Focus Features offered film goers a great batch of movies in 2012. Among their fantastic lineup was SEEKING A FRIEND FOR THE END OF THE WORLD, PARANORMAN, HYDE PARK ON HUDSON and ANNA KARENINA. The studio has an interesting slate of films for 2013 that include Academy Award nominee Paul Weitz’s ADMISSION starring Tina Fey and Paul Rudd, the highly anticipated new drama from director Derek Cianfrance’s THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES starring Academy Award nominee Ryan Gosling and PROMISED LAND – the new contemporary drama directed by Gus Van Sant. The film will be in select theaters December 28th and nationwide January 4, 2013.
To start off the new year right, Focus Features and WAMG invite you to enter to win a pass (good for 2) to the advance screening of PROMISED LAND on January 3rd at 7 pm in St. Louis.
OFFICIAL RULES:
1. YOU MUST BE IN THE ST. LOUIS AREA THE DAY OF THE SCREENING.
2. True or False:
Frances McDormand has won an Academy Award.
Matt Damon has won an Academy Award
Gus Van Sant has won an Academy Award
3. SEND YOUR NAME AND ANSWERS TO: michelle@wearemoviegeeks.com
WINNERS WILL BE CHOSEN THROUGH A RANDOM DRAWING OF QUALIFYING CONTESTANTS. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. PASSES WILL NOT BE SUBSTITUTED OR EXCHANGED. DUPLICATE TICKETS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED.
This film has been rated R for Language
Matt Damon plays Steve Butler, an ace corporate salesman who is sent along with his partner, Sue Thomason (Frances McDormand), to close a key rural town in his company’s expansion plans. With the town having been hit hard by the economic decline of recent years, the two outsiders see the local citizens as likely to accept their company’s offer, for drilling rights to their properties, as much-needed relief. What seems like an easy job for the duo becomes complicated by the objection of a respected schoolteacher (Hal Holbrook) with support from a grassroots campaign led by another man (John Krasinski), as well as the interest of a local woman (Rosemarie DeWitt). PROMISED LAND explores America at the crossroads where big business and the strength of small-town community converge.
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Find out which theatresare playing Promised Land by you.
THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY has surpassed the $500 million benchmark at the worldwide box office. The joint announcement was made today by Toby Emmerich, President and Chief Operating Officer, New Line Cinema; Gary Barber, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios; Dan Fellman, President of Domestic Distribution, Warner Bros. Pictures; and Veronika Kwan Vandenberg, President of International Distribution, Warner Bros. Pictures.
To date, the blockbuster has earned an estimated $179.7 million domestically. In addition, on the heels of its record-breaking release in Australia—the biggest Boxing Day opening of all time – THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY has grossed an estimated $344 million internationally, for a staggering global total of $523.7 million, and still steadily climbing.
In making the announcement, Fellman stated, “We are extremely gratified by the response of moviegoers who love the film and, in many cases, are taking this terrifically entertaining ‘Journey’ to Middle-earth more than once. We anticipate that positive word of mouth and repeat viewings will continue to result in strong returns well into the New Year.”
Kwan Vandenberg said, “These fantastic box office numbers demonstrate that the film’s playability has no borders. Peter Jackson has created a truly global event with a film that thrills audiences in any language. Warner Bros. joins our partners at MGM and New Line in congratulating him, his cast and crew, and everyone involved in this film on this milestone.”
From Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Peter Jackson comes THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY, the first of a trilogy of films adapting the enduringly popular masterpiece The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien. The three films tell a continuous story set in Middle-earth 60 years before THE LORD OF THE RINGS, which Jackson and his filmmaking team brought to the big screen in the blockbuster trilogy that culminated with the Oscar®-winning THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING. The film stars Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, James Nesbitt, Ken Stott, Sylvester McCoy, Barry Humphries, Cate Blanchett, Ian Holm, Christopher Lee, Hugo Weaving, Elijah Wood and Andy Serkis.
This film has been rated PG-13 for extended sequences of
intense fantasy action violence, and frightening images.
On June 3rd, 1993, three teenagers from West Memphis, Arkansas were arrested for the murders of three eight year old boys. Despite their innocence, and a complete lack of evidence, Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley became targets for the police investigation, and eventually convicted for the brutal slayings of Christopher Byers, Steven Branch and Michael Moore.
18 years later, Echols, Baldwin, and Misskelley were finally released from prison. With his newly found freedom, Damien Echols (along with his wife Lorri Davis and supporters of the West Memphis Three) is determined to find the person behind the murders, and finally gain closure. Recently, at a small press conference in Beverly Hills, California, WAMG got the chance to speak with Damien Echols, his wife Lorri Davis, and Director Amy Berg about their new documentary that follows Damien’s fight to save his own life, and their search for the truth. You can read the complete transcript below.
A new documentary written and directed by Academy Award nominated filmmaker, Amy Berg (DELIVER US FROM EVIL) and produced by first-time filmmakers Damien Echols and Lorri Davis, in collaboration with the multiple Academy Award-winning team of Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, WEST OF MEMPHIS tells the untold story behind an extraordinary and desperate fight to bring the truth to light; a fight to stop the State of Arkansas from killing an innocent man. Starting with a searing examination of the police investigation into the 1993 murders of three, eight year old boys Christopher Byers, Steven Branch and Michael Moore in the small town of West Memphis, Arkansas, the film goes on to uncover new evidence surrounding the arrest and conviction of the other three victims of this shocking crime – Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley. All three were teenagers when they became the target of the police investigation; all three went on to lose 18 years of their lives – imprisoned for crimes they did not commit.
How the documentary came to be, is in itself a key part of the story of Damien Echols’ fight to save his own life. The film reveals how close he, his wife Lorri Davis, along with his legal team, friends and supporters, came to losing that battle. But as Echols, who spent eighteen years on death row, himself has stated “… in the face of such horror, in the face of resounding grief and pain, you cannot give up … you must never give up.”
Amy, what made you decide to film this?
Amy: There was a huge injustice. I mean, this case represents one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in history. There was a man on death row, and I needed to do something.
Damien, you probably made a bit of history by being the first film producer who’s been on death row.
Damien: (Laughs) I didn’t think of that.
I was curious about Terry Hobbs and David Jacoby. Are you convinced that they are the actual killer?
Damien: To be honest, I don’t know. It’s one of those things we always say… We shouldn’t have to even point the finger, but it should be the evidence. The evidence should be heard, and it should be what points the finger. When they sent us to prison, they never had any physical evidence connecting us to this crime. They now have ten-thousand times more connecting this man to the crime than they ever had on us, but we can’t even get the prosecutor to call a grand jury.
Will you continue to fight?
Damien: We don’t have a choice. The state of Arkansas is not going to do anything. Anything that’s done in this case from here on out, the burden will rest entirely upon us. That’s why we’re doing this now, here, talking about this. This isn’t fun. This is actually pretty damn miserable most of the time. Talking about the worst thing that’s ever happened to you over, and over, and over… It gets to the point where you feel like you don’t even have a personality anymore. People just look at you and they see the case, but if we want any sense of closure in the future, this is what we have to do now. It’s a necessary evil. If we want to be exonerated, if we want the person in prison who belongs in prison, and if we want the person who did this held responsible… then we have to keep doing this. We have to let the state of Arkansas know “We’re not going anywhere until you do the right thing.”
Lorri, when you quit your job, how tough was that? You had to have something still coming in while you were dealing with all of this… while making those long distance phone calls, obviously. Talk about the stress of going through all of that.
Lorri: Actually, having a relationship with someone in prison is an extremely expensive relationship. Phone calls are very expensive. Traveling to the prison is expensive. I think that’s one of the things people forget is that people who are incarcerated, most of the time, are cut off from their families because their families don’t have the means to keep in touch with them. Luckily I did. I was able to support myself. Most of the time I worked two full-time jobs; The case and my profession.
