Gran Torino is an interesting and enjoyable action, drama, thriller (with a comic edge) directed and starring Clint Eastwood. Gran Torino trailer at bottom of post
The notion of a 78-year-old action hero may sound like a contradiction in terms, but Eastwood brings it off, even if his toughness is as much verbal as physical. Even at 78, Eastwood can make "Get off my lawn" sound as menacing as "Make my day."
Stars: Clint Eastwood, Bee Vang, Ahney Her, Christopher Carley, John Carroll Lynch Director: Clint Eastwood Distributor: Warner Bros. Rating: R for language throughout, and some violence Running time: 1 hour, 56 minutes
MacGuffin
The 1972 Gran Torino, for which this movie is named, is a MacGuffin (a plot device) that motivates the characters and advances the story, but the details of which are of little or no importance otherwise. In this case the car brings together a crank newly widowed man named with a fatherless Hmoung (from the country of Loas) boy Tao ,played by Bee Vang, who, in an initiation to a gang tries to steal it. (Ahney Her to play Tao’s older sister, Sue.)
When we first find out about the car it is from a disrespecting granddaughter played by Geraldine Hughes, who suggest that he should leave the car to her and give her one of his sofas for her dorm room. Walt Kowalski (Eastwood) doesn't dignify the girl with an answer, just spits and walks away from her. (In general woman do not fare well in this film, it's definitely a more male film.)
When the boy is caught attempting to steal the car, we get to see the familiar Clint Eastwood with a gun. And though he had time to shoot, he hesitates and then slips and the boy, whom he knows is the neighbor, escapes, not to be pursued.
1972
In 1972 Clint Eastwood directed and starred in a memorable Western called "High Plains Drifter." In that movie Eastwood plays a gunfighting stranger who comes to a small town and is hired to bring the townsfolk together in an attempt to hold off three outlaws who are on their way.
In Gran Torino, Eastwood, though a long time local, has become a stranger to the heavily Asian neighborhood. The Asian's remind him about his fighting in Korea while in the military, and about fellow soldiers that were lost. Mind you that these Asians in his neighborhood are Hmong from Loas, a mountainous people who fought with the US during the Viet Nam war, and after the US pulled out were abandoned. Most who did not flee were murdered by the Communist, some were brought to the US at the sponsorship of different Church groups. (I as a teen actually taught Hmoung English as a second language in Chicago.) So Hmoung are not the enemy.
The enemy though turns out to be a group of gangbangers, from whom the neighbors find need of being rescued from. At this point we get a classic Eastwood line : "Ever notice how you come across somebody once in a while you shouldn't have messed with? That's me"
There are several interesting similarities between the two movies, in High Plains Drifter, the Stranger's dark side is revealed by how he treats woman (raping one fairly early on). In Gran Turo it's the constant racial slurs and general angry demeanor that sets up his dark side.
The end of "High Plains Drifter" has a slight supernatural effect, that might be argued to counterpoint the ending of Gran Torino - but I cant spell it out without possibly spoiling both movies.
Masculinity:
Early in the movie, and not really by his initial choice Walt Kowalski sets out to reform his neighbor, the young Hmong teenager. He sets about making the fatherless boy more of a man.
Eastwood promotes this idea of male identities to the self-meaning that are embedded in the masculine role, such as doing masculine type work, rather than the seemingly feminine gardening that the boy enjoys.
In The Perils of Masculinity Andreas G. Philaretou writes:..the greater the identification with the idealized masculine identity, the more motivated the individual will be to perform and excel in masculine -role related behavior." And this is what happens, not just for the boy, but also for a young priest.
Eastwood, through his portrayal of Walt Kowalski, demonstrates to them the:"Ethos of Masculinity", where socialized men are to be tough and to avoid any kind of public or interpersonal display of emotional pain or upset.
Morality
In his famous Dirty Harry movies where he was criticized by some for his portrayal of a rouge cop who exercises brutality against presumed guilty- he defended the character saying Harry was a before his time champion of victims rights, and characterized Harry as attending to a higher morality.
In an interview in the magazine Positif (March 1994) he said: Dirty Harry provided simple solutions to horribly complicated problem.
As Kenneth Toran wrote in the Los Angeles Times about this movie: "Gran Torino" will start to feel familiar and create concern that this is all there is to the film. It is familiar, but only to a point. Suddenly, that point is past and much more serious questions come up, questions of responsibility, of vengeance, of the efficacy of blood for blood.
Other notes:
Walt Kowalski: His last name may or may not be a reference to the Dodge Challenger-driving counterculture hero, played by Barry Newman, of Richard C. Sarafian's cult classic "Vanishing Point," although the two characters have little in common other than, perhaps, their fondness for a nice set of wheels
Has acted in 66 movies and as of now has directed 33.
Born on May 31, 1930.
when he was a teenager he attended a Jazz at the Philharmonic and heard Charlie Parker for the first time and began playing jazz piano informally at the Omar Club in Oakland, In 1987 after extensive research and acquiring original music material he makes the film biopic `Bird" about Charlie Parker.
Eastwood wrote an original song for Gran Torino, as he has done for other of his movies. The song he wrote fro Gran Torino is up for a Golden Globe.
Eastwood has worked worked as a lifeguard, a lumberjack, fought forest fires and tended a blast furnace for Bethlehem Steel. In 1951 he applied to Seattle University where he planned to major in music. Instead he got drafted.
Returning from a furlough in Seattle, he was nearly lost at sea when the two man plane he hitched a ride nwith went down. He had to swim three miles back to shore.
Discharged from the army he meets and marries Maggie Johnson (1953)
He attends Los Angeles City Collage on on the GI Bill. He begins taking drama lessons.
At the Golden Globes in 1988 he won the Cecil B. DeMilles Lifetime achievement award.
In an interview he said: I try to concentrate on the story, because it is there that it is all tied up..Then I try to see how the images can best agree with the story, what form I want the story to appear in, what sonorities.(Jousse and Nevrs 1992)
On the role of the audience: "They must participate in every shot, in everything, I give them what I think is necessary to know, to progress through the story, but I don't lay out so much that it insults their intelligence,I Try to give a certain amount to their imagination. (Thompson and Hunter interview in 1977).
References:
Collier. R. (1995). Masculinity, law, and the family. London: Routledge.
The Perils of Masculinity: An Analysis of Male Sexual Anxiety, Sexual Addiction, and Relational Abuse By Andreas G. Philaretou Published by University Press of America, 2004
http://www.calendarlive.com/movies/reviews/cl-et-torino12-2008dec12,0,1818950.story MOVIE REVIEW 'Gran Torino' Clint Eastwood, at 78, shows he's still a formidable action figure. By Kenneth Turan MOVIE CRITIC
Eagle Eye movie review, major cast interviews and trailer for the movie.
Eagle eye is an implausible story with great camera work and directing with a good actor. Who needs a plausible story in an action film as long as their is excitement and the story moves quickly. As far as acting I thought Shia LaBeouf was `into it' at a much higher level than Michelle Monaghan or Billy Bob Thorton.
