leave the game.  Some of those guys can hang around to their mid-40s because they don't get as much wear-and-tear as someone who pitches 200 innings a year.

Anyway, most writers are like minor leaguers who never really crack the major leagues, but of the ones who do, most tend to have some kind of specialty that they do.  Even a writer who has been around a long time and had a lot of success like John Irving stays pretty much in one area of "literary" writing.  Tom Clancy was so successful in one genre that he became a brand after his death.  Others like Stephen King or John Grisham have a lot of success in one area and then earn the right to expand into other areas.  And then you have James Patterson who pays people to "co-author" books in a variety of genres.

Most of what Crichton wrote were "thrillers" but there was a variety of subjects.  The science ones like Jurassic Park, Congo, and The Andromeda Strain are probably the best known ones.  There were also business ones like Rising Sun, Disclosure, and Airframe.  Then he also wrote Eaters of the Dead, a more realistic take on Beowulf and The Great Train Robbery, which was, you know, about a train robbery in Victorian England.  Towards the end he got into more technology-based thrillers like Cell or Next.  Maybe it's not as diverse as if he wrote romances and comedies and children's books along with the thrillers but it's still a pretty broad subject area.

Then you have movies like the original Westworld and its sequel Futureworld.  And TV shows like ER.  It was a lot of stuff and really not many get to do that because they don't have the success or talent.  Really all he needed to do was release an album of musical compositions to pretty much cover every medium.

Yours Truly has tried different subject matters.  I've done a lot of gender swap erotica, but I started writing sci-fi and then literary.  And some of the literary like Higher Power or The Best Light or Virgin Territory is really more romance oriented.  I even tried comedy with Chet Finley vs The Machines of Fate.  But obviously I haven't been all that successful except in one area.

Still, I think what we should take away from someone like Crichton is that we shouldn't be afraid to push our boundaries.  If you have success at something then you probably want to stick with it, but don't be afraid to do other things too when you can.  99% of us will never be a five-tool player, but that does not mean you shouldn't try.

There's your inspirational message...not that anyone will read it. 

And now here's my ranking of Crichton-based movies I have seen:

1. The 13th Warrior (aka Eaters of the Dead): Although now we'd probably whine about Antonio Banderas playing an Arab, it was a really good adaptation that in some ways even improved on Crichton's book, like how he learns the Norse language so he can talk to them, something that was awkward in the book.
2. Jurassic Park:  Even if a lot of the dinosaur stuff is wrong, it's still a really entertaining movie
3. Sphere:  This was a great movie with an all-star cast that somehow didn't get much attention.
4. Congo:  This should really get a reboot because it was a decent adaptation with not-so-special effects
5. Rising Sun:  I suppose now people would bitch about "cultural appropriation" with Sean Connery as the gaijin.  It is kind of a product of its time in the early 90s when it seemed the Japanese were going to buy everything in America.  (Then I guess the Chinese undercut them.)
6. Timeline:  I saw it once I think on streaming.  It was OK.  When I read the book I noted how cinematic it seemed, something that really couldn't be said for some of Crichton's other books.  I don't think the movie really improved on it much.
7. Westworld:  The 70s movie was a pretty 70s sci-fi movie with a decent story and a great performance by Yul Brynr as the "man in black."
8. Futureworld:  The unnecessary sequel!
9. The Lost World:  Speaking of unnecessary sequels...this movie didn't even hold that much to Crichton's rushed book

Before you say, "What about...?" I just said "movies I have seen."  Some I have not seen.  Got it, Phantom Readers?

What are your favorite Crichton books and movies?