Lorri (Cont.): There were times when the case load would get too big, and I was hired by Fran and Pete at one point to help them coordinate their efforts. Then, at another time, the defense firm hired me, within the last year, because the work load was just too daunting to do it without actually doing it full-time. So, that’s stressful because you do have to worry about it. I was living very sparsely, for many years, to make sure I could balance it all. It is stressful. The phone calls are expensive. The most important thing for Damien and I was to keep our correspondence going at all times whether it be letters, visitation, or talking on the phone. My phone bills, just for the two of us, could be $500 a month. So, it’s expensive.
For Lorri and Damien, what gave you strength… I’m always curious, during times of crisis… What gave you strength to carry on during the whole process, and has that changed, now?
Damien: It was, really the two things that held us together, and that kept us going through, was number one, our relationship, and number two, our spiritual practice. It was something that we could both do together, at the same time. It keeps you from getting angry. It keeps you from getting bitter, whenever you have something to focus on like that. Not to mention, when you’re in prison there’s almost no medical care on death row. They’re not going spend a lot of time, and money, and energy taking care of somebody they plan on killing. There were times when I would get extremely sick, or be in excruciating pain, and I had to learn things like reiki and qigong just to keep myself going. A lot of time and energy went to that, and we would do these things together. We didn’t have the things that most people have to rely on. We couldn’t go to the movies together, or go out to dinner together, or sleep in the same bed at night, so we had to focus on the things that we did have to keep from becoming bitter about the things we didn’t.
Damien, you were imprisoned for such a long time that, as miserable as it was, you had a routine. What was the hardest part of transitioning out of prison and back into society?
Damien: Human interaction, definitely. Not only had I been in prison for 18 years, I’d been in solitary confinement for almost a decade on the day that I walked out. I wasn’t use to interacting with people, at all. I mean, there are no words to begin to articulate how overwhelming something like that is. For the first two to three months that I was out I was in a state of extreme shock and trauma, just from coming out into the world again. Most people don’t understand that. They just think you’re going to be happy and excited that you’re out of prison, and you are, but at the same time the anxiety, and stress, and fear, and everything else that comes along with it, is absolutely crippling in a lot of ways. So, that was a huge thing. There’s all sorts of things. You know, the list could go on forever. I hadn’t walked anywhere without chains on my feet for almost 20 years, so it’s almost like you have to learn to walk again. You’re constantly tripping over your own feet, or down stairs. You don’t use silverware in prison. That would be considered a weapon. You have to learn that again. On top of that, you’ve got all this new stuff: Computers, and cell phones, and ATM machines. It can be panic inducing in the beginning.
Amy, what was most important for you when it came to relaying what Damien was going through. What was that like for you?
Amy: It’s hard to describe that. He was on death row, and he was fighting to stay alive, and fighting to stay away from all the evil that he was surrounded with everyday. For me, it was just important to capture Damien’s view of Arkansas, and also investigate the case further.
Amy, going back to something you said at the very beginning… about wanting to do something about it… I think it begs the question: what the role of art is? Whether it’s a piece of cinema, or somebody’s writing, what is the role of that in modern discourse today? Especially, as Damien was mentioning, he came out to a world where there’s a different communication going on. Do you make the film hoping it will make a difference, or are you just putting the information out there all you can hope for?
Amy: No, I needed to feel like I could make a difference before I could start making the film. I feel like that is something that I put into it every day. The more you’re going into something like that, with that intention, you’re focused on that. That’s how this story kept getting deeper, and stronger, and multi-layered, I think.
Did anybody down there give you obstruction? Did you feel like people were watching you while you were down there trying to film?
Amy: In West Memphis you definitely get the sense… The West Memphis police department kind of shows up whenever there’s a camera around, so I definitely felt like they were watching. I didn’t feel that restricted by anything. I just kept doing what I was doing, all the time.
Damien, you were talking about how difficult it is having to re-live this, but one of the issues that the film raised, in my mind at least, is the question: What lead them to you three in the first place? It didn’t seem as though there was a hell of a lot of investigating that went on. Were you just juicy targets, or is this the way police work is done in West Memphis?
Damien: That’s exactly what it was. It’s sort of become common knowledge, now, that the reason they focused on us was because we didn’t fit in a really small, hardcore, fundamentalist town. But the story actually goes back a couple of years before these murders ever even happened. There use to be these juvenile officers that would come through our neighborhood and pick up teenage boys, and say “Either give me a blow job or you’re going to jail.” Eventually, one of them was forced to give his resignation after he was caught molesting a teenage boy. Another one went to prison in Florida after he was caught stealing from the police department . These guys had made my life a living hell for almost two years before the murders ever even happened, so as soon as the murders happened, these guys go straight to the West Memphis police department and said “We think we got your guy right over here. This is the one you need to look at.” So, that’s sort of what directed the investigation on us in the first place.
You interviewed Pamela Hobbs and the Byers family, who no longer believe that the West Memphis Three are guilty of the crimes, but there are no interviews with Steve Branch, or the Moore parents who do consider the West Memphis Three guilty. Did you try to get interviews with them?
Amy: You’re talking about Steve Branch, Sr. He literally gave up the rights to his child before Pam even married Terry, and we spoke to Terry at length. We spoke to Pam at length. The Moore’s refused our interview request. They believe that these guys did it, and they still talk about Jessie’s confession. That’s, kind of, their whole case. We did try to talk to both of them, but we were refused.
Do you think there’s a reason that some people are still insistent that the West Memphis Three are guilty, despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary?
Amy: Nobody wants to admit a mistake. It’s just a permeating theme in this story. Nobody wants to say ” I made a mistake.”
Isn’t it also money? If they admitted they made a mistake, if they put somebody else in prison for that murder, they would suddenly be liable in a court of law.
Amy: We were more talking about the parents, but on the state’s behalf, that is 100% of the motive, right there.
But isn’t there an aspect of the legal system where once they’ve reached a verdict, end of case. “That’s it. It doesn’t matter what you present, we’ve made our decision.” Is it something unique to Arkansas that you’ve encountered, or is there something, perhaps, nationwide, that we have to look at in terms of reopening cases?
Damien: It’s politics. People think that these people involved in the case… these judges, attorney general’s, these prosecutors… that they have these jobs because they’re somehow moral people who deserve these positions. In reality, they’re politicians. They’re elected just like senators, just like congressmen. They will do and say whatever they have to in order to win the next election. They know if they come out and admit that they sentenced an innocent person to death, while allowing a murderer to walk to streets for almost 20 years, they’re not going to win that next election. They know if they have to come out and admit that they made a mistake, and open the state up to a lawsuit for what they did to us, they’re not going to win that next election. To them, that is the first and foremost priority. Justice will always take a backseat to politics.
Damien, what are your plans for the future?
Damien: Once this is all over, and we’re not talking about the case anymore on a daily basis, and we can finally move on, and have some sense of closure… Long term goals, what I would like to do… I’d like to keep writing, first and foremost. I’ve loved writing ever since I was a kid. I’d also like to have a small meditation center in the town where we live, where we could share the same things with people that we had to learn while I was in prison. The things that helped us through difficult times. I’d like to share that with people who feel like they don’t have anywhere to turn, or need something to help them get through hardships. Something completely and absolutely unassociated with the case. That is where my passion lies. That’s what I enjoy doing.
What was your reaction when you found out about the growing support in the community that were determined to prove your innocence, or to at least get you a fair trial? I mean, you’ve got people like Johnny Depp, and Eddie Vedder campaigning for your rights. When you first found out that there was a growing support unit, what was your reaction?