It is not the best movie ever made and pails in comparison to the Bourne Identity for an action flick. It does touch on the `big brother watching' concept, but really at the end of Eagle Eye, there's no lesson, no moral, no ethical conundrum that makes it all worthwhile. It was just, hey, stuff happened, it was a rush, let's move on with our lives. It does get extra points for filming in Chicago.
There is a lot of talk about how much of the ideas was lifted from other movies- I'll list those at the bottom of the post. Plot via IMD :
Jerry and Rachel are two strangers thrown together by a mysterious phone call from a woman they have never met. Threatening their lives and family, she pushes Jerry and Rachel into a series of increasingly dangerous situations, using the technology of everyday life to track and control their every move
Quick details:
Steven Spielberg served as executive producer on the film.
The writer Dan McDermott previousllywrote 13 episodes for a non renewed television series series called Angele's Eyes.
Directed by D.J. Caruso
Born in Norwalk, Connecticut, Caruso came west to play tennis and study Television Production at Pepperdine University. Interned at Disney Studios in the Product Placement department and later hooked up with Director John Badham, who mentored him into a second-unit director, after Badham lost his 2nd-unit director Rob Cohen to a first-unit directing career. He hooked up with writer Scott Rosenberg, who penned a short film for him entitled, Cyclops, Baby (1997). The film helped launch Caruso's directing career.
Actor Shia LaBeouf was 22 when he acts in this movie. Born June 11, 1986, in Los Angeles, California, he was an only child. His parents are divorced, and he lives with his mom in Los Angeles. He started his career by doing stand-up comedy around places in his neighborhood, such as coffee clubs. He's well known for playing Louis Stevens in the popular Disney Channel series "Even Stevens" (2000) and has won a Daytime Emmy for his performance. Recent movies he's made:
Chuck the Movieguy interviews Shia LaBeouf for the movie Eagle Eye. Presented in You Tube HD.
Michelle Monaghan soon to be a mother, plays the heroic female lead.
Michelle Lynn Monaghan was born on March 23, 1976,in Winthrop, Iowa. She studied journalism for three years at Chicago's Columbia College. In order to pay for college, she took a job as a model. In 1999, she quit college and moved to New York to work full-time as a fashion model.she starred opposite Robert Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer in the black comedy Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005). Later in 2005, Monaghan was filming in China, Italy, and the United States on Mission: Impossible III (2006), as the female lead opposite Tom Cruise.Other recent movies she has made:Made of Honor (2008) Other Recent Movies:
Billy Bob Thorton. Academy Award winner Thornton is involved in several pursuits, from acting to directing and even jamming out with his hillbilly band, the Boxmasters, who just released a new album.
In his latest action thriller, "Eagle Eye," Thornton plays Thomas Morgan, an FBI agent working against the clock to thwart a plot against the government. Other Recent movies:
Eagle Eye can be almost entirely pieced together by using clips from other, better movies, including I, Robot, Terminator, Live Free or Die Hard, Enemy of the State, The Man Who Knew Too Much, The Fugitive and War Games. Lisa Miller Wrote:
“Eagle Eye” assembles bits from a host of better films to form a watchable collage. Though little is original, the film borrows well from classics such as “The Matrix,” “North By Northwest,” “Terminator,” and “Enemy of The State.” James Scott however suspects it rips off Hitchcock:
"I missed Disturbia (starring Shia LaBeouf) in the theaters, and after I’d heard that it was basically a watered-down version of Hitchcock’s Rear Window, I saw no compelling need to rush out and buy or rent it. Now, LaBeouf and Disturbia director D.J. Caruso regroup for Eagle Eye, which can charitably be called a watered-down version of Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too Much, replete with a shameless rip-off of the famous “Albert Hall sequence, plus a few overtones of North by Northwest."
Rating Advisory: for intense sequences of violence and action, language and some sexuality. Trailer at bottom of post. Starring : Vin Diesel,Michelle Yeoh,Melanie Thierry,Girard Depardieu,Charlotte Rampling Synopsis : It is the not-too-distant future. Thousands of satellites scan, observe and monitor our every move. Much of the planet is a war zone; the rest, a collection of wretched way stations, teeming megalopolises, and vast wastelands punctuated by areas left radioactive from nuclear meltdowns. It is a world made for hardened warriors, one of whom, a mercenary known only as Toorop, lives by a simple survivor's code: kill or be killed. His latest assignment has him smuggling a young woman named Aurora from a convent in Kazakhstan to New York City. Toorop, his new young charge Aurora and Aurora's guardian Sister Rebeka embark on a 6,000-mile journey that takes them from Eastern Europe, through a refugee camp in "New Russia," across the Bering Straight in a pilfered submarine, then through the frozen tundra of Alaska and Canada, and finally to New York. Facing obstacles at every turn, Toorop, the killer for hire, is tested like never before, in ways he could never have imagined--as he comes to understand that he is the custodian of the only hope for the future of mankind. For the first time in his life, Toorop has to make a choice: to make a difference or walk away and save himself. Too bad it came on the day he died.
Vin Diesal
This is a Vin Diesal dominated film. If you appreciate Vin Diesal, and all his subtly, you will like this movie. If you are a critical movie watcher, however, this movie will rate low. Even the director panned it, saying the studio (Fox) destroyed what he had hoped to make.
Vin Diesel (born Mark Sinclair Vincent; July 18, 1967) is an American actor, writer, director, and producer. While he prefers to identify himself as a "multi-faceted" actor he has played a number of similar roles,this role falls into his `ussual tough guy character.'
Diesel has Italian and Black ancestry. He has described himself as "definitely a person of color" and stated that he is "of ambiguous ethnicity - Italian and a lot of other stuff". Diesel has never met his biological father, and was raised by his African-American stepfather, Irving, an acting instructor and theatre manager,
Vin Diesel has a daughter, Hania Riley, born April 2, 2008, with his girlfriend, model Paloma Jimenez.
My reaction to Babylon A.D
It opens with a gritty counterbalance between the sacred and the profane, a prayer before a meal, an execution without pity. It plays on the counter balance of technological advancement at the same time as societies decay. It puts the unholy with the holy, and plays with the ultimate meaning. That's how I felt after the first five minutes.
Much of the movie seems stolen from What do Children of Men, with little Fifth Element ( a movie the director had a small acting role in) and Minority Report, and is full of post-Matrix, follow-the-flying-projectile effects that had no payoff except a major explosion.
I especially did not like Melanie Thierry's character. As one reviewer wrote " As the plot's potential Mary (Typhoid or Virgin), she's a whiny, wounded little brat. When we're introduced to her, she's supposed to be wide-eyed and innocent. By the end, she's so smug and self-righteous we can't wait for her moment of martyrdom. In between tantrums aimed at showing how salient she is, Kassovitz treats her like a prop -- necessary for the narrative but lacking any reason for empathy or concern."
FUN pre-release trailer: so-called official trailer to the Mathieu Kassovitz-directed/co-scripted action sci-fi has come out. Uniquely made, the video lampooned most of highlighted movies this summer from "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" to "Sex and the City" and "The Dark Knight".
The Director Slams his own film
Filmmaker Mathieu Kassovitz has blamed Twentieth Century Fox bosses for savagely editing his forthcoming film Babylon A.D., comparing the final cut to "a bad episode of 24".
