Talk:The Jacket

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The Jacket (Jack London novel)

I'm baffled by the absence of any official credit to Jack London. Early press accounts of the film, while in preparation, which unfortunately no longer seem to be available on the web, said flatly that Clooney and Soderbergh were making a film of the Jack London novel. The project was delayed for some years.

Jack London's novel would seem to be so uncinematic as to be unfilmable, so it's not surprising that the current film bears very little relation to the novel. However, the central device of a person who experiences discorporeal time-travel while strapped into an intolerably-tightly-laced straightjacket is so specific and peculiar that it deserves mention. Since

"Although uncredited, key elements of the film's story may be based on this novel."

was removed a speculation, which it is, I've replaced it with the simple statement of fact that the novel is

about a prisoner who undergoes discorporeal time travel while being tortured in a compression jacket,

leaving it to the reader to decide whether that element of the movie is related to the novel. Dpbsmith (talk) 21:24, 13 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

P. S. I'm going to continue looking for a source that says plainly that the movie is loosely based on the Jack London novel. Oddly, there seem to be a number of foreign-language sources that say this. For example, La Repubblica Spettacoli & Cultura: Le sventure in serie di un messia involontario says

Come il vagabondo delle stelle di Jack London, dalla sua postazione l'uomo comincia a viaggiare nel passato, poi nel futuro.

Even I can translate that as "like Jack London's Star Rover." Babelfish says "Like the wanderer of stars of Jack London, from its emplacement the man begins to travel in the past, then in the future."

A user comment in a French web forum says "Inspiré semble-t-il en partie du vagabond des étoiles de jack London..." = "Inspired seems it partly of the vagrant of stars of jack London." Just a user comment, but interesting. Dpbsmith (talk) 21:40, 13 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Bingo. Found it. Derivation from Jack London is acknowledged by the director:

"Full Mental Jacket". The Irish Times Weekly Guide to Entertainment. 2006-09-13. Retrieved 2006-09-13.. Quotes directory Maybury: "'I know you think it is a load of Hollywood nonsense,' he says amiably, 'but it is in fact loosely based a true story that became a Jack London story.'" Dpbsmith (talk) 22:07, 13 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

THEMES

"The morgue drawer that Jack is imprisoned in acts as a metaphor for death." This needs a citation. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Plumlogan (talk • contribs) 16:09, 16 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]