Damien: It’s odd, you know. It wasn’t an “all at one time” thing, it was sort of a gradual process, but I didn’t see a lot of it because I was inside. I didn’t have access to things like the internet, or cable TV, or anything like that, so a lot of my information came from Lorri. I would call her in the morning, and she would tell me what was going on, and who was doing what. At the same time, when you hang the phone up, that’s a million miles away. That’s in another world. You’re going right back just fighting to survive another day in prison. You hear it, and it gives you a little bit of heart, or hope, but, at the same time, that’s something going on in another world.
To follow-up on that, Lorri… I think we’re use to stories, or at least accusations that Hollywood, and celebrities find a “cause of the week”, and they sign their name, or they make an appearance and that’s it. You were able to keep them involved. Was that a struggle? How did you maintain that link, and keep them involved and up to date on what was happening?
Lorri: It wasn’t a struggle at all, I think, because the people who were interested in our case were people who saw themselves somewhat in Damien, or the other two, that it could have been them. So, they took it to heart, and they took it personally. Yes, we did have correspondences that stand some 12 or 14 years with some of them, but I have to say that everyone… Henry Rollins, Natalie Maines, Johnny Depp, Eddie Vedder, Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and there were many more, all of them stayed on board. None of them wavered. They were there when we needed financial help. They were there when we needed help in the media. The fact that Johnny Depp did ’48 Hours’ is just… it’s not easy for him. He doesn’t like to do interviews and he did it for us, and it was very helpful. That support… they became our friends, and still are very good friends.
Damien, we talked about this a bit earlier, but what don’t you get when you’re on death row? What is that like?
Damien: You don’t get much of anything. I didn’t see sunlight for almost ten years. It’s part of what destroyed my vision. The food is so bad, I don’t think most people can even comprehend what it’s like. The things that most people take for granted like salt, pepper, butter, sugar, cheese… There’s none of that in prison. Whenever they give you noodles, it’s just plain white noodles that have been boiled until it’s just mush, or plain white rice that’s been boiled until it’s just mush, or grits that have been boiled until it’s just mush. So, you’re eating that, you’re trapped in this tiny space where you never get any exercise, and the next thing you know people are getting legs chopped off, and they’re going blind, and everything else because they have diabetes. It’s horrendous. And then, you add to that no sunlight, no fresh air, and stress… the stress they put you under. Not only are you living with this death sentence, or, in my case, three death sentences, hanging over your head, but you’ve got people who come in there and just try to hurt you on a daily basis. You never, ever get to rest. Even when you sleep, you only go halfway to sleep. There were times… t’s taken me forever to get out of this habit since I’ve been out… There were times in prison where you hear a noise in the middle of the night, and you are literally up on your feet, in the middle of the cell, ready to fight before your eyes are even awake and you know what’s going on. For eighteen years… it gets engrained in you so deep that it’s more than reflex. Whenever I first got out, you know, of course it scared the hell out of Lorri at night when something like that would happen, and I would have that reaction. But you never get to rest. You’re always sleep deprived. At the most, technically you’re allowed four hours of sleep a night, from 10:30p.m. to 2:30 a.m., because they want to get as much slave labor out of people as possible. So, if they get everybody up at 2:30 a.m. they can have you in the fields working by 5 o’clock. I didn’t have to go to work because I was on death row, but I still had to follow the same schedule that everyone else did. It crushes you. It destroys you in every way.
What was the most rewarding part about being a part of this documentary?
Damien: I think, for me, and maybe if I’m speaking for Lorri too, I guess for us, it was being able to participate in our own story for the first time. There had been things in the past, there had been other documentaries, books, TV shows, whatever it was, but it was all someone else’s project… someone else’s vision. This was the very first time that we got to have input into our own story. So, it made us capable of opening up more in a way that we weren’t with anyone else. We never would have let anyone else… the other documentary crews, or TV crews, or anyone else into our personal lives the way we did with Amy… reading our letters, our phone calls, things like that… because we were always wary of it becoming this sensational freak show of people taking advantage of it. We just weren’t going to allow that to happen. The fact that we were allowed to relax a little more, and show more of our personal life… that was kind of rewarding.
Damien, you mentioned that you got up at 2:30 in the morning. What happens? Do the lights come on? You’re not going out to the fields, so why are you awake?
Damien: They come around and beat on the door with a steel bar, and give you your breakfast. Then they come back thirty minutes later and pick the breakfast up. Everybody else, at that point, gets lined up and taken outside to work in the field. On death row, you just sort of sit there looking crazy. Where I was, you’re sealed in a concrete box 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The only time I was ever even brought out was once a week when I was allowed to see Lorri. So, you have to sort of make your own schedule in there. There’s nothing to base anything on. Christmas day is the same as the 4th of July. Noon is the same as midnight. You have to structure your own life. Most people in there don’t. You have a lot of people who aren’t capable of it. Some people, they just give up as soon as they come in, and just sit there and wait to die. But, if you want to move forward, if you want any sort of momentum to develop as a person, to not just stop… and start stagnating, the moment you walk in the door you have to develop some sort of routine for yourself. You can either turn your cell into a monastery, or you can sit there, and go insane, and wait for them to kill you.
Amy, what sort of challenge was it to film in the prison? From what Damien is describing it seems as though that’s not the scene that they would like to have publicized in terms of how people were having to live.
Amy: Yeah. You’re just reminding me of a really strange experience we had at the prison one time. We were shooting some B-roll, and we were actually dropping Damien’s attorney off at the prison. We had actually dropped him off and we were going to go shoot around the prison. There are no signs that say you can’t go to the first row of parking, and we went up there to turn around. The next thing you know we were surrounded by prison guard vehicles on both sides, and they were so rough with us. Do you remember when this happened? They took all of our licenses, and turned them into the Arkansas state police, and said we could never come back into the prison. It was this crazy moment. They had no markings anywhere. We didn’t know we broke any laws. It was the same guy, the assistant warden, that had actually beat you up…
Damien: She’s talking about a guy that had started out as a prison guard in another unit, and beat an inmate so bad that he lost and eye. Whenever news reporters wrote a few stories on it , the prison system said :We gotta get this guy out of here. He’s bringing too much attention on this prison.” so they promoted him to warden, and sent him to my prison. That’s who she’s talking about.
Amy: There were some other interesting stories. When we did film Damien the first time one of the prison guards went to the kitchen and he got the biggest plate of food that I’ve ever seen in my life, and he just parked himself. It was literally, like, dumplings, and sauce, and biscuits and gravy, and meat, and he was just sitting there, watching us do this interview, just eating off this plate. Behind Damien, the other guards are trying to get into this shot, so their making all of this loud noise, and saying they’re going to be discovered by Hollywood. It was just this crazy juxtaposition. Those are just, kind of, ancillary tales while filming.
Were there any scenes that were shot that were not included in the final film?
Amy: I shot, I think this will be on the DVD, a series of scenes that were reenactment scenes from Damien’s journals, that I really enjoyed doing. I was just trying to capture his perspective of life at the time. There was a really great scene that was just too long to put in the film… Vicki Hutcheson’s son Aaron was friends with the boys who were murdered, and the police interrogation, and the prosecutor interrogation of Aaron Hutcheson was unbelievable footage, where they were trying to get him to tell them what happened. He wasn’t there. He clearly wasn’t there. They do this over a series of months, and we’re going to put that on the DVD as well. It’s kind of an amazing scene showing just how far the police would go to get what they wanted.
If you’d like to believe that it (the film) can bring about change… sometimes it’s the (type of) change that might take a generation… Have you ever given any thought to, if you decided to have a family, how you will explain to them, someday, what you went through, and what happened? I know you’ll have this film, and the other documentaries to look at, but this is their parents that went through it. How can you get another generation to understand that you have to change things?