The French director insists studio executives battled against him throughout the sci-fi movie's production, first slashing his budget and later cutting out 15 minutes of the film he believed to be crucial to the plot.
He says: "I'm very unhappy with the film. I never had a chance to do one scene the way it was written or the way I wanted it to be. The script wasn't respected. Bad producers, bad partners - it was a terrible experience.
"It's pure violence and stupidity... All the action scenes had a goal: They were supposed to be driven by either a metaphysical point of view or experience for the characters.
"Instead parts of the movie are like a bad episode of 24."
Now Kassovitz admits he regrets striking a deal with the corporation in the first place. He adds: "I should have chosen a studio that has guts. Fox was just trying to get a PG-13 movie. I'm ready to go to war against them, but I can't because they don't give a shit." (Ref )
Though sending a bad vibe, the 41-year-old still noted that there are some parts of it that he likes saying, "I like the energy of it and I got some scenes I'm happy with. But I know what I had - I had something much better in my hands but I just wasn't allowed to work." He also said, "The scope of the original book was quite amazing. The author was very much into geopolitics and how the world is going to evolve. He saw that as wars evolve, it won't be just about territories any more, but money-driven politics. As a director it's something that's very attractive to do."
Adapted from Maurice Georges Dantec's French novel Babylon Babies.
Mathieu Kassovitz (born 3 April 1967) is a French director, screenwriter, producer and actor, and is considered one of contemporary France's top emerging film talents,
Kassovitz is most famous outside France for his role as Nino Quincampoix in Jean-Pierre Jeunet's film Amélie. Among many other credits, he also had small roles in La Haine (which he also directed), Birthday Girl, Café Au Lait and The Fifth Element. He also played one of the main roles in Amen. (2003) by Costa-Gavras. Kassovitz is also recognizable for playing a conflicted Belgian explosives expert in Steven Spielberg's controversial 2005 film Munich, alongside Eric Bana and Geoffrey Rush. He explained several times he accepted acting parts only for the experience of knowing what it is to act, to be able to be a better director of actors afterward, to meet directors he admires and learn from them by working with them, and to take part in great projects.
Kassovitz set up the film production firm MNP Entreprise in 2000 "to develop and produce feature films by Kassovitz and to represent him as a director and actor."[4] MNP Entreprise is responsible for the co-productions of a number of films including Avida (2006) in which Kassovits acts and Babylon A.D. which he directed. Kassovitz purchased the film rights for the novel Johnny Mad Dog by Congolese writer Emmanuel Dongala. The film was also co-produced by MNP Entreprise, and directed by Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire. The premiere of the film was made at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival where it was screened within the Un Certain Regard section.[5] MNP Entreprise's upcoming titles are Rebellion and MNP. Kassovitz will both star in and direct Rebellion, a war film based on a true story of French commandos who clashed with tribes in New Caledonia, the Melanesian territory of France. The film will start shooting at the end of 2008. The science fiction film MNP is named after Mir Space Station, whose writing in Cyrillic letters (Мир) look like the letters MNP, and also the production company. The film is set to start shooting in 2011. [6]
Be aware: Despite a "warning," the movie is enthusiastically pro-pot.
But really it's not a `pot film' it's a buddy flick.
This is a classic buddy film. The two buddies happen to be potheads, (but not like Cheech and Chong,) The pot smoking acts as a central prop, and allows for some deep conversations and considerations. Don't be put off though- lots of violence and a classic car chase. The directing is spot on, and the movie flows pretty quickly.
A buddy film, according to The Complete Film Dictionary, is "a film that features the friendship of two males as the major relationship". Ira Konigsberg, author of the dictionary, further defines the genre: "Such films extol the virtues of male comradeship and relegate male-female relationships to a The definition of a buddie film subsidiary position. Male relationships have always been a significant element in our popular culture, from the Leatherstocking Tales of James Fenimore Cooper to television beer commercials."
According to the Journal of Popular Film and Television, buddy films emerged in the 1970s in response to the feminist movement. The journal reported, "To punish women for their desire for equality, the buddy film pushes them out of the center of the narrative and replaces the traditional central romantic relationship between a man and a woman with a buddy relationship between two men. By making both protagonists men, the central issue of the film becomes the growth and development of their friendship. Women as potential love interests are thus eliminated from the narrative space.
That describes this movie. I don't think women will like it as much as males.
I have been told that if you liked Superbad, chances are you'll find something in Pineapple Express to like. While Superbad concentrated on friendships between boys during their teen years, this new Seth Rogen movie focuses on men in their mid twenties. Plot summary for Pineapple Express (2008)IMD
Lazy court-process clerk and stoner Dale Denton has only one reason to visit his equally lazy dealer Saul Silver: to purchase weed, specifically, a rare new strain called Pineapple Express. But when Dale becomes the only witness to a murder by a crooked cop and the city's most dangerous drug lord, he panics and dumps his roach of Pineapple Express at the scene. Dale now has another reason to visit Saul: to find out if the weed is so rare that it can be traced back to him--and it is. As Dale and Saul run for their lives, they quickly discover that they're not suffering from weed-fueled paranoia: incredibly, the bad guys really are hot on their trail and trying to figure out the fastest way to kill them both. All aboard the Pineapple Express.
Director:David Gordon Green Writers (WGA):Seth Rogen (screenplay) & Evan Goldberg (screenplay) ... Release Date:6 August 2008 (USA) Genre: Comedy | Crime | Thriller
You can stream the entire movieit live now through Amazons Streaming Video Service- CLICK HERE
Wanted: Directed by: Timbor Bekmambetov Written by: Michael Brandt, Derek Haas, Chris Morgan Starring: James McAvoy, Morgan Freeman, Angelina Jolie, Thomas Kretschmann, Common
Wanted is two thumbs up.
It is similar in ways to the Bourn Identity, Spider Man and the Matrix (especially in special effects) and more recently Iron Man. If you liked those movies you will most likely like this.
One reviewer ( at Salon.com) hit it on the head with this comment:
(Angelina Jolie), carves out a distinctly human space in the midst of the movie's outlandish, joyously depraved violence. "Wanted" is fast-moving and bloody, enjoyable even within its apologetically generic limits. But James McAvoy is its real secret weapon:
With his X-ray blue eyes and lips that look bitten with anxiety, he has the miraculous ability to fool us into thinking there's really something at stake here."
Robert Ebert warns: "“Wanted,” directed by a hot Russian actionmeister named Timur Bekmambetov, is a film entire lacking in two organs I always appreciate in a movie: a heart and a mind. It is mindless, heartless, preposterous. By the end of the film, we can’t even believe the values the plot seems to believe, since the plot is deceived right along with us. The way to enjoy this film is to put your logic on hold, along with any higher sensitivities that might be vulnerable and immerse yourself as if in a video game."
And maybe he's right, on one hand. But there is a deeper message that I took from the film- the stupidity to blindly commit violent acts( because your superiors told you too- after brainwashing you.)
