Tales from Storage and Planet Ten

A Banzai Institute T-shirt.  Vintage original 1980's rarely worn.  Will Be Long Treasured.

Across the 8th Dimension!

Way back in the summer of 1984, I got dragged to a movie I had little or no interest in seeing: The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension. It looked stupid to me, but my friend really wanted to go, so I went.

I hated it.

Hated might be a strong term, but I thought it was pretty silly. The funny thing was, a week later, I was still thinking about the movie. I wanted to see it again but it was too late - it only played one week in the theaters. So months later, I was on the waiting list to get a copy as soon as it came out on VCD - that's a video disc format that actually played with a stylus in a groove, much like a music LP. This meant your picture could skip with the slightest piece of dust, which made for some amusing re-edits on the fly while watching sometimes.

It never came out on VCD - even though it was promised - but it did play at my college, and I eventually got a VHS copy. I was hooked. The world of brain surgeon / rock star / alien fighter Buckaroo Banzai, the Hong Kong Cavaliers (his rock band / posse), and the Blue Blaze Irregulars (civilian supporters of his fight against evil) was too much fun not to want to play in. If you're familiar with the movie, you probably know this. If not, I'm not sure how it would play to someone viewing it for the first time now, long after the 80s.

This book, though, is very interesting as "movie novelizations" go.  Written by Earl Mac Rauch - the same guy that wrote the screenplay - it's not so much a print version of the movie, but reads like a full-fledged well-rounded novel that a movie was based on.  Written from the point of view of Reno (of course - since he's the Hong Kong Cavalier's record keeper) it fills us in on details of Buckaroo's life - past adventures, his first marriage , etc. - only eluded to in the movie.  "Reno" even includes footnotes referring to past issues of Buckaroo Banzai comic books- that were never actually published - giving the impression you, the reader, are living in a world where the exploits of larger than life Dr. Banzai are known to all.  

It also includes quite a lot of info on Hanoi Xan, leader of the World Crime League and Banzai's eternal nemesis - who movie watchers only know obliquely from the end of the video, which promises Buckaro will return in "Buckaroo Banzai Against the World Crime League."  This sequel was never made.  A favorite line from the novel about Xan, from Reno:  "I last saw Xan across the lobby of the Park Plaza Hotel in New York, bedecked in a robe made from the knuckle bones of a thousand slain warriors, and would have killed him instantly if only I had a clear shot."  (I'm paraphrasing from memory, so don't kill me if it's not quite right...)

For years, almost nothing was available to collect on Buckaroo Banzai, so I got everything I could - like this Team Banzai headband, a replica of the one Buckaroo wears driving the jet car, now proudly tucked away in my storage space.

In short, though it's a bit late for that:  Buckaroo Banzai = good movie, and even better book.