Damien: I have no idea. (Laughs) I’m not even thinking down the road though, to future generations, I think right here, right now, to us… I think one of the things we keep in mind is that this documentary isn’t just about this case. Every single person who sees this documentary is a potential jury member on another case, and can make sure this same thing doesn’t happen to someone else in the future. it’s not even generations down the road, it’s right here and now that people can make a difference. It all depends on how many people it reaches.
Lorri: Well, and I think the style of documentary we decided to make also… I mean, it was one of the reasons that Damien and I felt comfortable participating in this documentary, is it was the investigation. It’s not a documentary that the cameras just run, and captures what happens. This is a different style. We wanted to film our investigation. I think we captured just about everything that can go wrong in a case. In a way it’s textbook, but more people would be apt to watch a film to read the textbook about how everything goes wrong. So, I think that’s what our film does.
Amy: It ultimately did become more of a vérité style film just as the investigation was developing over time. Things that we just started as an interview, ended up becoming things that we were chasing. I think we kind of mixed the two.
Did the state of Arkansas even look at anyone else that could have done this, or was this solely on Damien and the other two?
Damien: They focused on us from the very beginning. The guy you see in the film, Steve Jones, the cop that’s leading Amy around and telling her stuff, he was actually at the crime scene whenever they pulled the bodies from the water, and his very first words were “Damien Echols finally killed someone.” Before they had even gotten the bodies out of the water, he’s already bringing my name up. Terry Hobbs was not even interviewed until years, and years after the murders happened. You know, that’s sort of common knowledge. The first thing you look at is the families. Those are the first people you question. They didn’t even talk to him for over a decade after these kids have been dead.
It’s apparent that West Memphis didn’t handle things in a correct manner, especially as the case progressed. As your story has become public… has it even put in dent on how they handle things? Has it affected West Memphis?
Damien: No.
Lorri: No.
Damien: At the time we were arrested, the West Memphis police department was under investigation by the FBI. They have a long history of abuse and corruption, and nothing has changed there, whatsoever.
Lorri: A lot of the same people still work there. Even while we were filming, a child was shot by the cops. It made world-wide news. That also was never… they never have to account for anything they do.
Damien: They shot a 12-year-old kid that was carrying a bag of chips. They said they thought he had a gun.
Amy, what went into your decision to have Nick Cave and Warren Ellis compose the scoring of the film, and did they have previous familiarity with the case?
Amy: I have had a relationship with the two of them for years, and we actually tried to collaborate on a film before this. I think that they are, just, the best at what they do. They felt extremely close to the story, and they saw dailies, and they were involved in the conceptualizing of the music from very early on in the filmmaking process. It’s a really great collaboration.
There have been three documentaries, and the third PARADISE LOST kind of overlapped with your documentary. How did Joe (Berlinger) and Bruce Sinofsky feel about you making a documentary about the West Memphis Three? What was your working relationship with them on this subject?
Amy: We didn’t really have a working relationship. When I started going down there, it was before they had really gotten into PARADISE LOST 3 : PURGATORY, and I only saw them two times when I was down there. We were doing something very different, and I spoke to Joe early on, and they weren’t even sure if they were going to make a film at the time. So, it just happened that events started picking up, and, of course, if you’re documenting this story there would be a bit of overlap. I’ve seen their film, and I think our film is a very different film.
PROMISED LAND, the new film directed by Gus Van Sant, takes a hard, unbiased look at hydraulic fracking, and the effects it has on a small community. Written by Matt Damon and John Krasinski, the film sets out to unite communities, and show a real glimpse of life in a rural setting. WAMG recently got the chance to sit down with John Krasinski (in a round table) to discuss his experience writing his first screenplay, collaborating with Matt Damon, and his karaoke go-to jam!
Steve has been dispatched to the rural town of McKinley with his sales partner, Sue Thomason (Academy Award winner Frances McDormand). The town has been hit hard by the economic decline of recent years, and the two consummate sales executives see McKinley’s citizens as likely to accept their company’s offer – for drilling rights to their properties – as much-needed relief. What seems like an easy job and a short stay for the duo becomes complicated – professionally by calls for community-wide consideration of the offer by respected schoolteacher Frank Yates (Academy Award nominee Hal Holbrook) and personally by Steve’s encounter with Alice (Rosemarie DeWitt). When Dustin Noble (John Krasinski), a slick environmental activist, arrives, suddenly the stakes, both personal and professional, rise to the boiling point.
Check out the round table discussion below:
Does Fracking keep you up at night?
JK: Does Fracking keep me up at night? You know, what’s funny is I really started out the idea… I had the idea for the script about two years ago, and my dad grew up in a small town outside of Pittsburg, in Natrona Heights which was a steel mill town, and his dad worked three jobs, and they didn’t have very much. I remember when he was telling us when I was a little kid… I was an ignorant eight year old… and I said “So, was your childhood awful?” (Laughs) and he said “No, it was amazing! We had friends and family, and there was this sense of community, and the faith that tomorrow would be a better day.” That really stuck with me my whole life, and then I think the older I got, the more I realized the country was moving away from that sort of pure ideal of community. So, that’s where the idea came from, and that’s where I really started.
Natural gas came in as an issue later on in the project. Once we had started coming up with these characters, and this town, and these groups of people who were going to interact, it turned out to be the best backdrop for the story because it was basically, you know, like high stakes poker. There was so much to potentially gain, and so much potentially to lose. The really moving part was when we actually went to shoot in the town, they were so generous, and so open to have us… but at the same time people weren’t against coming up and telling you how they really felt, and there were people who came up and said “You know, you really shouldn’t be making this movie. This is really good for us.” and then five minutes later someone would come up and say “Thank you for making this movie!”. We never expected it to be the movie that deals with this issue. Our whole thing was, at the end, to start a conversation. Whether it’s fracking, or something else, these issues are something that should bring communities together, and (they should be) making decisions for themselves. Being together on this stuff is really the most important thing. Especially this day and age. Otherwise, our idea’s that if you don’t step up to it someone will step up and make the decision for you, as was evidence by this last election. We made so much noise about who was getting elected, and I feel like we really forgot about the people who were actually being affected by all of this. That was our idea, so we never set out to be like “This is it! We wanna do the biggest political movie of the year.”
How connected to that “small town” world were you guys, and how much did you discover as a part of making this movie? Coming from that kind of background, I found it to be very authentic.
JK: That’s awesome, by the way, and that’s a huge compliment. When we were writing it, the big things that we wanted to do, a couple of things… One is we needed humor, because I think anything that’s just dramatic is really boring. The other thing is that we wanted depth from the characters, and we wanted them to be multifaceted because any character, any one story, or one side of an issue was really, really boring. So, for us, the whole thing was to make these people , like when my dad spoke about his upbringing, to make them really intelligent people… really proud people who have opinions about things rather than, I think sometimes in movies just do this “small town America” as the people who just get bowled over by anyone who has an idea and then in comes innovators and creators who just push these people aside. That’s not the truth, at all. These people are very dedicated to their opinions, and very proud of where they’re from. That was the thing about getting there, and first of all seeing how gorgeous it was. I mean, it was beautiful. Weirdly, we shot ten miles away from where my dad grew up so, when he came to visit I had this existential moment where he was like “Oh, we use to apple pick over there.” and “I knew this area. You know, we came up here…” and I was like “Oh my god!” so I was having a father-son moment, this big moment, and I think everyone on the crew that day was like “What’s up with Krasinski?” because it felt like I was ready to cry at any moment, because I was going through something.
The truth is that you see what these people are fighting for… and when I say “what they’re fighting for” I don’t mean either side of the issue. What I am saying is they are fighting for what everybody else is fighting for… Their family, their friends, where they’re from, and where they’re going. It’s a self-protective survival mode, and that’s what’s so admirable about these people really digging in on these issues, and it’s happening all over the country.