The basic plot of the story is a young guy in a bad relationship and in a boring job, discovers that his father who left his mother and he when he was seven- was a member of an elite group of assassins. (With the religious reference some might suspect a little hat tip towards the Knights of the Templar as portrayed in the Di Vinci Code). Not only is he the son of one, if not the best assassin, but he has a unique skill of focused attention- something he had thought was severe anxiety, and was taking medication for.
As a reviewer, I thought McAvoy did the stand out job, followed closely by the special effect people. Jolie and and Morgan Freedman were greatly limited in capturing caricatures that meant `more' than just roles.
Another Hat Tip to the review at 353 Review whose haiku review is on target.
(No Spoilers- Trailer and Xtra-Clips at the bottom: Never Back Down Training WEpisode and Amber Heard interview)
Never Back Down is about a high school male Sean Faris (Reunion, Smallville) named Jake Tyler who has personal problems: his father, while drunk, drove into a tree and killed himself. Jake was in the car and survived. Jake knew his dad was drunk, but didn't make any attempt to stop him before he drove. (This all happens before the movie begins.)
Jake is conflicted because not only does he blame himself, but his mother (Leslie Hope, quite good) seems to hold it against him too. And as time passes he becomes a problem teen, whose problems his mother dramatically recites as a growing pattern of statistics.
The family, Jake, his mother and a younger brother (Wyatt Smith, cute) move from Ohio to Florida so that the younger brother can study tennis.
Jake discovers that at the new high school there is an under-ground fight club. The catch is that the top fighters don't just box. If they did, Jake might have had a chance. "Boxing is old school, as dead as Louis and Marciano."
The movie revolves around two major themes: Everybody has their own fight, and never back down. How do you do this? According to the movie by facing your demons and overcoming bullies.
The movie has been compared to Karate Kid and Fight Club. It is not anything like the twisted plotline of Fight Club (the movie is in a class all it's own), but there is a fight club and one of the actors Ryan (Cam Gigandet) does look and act a bit like the ripped Brad Pitt from that movie.
It is much more mature and violent than Karate kid, but it does have a mentor teaching a guy discipline. The actor Djimon Hounsou ( read more about this actor here) plays Brazilian from Senegal who teaches conditioning, restraint, doggedness, and winning the mental game. I thought he was great.
The dialogue is flip and hip, the fight scenes are well `clipped'. I have been told that they don't exhibit the best fighting- but how they are filmed I thought, made them intense. See the training the actors went through in video at bottom of post.)
Amber Heard on top of Sean Faris
There is a romance sub plot , and a `what you do for your friends' angle. There is the `now-ness' of instant communication via youtube like videos. And though the movie is predictable in it's outcome - what makes it fresh is how the character of Jake really comes to understand his need for controlling his temper and anger, even if sometimes, the only thing a bully understands is a beat-down.
You Can Watch The Entire Movie On-Line right now for $2.99 through Amazon Streaming Videoes Click Here
Born in the small village of Cotenou, in Benin, Africa, Djimon Hounsou fell in love with movies when he was a boy, going to the local theater every Wednesday to watch American westerns. The youngest of five children, he was sent by his parents to live with his oldest brother in Lyons, France to attend school there when he was 13, but he ran away and lived on the streets of Paris. For several years he was homeless, sleeping under bridges, searching garbage cans for food, begging for money and washing in a public fountain near the Pompidou Centre. He doesn?t like to talk about that time, but says, "I thought I could make my dreams come true in Paris but things always seemed to work against me."
That is, until he was discovered by French fashion designer Thierry Muglar. Muglar was looking for a complete unknown to be his new model and happened to see some photos that had been taken of Hounsou. The young man not only went on to become a top male model in Paris, but wound up travelling the world for various modelling jobs. His career took a turn in 1989 when Madonna saw him modelling in Los Angeles and asked him to be in her Express Yourself video. Although he didn?t need to speak English for the shoot, Hounsou realized that it would be a good idea to master the language if he wanted to move on to films and television work. Watching The Learning Channel, A&E and The Discovery Channel helped him to expand his vocabulary.
In the meantime, Hounsou appeared in more music videos for artists such as Steve Winwood, Paula Abdul and Janet Jackson. In 1990, he landed his first television role as a nightclub doorman on the television series Beverley Hills 90210. By 1996, he had only landed a few minor roles in small budget films when he suddenly got a call from Steven Spielberg. It turned out that the director had seen Hounsou?s videos and wanted him to audition for a role in his new film, Amistad (1997). Hounsou won the role of Joseph Cinqué, the leader of a slave revolt. The part was his big breakthrough, earning him a Golden Globe nomination.
In 1999, he landed a recurring role on the hit TV series E.R., playing Mobalage Ikabo in six episodes. His next big role in a feature film came when he played Juba in Gladiator (2000), starring Russell Crowe. Hounsou had no trouble finding work after that. In 2001 his command of French came in handy when he played a supporting role in the French film Le Boulet (2002). In The Four Feathers (2002), he played Abou Fatma, who helps Heath Ledger make it through the desert to rescue his friends. He also appeared in the western-themed film Muraya (2002), starring Michael Madsen and Juliette Lewis. In 2004, his career heated up when he received an Academy Award nomination for his role as a man with AIDS who is befriended by two young girls in In America (2003).
His second nomination came just a few years later, for his critically-acclaimed performance in Blood Diamond (2006). Hounsou lives in Los Angeles.
Filmography:
Push (2008) Never Back Down (2008) Eragon (2006) Blood Diamond (2006) The Island (2005) Beauty Shop (2005) Constantine (2005) Blueberry (2004) In America (2003) Lara Croft: Tomb Raider - The Cradle of Life (2003) Biker Boyz (2003) Muraya (2002) The Four Feathers (2002) Le Boulet (2002) Gladiator (2000) Deep Rising (1998) The Small Hours (1997) Ill Gotten Gains (1997) Amistad (1997) Stargate (1994) Unlawful Entry (1992) Without You I?m Nothing (1990)
Heath Ledger's performance as Joker Makes Dramatic Entrance As "Batman: The Dark Knight" Is Unveiled.
(Trailer at bottom of post)
LAS VEGAS — This time out, there's no vat of chemicals to explain how Batman's greatest enemy came to be the twisted sociopath known as the Joker.
Heath Ledger's Joker springs full-blown in this summer's "The Dark Knight," the sequel to 2005's "Batman Begins" that was previewed for theater owners Thursday with a clip showing the new movie's opening sequence.
Unlike 1989's "Batman," in which the deranged, disfigured clown appearance of Jack Nicholson's Joker resulted from a dip in chemical goo, "The Dark Knight" starts right in with the bad guy in all his psychopathic glory.
"I believe whatever doesn't kill you simply makes you stranger," Ledger's depraved Joker cryptically tells an accomplice in the opening scenes, in which he pulls off a daring bank robbery.
In an interview at ShoWest, a theater-owners convention where distributor Warner Bros. showed off footage of "The Dark Knight" and the rest of its summer lineup, director Christopher Nolan said it was almost inevitable that the sequel would pit Christian Bale's Batman against the Joker.
"The psychopathic clown, that's an icon to stand with the guy with the ears and cape," Nolan said. "It's just a wonderful visual relationship, and it's a terrifying image."
