[HARD TO BE A GOD screens Thursday April 16th at 6:45 pm and Sunday April 19th at 7:00 pm at the Cleveland Cinematheque.]
Review by Charles Cassady, Jr.
I had a certain emotional investment in watching HARD TO BE A GOD. You remember ENDER'S GAME, the long-in-planning film version of Orson Scott Card's science-fiction classic? Or JOHN CARTER, the long-in-planning film version of Edgar Rice Burrough's planetary romance? Yeah, nobody else much does either. Well, HARD TO BE A GOD was kinda like that.HARD TO BE A GOD is actually based on a 1964 novel by the great Russian science-fiction writers, the Brothers Strugatsky, Arkady and Boris, whose very readable literature inspired other filmmakers behind the Iron Curtain, notably Tarkovsky with STALKER. I liked the book better, frankly.