One of the really great things that you do visually, and with the story and with the performance is that you simplify. You make it very easy. Especially your classroom sequence. You could lift that out and turn it into a short film for schools to educate kids.
JK: On one side of the issue, you could. (Laughs) The other side wouldn’t be super psyched about that!
That also goes hand in hand with your character of Dustin, and your performance. What did you draw on to create him, because, for me, I felt this really wonderful Elmer Gantry like, environmental evangelism.
JK: Yes! Exactly! You know what’s funny, is my whole idea for it was sort of the snake oil salesman, you know what I mean? I remember watching all of those great movies, or even Looney Tunes kind of cartoons. There’s always the guy who just rolls into town, gets everybody to buy this stuff, and then rolls out in that amazing carriage with the clinking bottles as it goes away. I just thought that that’s sort of what, really, everybody is doing on either side of the issue, or any type of corporation is doing. Everybody is just selling their wares, and trying to get these people to invest, but the thing I love, not just with this issue, but overall, is, I feel like the country is turning, especially with this fiscal eclipse stuff that’s happening. I remember the last time we were anywhere near a fiscal eclipse people were like “What is a fiscal eclipse?” and now you’re hearing people having really strong opinions. People are getting more and more educated, and have an idea of what they want from the situation. I think that’s what our movie is trying to do. That’s where we need to go. The days of just saying “Our elected people are angels.” and “They’re gonna take care of us.” and “Everything is going to be great.”… those days are over. We really need to, sort of, steer the ship with them, and for them. It’s really gotta be that old Lincoln quote of “For the people, by the people.”
How did you end up becoming writing partners with Matt Damon on this particular project?
JK: I met Matt when he was doing a movie with my wife, ADJUSTMENT BUREAU, and we became friendly right away… which is really nice because being from Boston, the guy from GOOD WILL HUNTING is pretty much the mayor of some fictitious town (Laughs), and so that was really awesome to meet him. One day we were on a double date, and he said “I’m actually thinking of directing. Is there anything you have in the works that you’d be willing to share with me?” and I said “Yeah.”. So, I brought him this idea, and he jumped on it right away… and we were writing within a week or two. It worked really, really well. He actually was shooting WE BOUGHT A ZOO in California at the time, and I was shooting my show, so we were kind of moonlighting. During the weekends I would show up around breakfast time on Saturday, and work all the way through dinner, both Saturday and Sunday. I don’t know how we got work done, because he has four beautiful girls. That’s why we always went to his house. He wins by default. Between throwing in THE LITTLE MERMAID seventeen times, lunch, and bath time, I don’t know how we got any work done, but we did.
We worked really well together. We worked really fast. We have similar sensibilities, and similar sense of humors, but, at the end of the day, I think we’re both eternal optimists, so we wanted the same thing. We wanted this to be an uplifting, kind of Frank Capra, kind of Kazan movie. Where we were headed was always the same, so getting there was a lot quicker.
Do you double date a lot?
JK: Yes we do. They are really fun double dating… You know, ironically, one of the things we’ve done a whole lot is karaoke. (Laughs) You wouldn’t know, because I didn’t get any better for the movie, but… That’s the best part about writing the script, or writing the stage directions is like “Dustin is horrible at karaoke.” and I was like “Now that that’s in there, I’m safe! I can do whatever I want”.
What’s your go-to?
JK: My go-to is Enrique Iglesias’ “Hero”. (Laughs) You’re welcome America! Get ready to not be excited!
What about Emily (Blunt) and Matt (Damon)?
JK: Matt hits some Springstein… a lot of the time. Matt and I have also duetted with “The Gambler”. (Laughs) Yeah, Kenny Rogers “The Gambler”. Bet you didn’t know it was a duet? But we made it into a duet, and it was one of those things where it was like “Oh, you’re getting that? Ok, fine. You can have that verse and I’ll have the other one.” It’s like, you’re fighting for the better verse. Again, it’s so exciting because in the moment it’s like ” We sound amazing!”. Thank god those are tiny rooms in the basements of buildings in the East Village, otherwise it would be really embarrassing.
You know, you could take this on the road and make money… and finance your next film with it…
JK: I don’t think we could finance a lunch with it! (Laughs) But hell, I’d give it a shot!
What was Dave Eggers involvement in this?
JK: When I had the idea I brought the basic structure… what I was saying about how I felt about small town life, and sort of that pride. I brought it to Dave because a lot of those issues are obviously big for him too, and really important. I had worked with him on AWAY WE GO, and I had known him through a bunch of 826 events that I had done. He’s one of the smartest guys any of us will ever meet. I just went to him, kind of as a guru in the oracle. He was writing his novel that summer, so he didn’t have so much time, but we had enough time to sit around and kick around ideas, and structure, and sort of the basic outlying ideas of what it would be, and that’s what I took to Matt.
How important is the writing aspect of your career to you? Are you trying to cultivate it further, or are you just going to write when passion hits you on a certain idea?
JK: No, I’m definitely going to cultivate it further. This was an incredible learning experience for me, on every level, but I think if I’m honest… The truth is, this is really a big moment for me. This is a transition from the show that is meaning, to me, more than anyone knows. I think to have this show end is going to be an incredibly emotional moment for me, not only because of the show, and the cast, and the crew, and that family aspect, but it’s an era of my life that’s gonna be gone. It is my twenties, basically. It’s one of the most important decades of my life. It was spent with this show, and I owe it absolutely everything. No one would know my name if it wasn’t for this show, and I wouldn’t have any opportunity if it wasn’t for this show. To sort of grow up, and to have that show support, this is just sort of my… After a while if someone asked me “What would you do if we gave you the keys?” This is the movie that I’d do if you gave me the keys. To me, this is the sort of thing that I’ve always been interested in. These are the characters that I’ve always been interested in watching, or interested in playing. I really want to so it more. To have this team surrounding me… To write with Matt, and to have Gus onboard… it was so surreal, and so inspiring, but it also probably spoiled me because now I’m just like “All I have to do is write some sort of document. Then all of a sudden Matt Damon and Gus Van Sant will sign on! How hard is this folks?”. (Laughs) I don’t know how the next ones are going to turn out, but also at home my wife was hugely supportive. I had always heard that story that a blank white page is a pretty scary thing, and I was like “Come on! There are bigger things to be scared of.” Then you sit down and you realize “Wow! That is pretty scary!” so, she was the one who kept saying “You can do it!” and “Just go up there and give it a couple more hours.” and sure enough, it just clicked, and I really, really loved it. So, I’m going to give it a shot, and hopefully keep going as long as there are stories that I can tell well. Until then, I’ll at least give it a shot.
The hunt for Osama bin Laden preoccupied the world and two American presidential administrations for more than a decade. But in the end, it took a small, dedicated team of CIA operatives to track him down. Every aspect of their mission was shrouded in secrecy. Though some of the details have since been made public, many of the most significant parts of the intelligence operation––including the central role played by that team––are brought to the screen for the first time in a nuanced and gripping new film by the Oscar®-winning creative duo of Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal.
Their account of bin Laden’s pursuit and capture, vivid yet faithful to the facts, takes the viewer inside the hubs of power and to the front lines of this historic mission, culminating in the special operations assault on a mysterious, suburban Pakistani compound.
But it is the lead-up to the raid that truly distinguishes ZERO DARK THIRTY from other accounts. The quest to find bin Laden was fraught with danger from the start, and not every U.S. operative survived. Some intelligence experts came to believe that the assignment was impossible to carry out, but on the ground a determined team of analysts and interrogators defied the odds and proved them wrong. For the first time, their struggle to find Osama bin Laden is told on the screen in electrifying detail. At its core, ZERO DARK THIRTY offers a cinematic rendition into one of the most discussed but least known events of modern times from creative artists challenging themselves to push the limits of their craft. Events are recreated with a fidelity to the facts, including filming in Pakistan itself, embedding the viewer into the center of the action. The result is a film as profound and provocative as it is stunning and real.