Long before Ledger's death of an accidental prescription drug overdose in January, the marketing of the movie had focused on the villain's rise to power and his creepy appearance.
There had been speculation among critics and fans that the studio and filmmakers might take a different approach to selling the film in light of Ledger's death, but the marketing has gone on as originally planned.
"I think he'd be very pleased to see we're just moving ahead as is," Nolan said. "If you try to honor somebody, you honor them by respecting their work and putting it out there for as many people to see. He was immensely proud of the work he did on the film. I feel a great burden to present that in an undistorted form."
"The Dark Knight" is due in theaters July 18.
The last time producer Charles Roven saw Ledger was when he showed the actor the very footage that was screened at ShoWest.
Fans have been buzzing over the anarchic style Ledger brings to the role in the movie's trailer, but the actor himself was utterly taken by what he saw of himself on screen, Roven said.
"He was just blown away by his own performance," Roven said. "He said, `Can I see it again?' So he was really, really thrilled."
Bale _ reprising his role as the wealthy Bruce Wayne, who moonlights as the emotionally tormented crimefighter _ said he watched the footage Thursday with a heaviness of heart over Ledger. But Bale said he hopes the movie will serve as a testament.
"I hope that this can be seen as a celebration of his work," Bale said. "He did a phenomenal job. It was a real joy working with the man. It was a joy knowing him, as well. I liked him a great deal, and I liked also how seriously he took his work."
MIchelle Williams And Others Break Silence Over Heath Ledger
People and Us Weekly both have excerpts of an April Interview magazine piece on Heath Ledger. In it, ex-fiancee Michelle Williams breaks her silence for the first time, as does ex Naomi Watts.
Some of what Williams said:
"I think the interesting thing about Heath, which maybe people have only really fully discovered in his death, is how vulnerable he was...
"You can pick it up on it in his performances, but it's easy to overlook because he was so physical and beautiful and strong and masculine," she adds. "But there was always that underlying sensitivity. That's who he was...
"For as long as I'd known him, he had bouts with insomnia," she says. "He had too much energy. His mind was turning, turning turning -- always turning."
Williams -- who has a daughter, Matilda, 2, with Ledger -- adds, "He had a talent for everything that he put his mind to. He didn't know limits."
And others:
• Naomi Watts: "He was a huge, obsessive, chess freak - and very, very good at it."
• Ellen DeGeneres: "He didn't try to be something that he wasn't. And I appreciated that."
• Phillip Seymour Hoffman: "Whenever Heath talked about something he liked, he did it in the way that any fan would. He wasn't somebody trying to cover up his excitement about something, or someone."
It seems obvious by all the attention that Heath Leger's death has raised that he meant something to many people. He was a good looking actor who took a very risky role of a `gay cowboy', at a time when our country was debating State by State the rights of gay people to get married. He and Jake both felt secure enough in their own sexuality that they both claimed in post movie interviews- "It wasn't a big deal, it was just like kissing another person."
He exemplified in a way that Brad Pitt has, that simply being a good looking actor was not enough - he wanted challenging roles. And as a person who tried to do his best, he did not always or often receive good reviews. But he was never `bad'.
When the new batman movie comes out, I suspect, we might hear of another Oscar nomination from his depiction as the `Joker', as it comes to the medias attention how much effort he put into the part and how much it took out of him.
Police Give New Details on Ledger Death
By Al Baker
Updated, 9:17 p.m. | The masseuse who discovered the body of Heath Ledger in a Manhattan apartment on Tuesday twice called a friend of his, the actress Mary-Kate Olsen, before calling 911, New York City police officials said on Wednesday. The officials, who provided new details about Mr. Ledger’s death, emphasized that no illegal drugs were found in the apartment and that there were no obvious signs of suicide. Tests on a rolled-up $20 bill that was found in the apartment found no evidence that the bill had been used to handle drugs, they said.
According to the police, around 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday, a housekeeper, Teresa Solomon, arrived at the apartment, at 421 Broome Street in SoHo, to do household chores. At about 1 p.m., she went into Mr. Ledger’s bedroom to change a light bulb in an adjacent bathroom; she found him on the bed face down, with the sheet pulled up to his shoulders, and heard him snoring.
A masseuse, Diana Wolozin, arrived to give Mr. Ledger a massage about 2:45 p.m. At 3 p.m., after Mr. Ledger did not emerge from his bedroom, with the door closed, the masseuse called him on his cellphone but got no answer. She entered the bedroom and saw him lying in bed. She took a massage table out of the closet and began to set it up near his bed. She then went over to him and shook him, but got no response. Using his cellphone, she used a speed-dial button to call Ms. Olsen in California to seek her guidance, knowing Ms. Olsen to be a friend of Mr. Ledger’s.
According to the authorities, Ms. Wolozin told Ms. Olsen that Mr. Ledger was unconscious. Ms. Olsen said she would call some private security people she knew in New York, and hung up. Ms. Wolozin again shook Mr. Ledger, called Ms. Olsen a second time, and said she believed the situation was grave and would call 911.
Ms. Wolozin called 911 at 3:26 p.m. to say that Mr. Ledger was not breathing. The call occurred less than 15 minutes since she had first seen him in bed and only a few moments after the first call to Ms. Olsen. The 911 operator urged Ms. Wolozin to try to revive Mr. Ledger, but Ms. Wolozin’s efforts were not successful.
Emergency medical workers arrived at 3:33 p.m., at almost exactly the same moment as a private security guard summoned by Ms. Olsen. The medical workers moved his body to the floor and then used a defibrillator and CPR, to no avail. Mr. Ledger was pronounced dead at 3:36 p.m. By that point, two other private security guards summoned by Ms. Olsen had arrived, as had police officers.
“I’m not going to speculate on why 911 was not called first,” said Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman.
The police said that all five witnesses — Ms. Solomon, the housekeeper; Ms. Wolozin, the masseuse; and the three private security guards summoned by Ms. Olsen — were fully cooperating with the authorities. (On Tuesday, the police at first mistakenly stated that Ms. Olsen owned the apartment; she does not. They later corrected the error.)
The police conducted tests on a rolled-up $20 bill found in Mr. Ledger’s apartment, but found no evidence that the bill had been used for anything improper. No illegal narcotics or alcohol was found in the apartment. Two types of prescription medication — sleeping pills and an anti-anxiety medication — were found in the apartment, but it is not known if the medications played a role in his death.
Detectives from the Police Department’s 5th Precinct were looking to examine any surveillance videos from the apartment building and the surrounding area but were also awaiting the results of an investigation by the New York City chief medical examiner’s office. That office conducted an autopsy early Wednesday morning but said that the results were inconclusive and that additional testing was needed.
The death of Mr. Ledger, 28, the Australian-born actor whose breakthrough role as a gay cowboy in the 2005 movie “Brokeback Mountain” earned him a nomination for an Academy Award, has attracted international attention.
A short (ten minute) sensitive piece on the movie Brokeback Mountain, with telling interviews with the cast.
