“The movie was only tangentially based on the book... there is a Johnny Rico (from the Philippines in the book, not Buenos Aires)”
Correct. And just like Ender’s Game, there are novels that cannot be correctly translated unto the big screen. In hindsight, if people knew how much The Natural was in the novel (full of incest, child molestation), you’d never think it was a baseball movie.
Not to mention that The Natural’s ending was changed and changed the movie’s message.
The book Starship Troopers was superb. The movie was a show piece for Denise Richards and Casper Van Dien and special effects. and Doogie Howser as a SS type was unintenionally hilarious.