ZERO DARK THIRTY stars Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke, Joel Edgerton, Mark Strong, Jennifer Ehle, Kyle Chandler, and Edgar Ramirez. Columbia Pictures unveiled the action-thriller in limited release on December 19, 2012 with a wide release set for January 11, 2013.
Columbia Pictures and WAMG invite you to enter to win a pass (good for 2) to the advance screening of ZERO DARK THIRTY on January 10th at 7 pm in St. Louis.
OFFICIAL RULES:
1. YOU MUST BE IN THE ST. LOUIS AREA THE DAY OF THE SCREENING.
2. Name the 2008 film for which Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
3. SEND YOUR NAME AND ANSWER TO: michelle@wearemoviegeeks.com
WINNERS WILL BE CHOSEN THROUGH A RANDOM DRAWING OF QUALIFYING CONTESTANTS. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. PASSES WILL NOT BE SUBSTITUTED OR EXCHANGED. DUPLICATE TICKETS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED.
This film has been rated R by the MPAA for STRONG VIOLENCE INCLUDING BRUTAL DISTURBING IMAGES, AND FOR LANGUAGE.
Columbia Pictures presents a Mark Boal production, a First Light production, an Annapurna Pictures production, a Kathryn Bigelow film, Zero Dark Thirty. Starring Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke, Joel Edgerton, Jennifer Ehle, Mark Strong, Kyle Chandler, and Edgar Ramirez. Directed by Kathryn Bigelow. Written by Mark Boal. Produced by Mark Boal, Kathryn Bigelow, and Megan Ellison. Executive Producers are Colin Wilson, Ted Schipper, and Greg Shapiro. Director of Photography is Greig Fraser ACS. Production Designer is Jeremy Hindle. Edited by Dylan Tichenor, A.C.E. and William Goldenberg, A.C.E. Costumes Designed by George L. Little. Music by Alexandre Desplat. Sound Design by Paul N. J. Ottosson. Casting by Mark Bennett, CSA, Richard Hicks, CSA, and Gail Stevens.
NOT FADE AWAY, David Chase’s deeply felt love letter to the music of the Sixties, is a film about dreams that come true — and the ones that never do. For Chase, “It’s about anybody who has ever had a dream and about what it takes to actually realize that dream. Rock & roll is at the heart of the movie because for some of the characters, rock music is the gateway to transcendence, but it doesn’t end there.”
Traditionally, most rock & roll movies have focused on the agony and ecstasy of “making it” on a grand scale, usually with thousands of fans screaming in the background. As a rule, we witness some band of brothers’ rise and fall, then their crash and burn, and perhaps the eventual resurrection. As one might expect from a man best known as the creator of the groundbreaking television series The Sopranos, NOT FADE AWAY is not your average rock & roll movie. Instead, this is an intimate, powerful, alternately painful and funny drama about coming of age and the sort of indelible memories — musical and otherwise — that end up making us who we are.
Paramount Vantage, Indian Paintbrush and WAMG invite you to enter to win a pass (good for 2) to the advance screening ofNOT FADE AWAY on January 3rd at 7 PM in St. Louis.
OFFICIAL RULES:
1. YOU MUST BE IN THE ST. LOUIS AREA THE DAY OF THE SCREENING.
2. How many Primetime Emmys did David Chase’s “The Sopranos” win?
3. SEND YOUR NAME AND ANSWER TO: michelle@wearemoviegeeks.com
WINNERS WILL BE CHOSEN THROUGH A RANDOM DRAWING OF QUALIFYING CONTESTANTS. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. PASSES WILL NOT BE SUBSTITUTED OR EXCHANGED. DUPLICATE TICKETS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED.
This film is rated “R for Pervasive language, some drug use and sexual content“
(Left to right) Will Brill as Wells, Brahm Vaccarella as Joe Patuto, John Magaro as Douglas, and Jack Huston as Eugene in NOT FADE AWAY, from Paramount Vantage and Indian Paintbrush in Association with The Weinstein Company.
The cast includes John Magaro, Jack Huston, Will Brill, Bella Heathcote, Brad Garrett, Christopher McDonald and James Gandolfini. From Paramount Vantage and Indian Paintbrush, in association with The Weinstein Company, NOT FADE AWAYis playing now in select theaters.
PROMISED LAND is the new contemporary drama directed by Gus Van Sant (GOOD WILL HUNTING, MILK). Matt Damon plays Steve Butler, an ace corporate salesman who is sent along with his partner, Sue Thomason (Frances McDormand), to close a key rural town in his company’s expansion plans. With the town having been hit hard by the economic decline of recent years, the two outsiders see the local citizens as likely to accept their company’s offer, for drilling rights to their properties, as much-needed relief. What seems like an easy job for the duo becomes complicated by the objection of a respected schoolteacher (Hal Holbrook) with support from a grassroots campaign led by another man (John Krasinski), as well as the interest of a local woman (Rosemarie DeWitt). PROMISED LAND explores America at the crossroads where big business and the strength of small-town community converge. The film will be in select theaters December 28th and nationwide January 4, 2013.
Enter for a chance to win a PROMISED LAND prizepack from Focus Features and WAMG.
1. YOU MUST BE A US RESIDENT. PRIZE WILL ONLY BE SHIPPED TO US ADDRESSES.
2. SEND YOUR FULL NAME and ANSWER TO: michelle@wearemoviegeeks.com.
3. Gus Van Sant made his feature film directorial debut in 1985. Name this movie that went onto win the Los Angeles Film Critics Association award for Best Independent/Experimental Film.
WINNERS WILL BE CHOSEN FROM ALL QUALIFYING ENTRIES. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. PRIZES WILL NOT BE SUBSTITUTED OR EXCHANGED.
CONTEST WILL END ON MONDAY, January 7, 2013 at 11:59pm CST.
A Focus Features presentation in association with Participant Media and Image Nation Abu Dhabi of a Sunday Night, Pearl Street, Media Farm production. A Gus Van Sant Film. Matt Damon, John Krasinski, Frances McDormand. Rosemarie DeWitt, Scoot McNairy, Titus Welliver, and Hal Holbrook. Casting by Francine Maisler, CSA. Music Supervisor, Brian Reitzell. Music by Danny Elfman. Costume Designer, Juliet Polcsa. Production Designer, Daniel B. Clancy. Editor, Billy Rich. Director of Photography, Linus Sandgren, FSF. Executive Producers, Gus Van Sant, Ron Schmidt, Jeff Skoll, Jonathan King. Produced by Matt Damon, John Krasinski, Chris Moore. Story by Dave Eggers. Screenplay by John Krasinski & Matt Damon. Directed by Gus Van Sant. A Focus Features Release.
What does Focus Features sound like? Find out with the “Focus Features 10th Anniversary: A Collection of Film Score” with music from your favorite films by their best composers.
1. The Wings (from Brokeback Mountain) by Gustavo Santaolalla
2. Theme (from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) by Jon Brion
3. Roadblock I (from The Constant Gardener) by Alberto Iglesias
4. Briony (from Atonement) by Dario Marianelli
5. Wong Chia Chi’s Theme (from Lust, Caution) by Alexandre Desplat
6. Eastern Promises (from Eastern Promises) by Howard Shore
7. Ted and Marion (from The Door in the Floor) by Marcelo Zarvos
8. The Kiss (from Milk) by Danny Elfman
9. La Marche des Bébés (from Babies) by Bruno Coulais
10. Delysia LaFosse (from Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day) by Paul Englishby
11. Autumn in Connecticut (from Far From Heaven) by Elmer Bernstein
12. Emily’s Theme (from Brick) by Nathan Johnson
13. George Smiley (from Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) by Alberto Iglesias
14. Yes! (from Jane Eyre) by Dario Marianelli
15. Exploration (from Coraline) by Bruno Coulais
16. Ride Into the Storm (from Sin Nombre) by Marcelo Zarvos
17. The Sun Also Rises (from The Kid Stays in the Picture) by Jeff Danna
18. Container Park (from Hanna) by The Chemical Brothers
Link Up!