Heath Ledger: 1979-2008 Actor Heath Ledger Remembered ABC News - Heath Ledger was found dead Tuesday in a Manhattan apartment, naked in bed with prescription sleeping pills nearby, police said. The Australian-born actor ...
Ledger Autopsy Is Inconclusive New York Times, United States - By Sewell Chan An autopsy of the actor Heath Ledger was performed on Wednesday morning, but the results are inconclusive, according to Ellen Borakove, ...
Heath Ledger with Siena Miller in a still from his film Cassanova.
Heath Ledger: An Appreciation People Magazine - By Leah Rozen Following his untimely death yesterday at age 28, Heath Ledger is likely to be best remembered for his role as a taciturn gay cowboy in 2005's ...
Remembering Heath Ledger Salon - He was young, he was beautiful, and he had a pure gift for playing troubled souls -- which makes the actor's death all the more tragic. ...
A character actor with character in a pushy world The Age, Australia - 8 hours ago HE WAS young, prodigiously talented and, more than that, absolutely straight-up. Heath Ledger was a Hollywood star who didn't play Hollywood games; ...
Heath Ledger as Bob Dylan in a still from the film I'm Not There
Astralian actor Heath Ledger has been found dead in his Manhattan apartment.
Ledger's Death Is Film World's Loss NPR - by Kim Masters Morning Edition, January 23, 2008 · An autopsy is scheduled Wednesday for actor Heath Ledger, a day after the 28-year-old movie star was ...
Family of Heath Ledger deny Brokeback star killed himself Times Online, UK - The family of Heath Ledger, the film star who was found dead last night in his New York apartment, have categorically denied that the 28-year-old Australian ...
Hollywood mourns sudden death of "Brokeback Mountain" star Xinhua, China - LOS ANGELES, Jan. 23 (Xinhua) -- Leading figures in Hollywood Wednesday continued to mourn the sudden death of Heath Ledger, a rising star who was hailed as ...
Tributes pour in for Brokeback star The Press Association - Heath Ledger will be remembered for delivering "some of the greatest performances by an Australian actor", the country's prime minister said. ...
Australian actor Heath Ledger, left, and US actor Jake Gyllenhaal
New York Police Department statement following the death of Heath Ledger at his Manhattan apartment.
January 22, 2008
A timeline of the career of Heath Ledger:
— April 4, 1979: Heath Andrew Ledger born in Perth, Western Australia.
— 1995: Joins the Globe Shakespeare Company in Sydney and acts in independent films.
— 1996: Plays a cyclist hoping to land a spot on an Olympic team in the TV show "Sweat."
— July 1997: Stars as a Celtic warrior prince in the TV series "Roar."
— 1998: Moves to the U.S. Still hasn't taken any acting lessons.
— Spring 1998: Cast opposite Julia Stiles in "10 Things I Hate About You," an updated "The Taming of the Shrew" in a high-school setting. Then chooses not to work for over a year because he doesn't want to do another movie about teens.
— Spring 1999: Cast in the Revolutionary War drama "The Patriot," playing the son of Mel Gibson's character.
— Spring 2001: Stars in "A Knight's Tale."
— Winter 2001: Plays the son of Billy Bob Thornton's character in "Monster's Ball."
— March 2004: Stars as the title character in "Ned Kelly," playing the Australian outlaw. Is dating actress Naomi Watts.
— April 2004: Works on "The Lords of Dogtown," a fictionalized version of a cult classic 2001 skateboarding documentary, which is filmed in the Los Angeles area.
— June 2005: Moves to the New York City borough of Brooklyn. His girlfriend, Michelle Williams, is expecting the couple's first child. They met while filming "Brokeback Mountain"; she plays his wife in the movie.
— August 2005: Stars opposite Matt Damon in Terry Gilliam's "The Brothers Grimm."
— Oct. 28, 2005: Matilda Rose, his daughter with Williams, is born. Regarding a possible wedding, he tells Canada's National Post in 2005: "Look, I wouldn't rule it out. But if I was going to marry, the media won't know about it."
— Dec. 16, 2005: Ang Lee's "Brokeback Mountain" is released.
— Jan. 31, 2006: Nominated for a best-actor Oscar for "Brokeback Mountain."
— Nov. 11, 2006: Stars as a heroin addict and sometime poet named Dan in the film "Candy."
— September 2007: Breaks up with Williams.
— Nov. 21, 2007: "I'm Not There" opens. Ledger is one of the actors playing Bob Dylan, along with Cate Blanchett. Williams also stars.
— 2007: Plays the Joker in Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight," a sequel to "Batman Begins." Film is due out in 2008.
— Jan. 22, 2008: Ledger's body is found in his Manhattan apartment. He was 28.
Is-it-or-isn't-it-a-documentary :: Street Thief Review by Paul Grant (follower of Basho) Trailer at the Bottom
The single fact that the director Malik Bader plays the main star Kapser Carr informs you that this is a fake documentary. But in style and `grit', it feels real. The mock-doc was filmed in Chicago, where the filmmaker and star lives (wicker Park). "When we made the film, our goal was to kind of give people a real look into the life of a burglar," Bader told Mike Thomas of the Chicago Sun Times.
Bader tells Thomas: "So we didn't say, 'How can we make a cool film that fools people into thinking its real?' We just said, 'Man, how can we make this s--- real as hell?' "
masterful camerawork are a highlight of the film. using shaky undercover-style footage and unusual techniques like the grocery cart cam and the helmet-cam give the film just the right `this is a documentary' look. The cutting and the subtle music give the film the crucial suspenseful edge that makes it fun to watch. The story is intercut with separate interviews of another professional thief in prison, discussion with an attorney, and with police officers all of which come off natural. And interviews with the main character give depth to the story.
The movie is short at 90 minutes.
To give the reader more information we culled together more information about the film Street Thief.
Other notes:
Direct Hit:: What inspires Wicker Park filmmaker Malik Bader's neo-noir movies? Chicago's gritty underbelly. By Veronica Hinke Chicago Magizine
This article appears in the June 2007 issue of Chicago Magazine.
Wicker Park filmmaker Malik Bader
When Michael Moore, the king of attention-grabbing documentary movies, asks you to fly to his film festival in Traverse City, Michigan, and speak about an emerging genre called "dangerous" documentaries, you know you're raising some eyebrows. That's what recently happened to Malik Bader, the director of Street Thief, which stunned audiences at the Tribeca Film Festival. For the project, the filmmaker sought the advice of professional burglars before attempting break-ins on camera.
"To stand out on a limited budget, you've got to make things happen," says Bader, 33. "We wanted to make something that would get people's attention."
It did. Street Thief, which gets its cable première on June 21st on A&E, played at festivals as far away as Buenos Aires and Locarno, Italy. At every stop, people approached Bader, curious whether the slovenly main character, Kaspar Carr-who trolls corner marts, movie theaters, and clubs in search of the perfect heist-is a real thief. Like Borat mastermind Sacha Baron Cohen, Bader becomes elusive when asked what in the movie is fiction and what, if anything, actually happened. "All of our filming was done covertly-cameras in helmets, little cameras in bags," he answers cryptically. "We put our money where our mouth was-making it as realistic as possible by interviewing real burglars and not using extras."
Bader's inspiration stems from such films as Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket and Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets and from movies he and his younger brother, Sam, used to sneak into theatres at Ford City to see. They'd nestle into the back row, squirreling away ambitious filmmaking fantasies of their own. In 2000, the pair founded Bader Brothers Productions in Wicker Park, where Malik lives with his wife, Norma. The brothers are currently at work on a fraternally themed script about a criminal who returns home to Chicago to help his sibling accomplish one last score. Although he had a leading role in the film Death of a President and has recently signed with Creative Artists Agency, Bader plans for now on staying in the Midwest. "There are great places to film in Chicago," he says. "We've shown it's realistic for filmmakers to achieve goals right here."
So does the crime occur because of the crew’s presence? Or are they just tracking events that would happen anyway? With Street Thief, Bader questions the concept of reality… so on the eve of his TV premiere, we questioned him:
The Lobby: How did you decide on this subject matter?
Malik Bader: I wanted to capture a truly honest sense of what a successful criminal’s life is like. I realized after talking to a few burglars–some very accomplished–that it wasn’t the crimes that fascinated me. It was the characters behind them. In Kaspar Carr (the film’s subject), I found the prime example. He was sitting and observing society from the outside, never actually taking part. How do you live in a big city and not have any meaningful relationships, all for the sake of your profession?
The Lobby: You guys shot the film on the streets of Chicago — were there any times you felt you or the crew were in danger?
Bader: There were times when we actually were in danger. While filming in the South Water Market, two men attempted to steal our equipment truck — when they were approached, one of them took out a gun as they ran off. And the opening scene was shot in Chicago’s little village, a pretty crazy area where drive-by shootings are commonplace. At one point, a block from where we were filming on 26th, two cars loaded with rival gang members started flashing gang signs at each other. Then, suddenly, gunshots started ringing out.
The Lobby: The film successfully blurs the line between real life and reel life. Are there verite films or filmmakers you’d name as an influence?
Bader: For documentaries, The Maysles Brothers’ The Salesman, Martin Bell’s Streetwise and Man Bites Dog. Other film influences include early Scorsese, Michael Mann, Stanley Kubrick, Friedkin’s The French Connection, Jules Dassin’s Rififi and many others.
The Lobby: I would think the movie is unique enough — and certainly voyeuristic enough — to get theatrical distribution. After a string of film festival success, how did you end up with A&E?
Bader: I would have loved a theatrical run, but more and more, you see independent films getting lost in the shuffle. A&E Indiefilms approached us just after Tribeca. They have a great philosophy and they really champion the films that they acquire. Ultimately we knew with A&E we could reach that large audience.
The Lobby: How difficult is it to discuss the film without revealing more than you’d like?
Bader: It’s not difficult. I want people to experience the film fresh so they can judge what they are viewing on their own as it happens. It makes for much better discussion afterwards, as we learned at film festival Q&As.
The Lobby: Did you feel that spending so much time with a real thief would have an effect on you and the crew? Did it change the way you look at crime?
Bader: Yes it has affected me quite profoundly. If I need money to fund my next film, I could always turn to cracking a few safes…
SB: Were there any changes made between the version of Street Thief that was shown at the festivals and what will premiere this Thursday on A&E?
Malik Bader: Just a little shorter sequence, where he’s kinda scoping out the grocery store, which… that has actually gone through quite a few revisions, because originally when we made the film, you know Kaspar Carr leaves the supermarket, and he goes and changes into this Mexican cowboy dude’s outfit — it’s going to be on the DVD on the deleted scenes. When you break into a place and you turn off their alarm, you gotta leave to make sure the cops aren’t coming. Even if you took out the alarm, even if you really know what you’re doing and you cut the phone wires, there’s always that small chance that somebody saw you or there’s a radio backup and so you leave and come back, and that part we kind of felt that, you know unless you’re a hard-core crime enthusiast, or you’re trying to use this as a how-to video….
It’s kind of, it has kind of a slow pacing, and I enjoyed wondering when the film opens up, what the hell am I watching? Is this guy a burglar, is he a cop? What’s going to happen, kind of not knowing until you see him at the table with all the money going into the counter.
CSB: I hadn’t noticed the change when I watched it….
Malik Bader: Very, very subtle. I mean less than 30 seconds came out of the opening at Tribeca, and four minutes came out from our original director’s cut. Street Thief Casper Counting Money Tribeca Film Festival 2006
CSB: Let’s step back a second then, it sounds like — maybe not an inspiration but just your sense of approaching the film — your goal was to put the audience in the shoes of the person who is committing a burglary, understanding it, being there, in contrast to an Ocean’s 11-type, surreal portrayal. When did you first become interested in that, or when did you first think about trying to get to it from that angle?
Malik Bader: I’ve kind of been familiar with the whole world of crime, just growing up in Chicago. You’re always kind of fascinated by crime, and then you start to make friends that are in those circles, and some grow up and leave that stuff behind, and some take it to the next level. I knew these guys growing up and I knew some of these guys that made their living as professionals in certain fields, but they were also burglars, and I knew guys who were strictly burglars. I mean they had their car and their apartment and their lives, and these guys you knew took down scores. I mean, they didn’t go around advertising it, but you knew. And some of these people, I would hear their stories and find them unbelievably fascinating, just ordinary people that you think are graphic designers or bankers — and they’re not taking down the place they work at, but they’re taking down like night club scores and grocery stores and gas stations. And the guys who usually get away with it are guys that you know selectively look for their places, that aren’t dying to get $500 bucks, that don’t have drug habits. Guys who, you know, have kind of a controlled life, and it was trying to examine that. And also the anxiety that even a guy like Kaspar Carr goes through before a score and the paranoia. How the hell do you cut yourself off from relationships and not trust anybody — to not want anything long term with this kind of goal in mind?
And also his outcome, you know, I wanted people to question — is he just smarter than all of us and he just had this sh*t planned out from the beginning? Or, was this a guy who when, finally, he found these filmmakers and this attention, it set into this thing that fit into his life. Wanting to be the center of attention and talk and teach. So it was kind of a mix of all those things. But mainly it came from my experiences and my knowledge of crime and never really seeing that true essence in any Hollywood films, or even a lot of indie films. I mean, there are great films, but when it comes down to the character and what he’s going through — I mean a guy just pulled down a $7 million dollar heist, and they’re just happy and excited, but you didn’t see him going to the bathroom 17 times. And we talk about that in the film and just try to bring a life to that… how these guys go about and live their lives.
CSB: Excellent, I think the grittier the better. For me, an open question when we were watching the film was, when this guy says he’s two steps ahead of you, is he really two steps ahead of you or is he just trying to justify to himself….
Malik Bader: Exactly, exactly and I think you can see it that way. Because as a filmmaker when you step back and say “let’s make this real”. And we really put our money where our mouth was in every single respect, the film can‘t be — and I don‘t think I’ll ever be able to do that in any of my films again, where you can’t poke one hole in the film, like just plot-wise, story-wise. I’m writing a script right now and it’s hard, I just come from that school where it’s like “f*ck, it’s got to be real”. And any film I watch, it’s never real. Like I watch Michael Mann, I watch this, I watch that and Michael Mann is a guy who’s trying to keep it crazy-real. And I watch Miami Vice and I’m like “that can’t happen, that won’t happen, that ain‘t gonna happen..” But, to make a film, you gotta bullshit, and we didn’t want to do that in Street Thief.