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Find out which theatres are playing Promised Land by you.
What happens to a group of travelers who are in an underground nightclub in Chile when a massive earthquake hits? Hint: Nothing good! Watch this first teaser for director Nicolás López’s AFTERSHOCK. The only this more terrifying than mother nature… is human nature.
In Chile, an American tourist’s vacation goes from good to great when he meets some beautiful women travellers. But when an earthquake ravages the underground nightclub they are in, a fun night quickly turns to terror. Escaping to the surface is just the beginning as they face the nightmarish chaos above ground.
The film screened in September at the Toronto International Film Festival as part of their Midnight Madness program.
AFTERSHOCK is the unlikely pairing of Chilean director Nicolás López, who burst onto the scene with the geek comedy Promedio rojo, and contemporary horror icon Eli Roth, who co-wrote the script with López as well as starring and serving as producer. Originally planning to pen a sci-fi/horror film together, the project radically changed direction when López shared his own experiences of the 8.8 magnitude earthquake that ripped through Chile in 2010, and the ensuing panic and societal breakdown.
Nicolás López has worked as a writer, director, producer and actor. He hosted his own comedy show on MTV (2004). His feature films as director are Promedio rojo 20(04), Santos (08), Fuck My Life (2010) and Fuck My Wedding (2011).
Coming down the pike for Roth is the cannibal film THE GREEN INFERNO and the Dracula movie HARKER. Written by Eli Roth and Nicolás López (@eliroth and @nicolaslopez), AFTERSHOCK hits theaters in 2013.
Now that you’ve had your fill of peppermint, presents, and multiple viewings of AMC’s WHITE CHRISTMAS and MIRACLE ON 34th STREET, how about a little snark to go along with that special Holiday movie – sans the warm and fuzzy. It’s time for some mistletoe carnage and crafty comedy Geek style. In our gift to you, WAMG presents our list of the 15 best non-traditional films. Lovers of IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE can consider yourselves excused cuz Santa Claus is coming to town in these “More Naughty Than Nice” movies.
BLACK CHRISTMAS
BLACK CHRISTMAS (the 1974 version of course), generally acknowledged as the forerunner of the ‘slasher’ genre, is so graphic in its imagination that you don’t even need to see any gore or murder. BLACK CHRISTMAS, which holds up spectacularly well after almost 40 years, tells the tale of a group of sorority sisters that are hounded and harassed by a mysterious obscene crank caller. Circumstances take a disturbing turn when one of the poor gals winds up missing (She’s the one up in the attic throughout the movie! With the plastic bag over her head!). Up next is an investigation and the appearance of a few more dead bodies, ultimately leading up to a finale that will forever be etched in your mind when you tuck under the covers and prepare for sleep (which may actually never come). BLACK CHRISTMAS sports a stellar cast that includes Olivia Hussey (ROMEO AND JULIET), Margot Kidder (acting drunk and slutty), John Saxon (acting drunk and studly), Keir Dullea, and Andrea Martin (who would play the house mother in the forgettable 2006 BLACK CHRISTMAS remake). Add to the mix director Bob Clark, one of the most eclectic independent directors ever, and a born storyteller (the man was responsible for A CHRISTMAS STORY, PORKY’S, and CHILDREN SHOULDN’T PLAY WITH DEAD THINGS). No doubt, if Bob Clark could’ve copyrighted the slasher movie concepts and cliches that he created, he would’ve been just as famous as John Carpenter or Wes Craven, maybe even more.
SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT
SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT, the poster child for Holiday horror films, caused a huge stink when it was released back in 1984. Influential film critic Gene Siskel especially despised the film, going as far to list, on his syndicated TV show, the film’s producers by name and, wagging his finger like a sweater-vested church lady, wailed “shame, shame, shame” after each name. What got Siskel’s holiday hackles up was the distasteful idea to have a slasher film featuring Saint Nick as its bloodthirsty villain. It wasn’t even the first ‘killer Santa’ movie – CHRISTMAS EVIL from 1980 has that distinction) but SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT is the most notorious because it had the balls to be released during the Christmas season and its holiday television ads attracted the ire of overly-sensitive parents, some of who actually went out and picketed various theaters in protest of it. Outraged moms and dads wrote letters to the film’s producers (“My little Billy is afraid to sit in Santa’s lap because of a TV commercial he saw for your disgusting film”). Consequently, the flick got pulled out of the cinemas and in some markets, including St. Louis, it was never shown theatrically at all. It eventually did find a big audience when it was released to video stores and several increasingly inferior sequels were spawned (though the great Monte Hellman directed part 3!). Lost in the controversy is that SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT was actually a pretty solid and scary horror flick. Of course it was never meant for kids, who would likely have been scarred for life if they had seen the opening sequence where an escaped criminal in a Santa suit rapes and kills off a kids mom while the child looks on. SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT has plenty of fun bloody death scenes and some great one-liners.
BAD SANTA
Here’s probably the raunchiest comedy to be set in the holiday season. Thorton’s the most, vile ill-tempered mall Santa ever. He and his “elf” Marcus (Tony Cox) are casing the place for a Christmas Eve robbery for goodness sake! Luckily one of the original “kings of comedy” Bernie Mac as the place’s security chief is on to him. BAD SANTA was the last live action feature film work from John Ritter (who hires the two cons) and the movie’s dedicated to his memory. Also memorable is TV “Gilmore Girl” Lauren Graham as a gal who really, really likes ole’ St. Nick! Really. This was the second fiction feature directed by acclaimed documentarian Terry Zwigoff (CRUMB).
THE GINGERDEAD MAN
Two words… Gary Busey. Need more? How’s this… Gary Busey as a convicted killer named Millard Findlemeyer sent to the electric chair, only to return as a gingerbread man cookie with a vengenace! Something as dreadfully awesome as this could only come from the mind of low-budget, genre-schlock-meister Charles Band. The writer and director also even wrote and performed an original song for this modern cult Christmas classic. Put on your PJs, grab a glass of milk and fill yourself with the holiday spirit as a questionably sane Gary Busey plays an insane homicidal gingerbread man hellbent on killing the woman who had him killed. Merry Christmas!
SUSAN SLEPT HERE
This 1954 holiday set romantic comedy is actually narrated by an Oscar statuette! A struggling veteran screenwriter, played by the former baby-faced tenor of 30’s musicals Dick Powell, is surprised to find a spunky juvenile delinquent under the Christmas tree. It’s Debbie Reynolds, Queen Organa herself (yup, Carrie Fisher’s Mom) just a couple of years after the classic SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN. Also in the cast are future TV stars Anne Francis (“Honey West”) and Alvy Moore (Mr. Kimball on “Green Acres”). This is one of the early feature films directed by former Loony Tunes animator/director Frank Tashlin. Later he would guide the movie careers of Jayne Mansfield and Jerry Lewis.
DIE HARD
“All right, listen up guys. ‘Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, except… the four a**holes coming in the rear in standard two-by-two cover formation.” Warms the holiday heart, doesn’t it? NY cop John McClane (Bruce Willis) is invited to his estranged wife’s Christmas Party “by mistake” and goes up against Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman). “Now I have a machine gun. Ho ho ho.” While not exactly your traditional holiday movie, this 1987 actioner will add a little spike to your glass of eggnog.
BETTER OFF DEAD
Sure, getting dumped for someone “more popular” doesn’t exactly set the mood for the holidays… But Lloyd doesn’t let that, or a crazed paperboy stop him from becoming a winner on the slopes! Well, except for the creative ways that he imagines killing himself… That slows him down a bit. There’s no better time for a dark John Cusack comedy than the holidays!
JACK FROST
A snowman might not be my first choice for reincarnation, but in Jack Frost, but that’s the card Jack, a father who is too occupied with his band than his family, is dealt after his untimely death in a car accident. As a snowman, he now has the opportunity to make things right with his son before returning to the afterlife. This snowman tale is sure to warm your heart this holiday season.
CHRISTMAS EVIL
John Water’s favorite Christmas movie is the 1980 oddity CHRISTMAS EVIL . After suffering a traumatic childhood experience involving his father in Santa Claus outfit, a disturbed toy factory worker fixates on Santa Claus in an unhealthy way. When Christmas cynicism pushes him over the edge, he takes on the role one Christmas eve to reward the good boys and girls – and to murder the cynics. So when he spies a little girl playing with her doll, that’s fine, she’s being nice – when he sees a little boy reading Penthouse, that’s a different matter. CHRISTMAS EVIL is a suitably surreal entry in the Christmas horror sub-genre and John Waters described it best: ”CHRISTMAS EVIL has a grubby look and mucky atmosphere, as if it were shot using the same crap film they used to shoot those 1970s drive-in concession-stand ads where the food came out looking wretched when its intention was to lure patrons to the snack bar!” CHRISTMAS EVIL is like a murky, clumsily violent dream an alcoholic stepfather is having during the holidays while passed out in his recliner, translated to shoddy film stock – and that isn’t an effect commonly or easily achieved by any movie. A masterpiece.
THE ICE HARVEST
THE ICE HARVEST a great example of modern film noir set, naturally, on Christmas Eve in Wichita, KS. Everybody in the film, including the people you’re supposed to be rooting for, shows an unsavory side. Billy Bob Thornton showed his with equal parts of passion and cunning. John Cusack, playing a mob lawyer involved in a plot to swindle his employer and the local mob out of some money, played his role with enough subtlety that he passes for an attorney, and with enough venom to let us know life has treated him wrong (and he has returned the favor). Everyone else runs the gamut from fawning to mischievous to I-can’t-believe-I’ve-gotta-spend-the-holiday- doing-this angry. It’s no spoiler to reveal that the plot had enough twists to keep any mystery lover happy, but THE ICE HARVEST, based on the novel by St. Louisan (and Wichita native) Scott Phillips, carried far more laughs than the usual December comedy and was a dark, dark way to spend Christmas in 2005.
SANTA CLAUS (1959)
Badly dubbed over in English, the madcap Mexican import SANTA CLAUS from 1959 is a peculiar pinata packed with pagan ritual, Arthurian legend and Western malarkey. SANTA CLAUS was one of those whacked out K. Gordon Murray hybrid specials that the famed showman would purchase from Mexico, redub, and unleash to kiddie matinees. As weird as the original version of this film probably was, what with the wind up reindeer, and Satan (called Pitch), and Merlin, and the Chucky doll wearing the cowboy hat, and the Rolling Stones giant lips on the wall and the radar dish with the human ear in the center…you can just lump that all into the category of ‘cultural differences’. I am pretty sure that the original version was a harmless, if somewhat trippy, kid’s film. But once the “English Version” editors got done with it, the results defied description. SANTA CLAUS is aMexican fever dream of a kid’s Christmas movie, made by people who obviously hate children,
REINDEER GAMES
Get ready for the jingle bells. After being imprisoned for six years on a grand theft auto charge, Rudy Duncan and his cellmate Nick are finally going to be paroled. After hearing endless stories during his incarceration of Nick’s romantic correspondence to a woman named Ashley he has never met, Rudy is looking forward to returning to his family. When Nick is killed during a prison riot, Rudy decides to assume Nick’s identity and meet up with the unknown woman. Burdened with knowledge of Nick’s Indian casino employment past, Rudy finds himself in too deep with Ashley’s brother Gabriel and is forced to cooperate with a casino robbery that Gabriel and his gang have been planning with Nick in mind. Hold tight to that mug of hot chocolate – it’s going to be a bumpy sleigh ride.
REMEMBER THE NIGHT
This little known 1940 Paramount gem is slowly becoming a Christmas perrenial on the TCM (Turner Classics Movies) cable channel. Four years later stars Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwick would team again for the landmark film noir DOUBLE INDEMNITY for director Billy Wilder. In this Preston Sturges story, Stanwick’s once again is on the wrong side of the law. She’s a shoplifter in the custody of criminal prosecutor MacMurray who ends ups taking her with him to his family home for Christmas. Both actors would have great success in television decades later, Stanwick with the western drama “The Big Valley” and MacMurray with the long-running family sitcom “My Three Sons”.
3 GODFATHERS
This Western take on the Nativity story was filmed previously as a silent in 1916 and an early black and white “talkie” in 1936. This color version directed by movie master John Ford and starring his frequent collaborator John Wayne in 1948 is perhaps the best remembered. Three outlaws on the run come across a woman dying in an abandoned wagon alongside her infant. After she passes they take her baby and vow to travel across the merciless desert and deliver the child to the nearest town (at the risk of being caught by the law). Wayne’s two cohorts are Pedro Armendariz and Harry Carrey,Jr. (Senior starred in the 1916 film). Also in the cast are Ford stalwarts ward Bond, Ben Johnson, and Mildred Natwick.
EDWARD SCISSORHANDS
There is no wrong time to watch Edward Scissorhands! Tim Burton’s imagination combined with a score by Danny Elfman sets the tone for magic that is sure to brighten the holidays. Johnny Depp is wonderful as the sensitive, creative character of Edward… Who is just a bit misunderstood. Oh, and try not to smile with delight as Edward makes it snow for the first time in their small town. It’s nothing short of spectacular!
“King of the Character Actors” indeed. I couldn’t even find a movie poster with his image on it for this article, yet he was a very popular, dependable supporting actor for many years and everyone knew who he was. He scored back-to-back Oscar noms for BEST LITTLE WHOREHOUSE IN TEXAS (1983) and TO BE OR NOT TO BE (1984). He appeared in quality films such as THE STING, TOOTSIE, DOG DAY AFTERNOON and many more. Looking at his credits, it appears he never worked for a quick paycheck (there’s not a single horror film in his filmography), but made careful decisions about what he was associated with. He was a WWII hero, among the first wave of U.S. soldiers to land at Normandy during the D-Day invasion and the only member of his Army unit to survive. He was captured in the Battle of the Bulge and survived a massacre of prisoners yet, like many of the greatest generation, refused to discuss his military service for which he was awarded the Silver Star and three Purple Hearts later in life. Charles Durning was 89.
From The New York Times:
Charles Durning, who overcame poverty, battlefield trauma and nagging self-doubt to become an acclaimed character actor, whether on stage as Big Daddy in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” or in film as the lonely widower smitten with a cross-dressing Dustin Hoffman in “Tootsie,”died Monday in New York. He was 89. He died of natural causes, The Associated Press reported, citing Judith Moss, his agent and friend. Charles Durning may not have been a household name, but with his pugnacious features and imposing bulk he was a familiar presence in American movies, television and theater, even if often overshadowed by the headliners. Alongside Paul Newman and Robert Redford’s con men, Mr. Durning was a crooked cop in the 1973 movie “The Sting”; starring with Nick Nolte; he was a dedicated assistant football coach in “North Dallas Forty” (1979); in the shadow of Robert De Niro, he was a hypocritical power broker in “True Confessions” (1981). If his ordinary-guy looks deprived him of leading-man roles, they did not leave him typecast……..