And I’ve totally lost track of what the hell the question was…..
CSB: It’s all good, I was really just rambling. It seems like, one of the real challenges for this guy, Kaspar, that he has this secretive world that he builds up and the big exception is that he’s here on camera, and he’s got this need to talk. Was that something you tried to reconcile as far as the character, or was that just a needed fiction to get the camera focused on this character to make the movie?
Malik Bader: Yeah, it’s kind of like — I love crime. And I want to make a movie about burglars. And I want it to be real, and how do I do that? How do I make that happen? Initially we started to come up with these like, not bullsh*t, but these scenarios for how the filmmakers met Kaspar. And we had it all worked out, they were interviewing burglars in prison, and we were also going to do these sitting head interviews with real burglars, that I knew from Chicago, where they talk about why they went to jail and what they did — and it started to take away from the story. So the reason the one guy is still there, is to kind of break up the story, to get away from Kaspar for a minute or two, give it something to relate to, like “Oh, this is how that started. This is what climaxed in leading them to Kaspar.” And we were going to get into them meeting him, and how they found him, and kind of more discussions of like “can we finally go along with you on a score?”, and a little more info. It was more fun to hear this crazy, chain-smoking, you know, eating like a fat slob, foul-mouthed, real character, that it was getting into all of that. So we just left it up in the air and said if you really start questioning why this guy would do it, you’re never really going to truly find an answer, because he is not going to let us know, he’s not going to tell us. I know why, but I’ll never give that away because it should never be given away.
It was just a lot of scenarios from the people I met and the stories I’ve heard, and my own assumptions and ideas. If a guy wants people to think he’s dead, there are ways to do it, that are inconclusive but it’s inconclusive to the point that people who just want to close their cases will just kind of close them. [At this point in the interview, the phone connection cut out somehow. The interview resumed a minute or so later.]
CSB: So, it sounds like the answer to the question why would a guy like this open up on film is essentially that, you’re not going to get a satisfactory answer to that, so it makes more sense just to leave it?
Malik Bader: I think it’s more fun that way. It’s part of what I truly like… the most exciting thing for me was leaving the theater, and watching other people leave the theater talking about the film. “Dude, it was f*cking real” and “Dude, they were really doing those scores” and every one of our screenings in the US — and I’ve gone to all of our screenings — were sold out. And people, old ladies at the Tribeca thing were like clapping after the last score….. [at this point the phone cut out again. We got back on a minute later, this time for good…]
So, yeah, I think that’s kind of the fun of it, letting people come to it on their own, why would this guy do it, I think you can tell that he’s lonely, and he doesn’t have a lot of friends, and he’s got these guys that he can truly control, who have something from him that they really want, and they’re willing to go by his rules — that is rare to find. And there are rules that he has with them that we don’t really know, like who’s holding the film, who’s holding onto the tapes, and what are the rules for when they can come out to tape. And we had rules in our minds as filmmakers. We don’t really know them as viewers, but they do exist. In this situation, there would be, you can do this or you can’t do that. That’s why we show him hunting later, we wanted to take it out, and you know, if that really happened, time would pass, and you would just have to sit there in your office waiting for this guy to re-appear.
CSB: It sounds like the film evolved, so that at first it was going to focus on a lot of characters, and it evolved to focus mostly on Kaspar, so that the character who is in jail is now a fairly minor character. Did you consider taking him out altogether?
Malik Bader: Definitely, we did. Like when we started editing it together — the film was really made in editing which is closer to the way a documentary film is made, because we did shoot a lot of extra stuff in addition to what we wanted to shoot. And we wanted it to feel very spontaneous and just come together the way a doc would come together. And so, in the end, it’s very close to what our initial idea was, but it was just kind of cut up and shaped differently. And we did consider, did we really need him, and we felt we wanted to get a little break from Kaspar. And since it isn’t a very plot-driven film, in the beginning you’re just learning about this guy’s life and you’re just wondering what’s going to happen, you know, what’s going on? And we wanted something to just, you know, we could leave Kaspar for a minute and hear this guy’s story and get back to the action to find out what’s going on. So that it’s not all just talking heads, but it’s also not just Kaspar just plying his trade and taking down scores.
CSB: We watch a lot of foreign films here at CinemaStrikesBack.com and when it comes to crime films, today’s Hong Kong movies in particular, there are reports that some productions are tied in with actual gangsters, the “triads”, and the filmmakers have these guys on the set advising them, to keep it realistic, the “triad” culture, I guess.
Malik Bader: I love these films, some of these films I watched, like Triad Election was one of my favorite festival films from last year. I watched it at Chicago International last year, and it sucks that it never came out here in theaters or on DVD, I really just can’t understand that. I ordered it on Yahoo, from like overseas and just never got it. And after Tribeca, you have all these scripts and agents coming at you from Hollywood, and all this stuff, and when you watch a film like that, you’re like “Oh, now I remember why I want to make films”. So, it’s kind of, you know because it is cinematic, and you can feel the filmmakers kind of hand in it, and the way its put together, I just really enjoyed those movies.
CSB: Similarly, in different periods in the past, some of the old 70s yakuza movies from Japan for example, had actual gangsters on set advising the filmmakers (or making the films themselves in the case of Noburo Ando), so I began to think about this as I was watching your film again last night. I read somewhere on the Internet where you were talking about how there was someone on the set of Street Thief the whole time, an actual burglar advising you on….
Malik Bader: That was one thing in [the article at Traverse City Record Eagle (click here for link)], I think it was just taken out of context. We didn’t have, there wasn’t a burglar at all on set telling us what to say or kind of like advising us. But what I did say was every crime in the film was based on an actual crime that went down. Whether I knew the person who took it down, or heard from somebody who knew the person who took it down. Mostly, it was me knowing the person who took it down, reading about them, I had friends who gave me like the police reports and friends who gave me transcripts, and I interviewed some cops, and I’m very close with one guy who was on the run for two years, he went to Mexico, he came back, and they caught him in like a sting operation, and he went to court and actually beat the case. And some of the things the guy in jail was saying were based on his real life. And every aspect of the film like I said I wanted it to be able to hold up. So, we didn’t put anything in there that we thought could have happened, or that we thought it might happen this way, it’s all based on real stuff and how to take down a score.
And also, we tried not to involve too many people, like at the supermarket with the helmet cam, there was no crew that walked in with me, that was my helmet cam, I made it, I walked into that supermarket, the only person who knew was the owner, who wasn’t at that location that day. I just walked behind the counter, behind the butcher’s line, I mean, it was all like the way it really went down. In addition to that, the attorney, the lawyer, we went there and he thought we were like real filmmakers, he’s a partner of my attorney, and he had no idea. He’s trying to talk to my brother who’s a producer, and he got so angry that we wanted to call the cops. He was like “you guys are dumb, you don’t call the cops, I‘ll make sure you keep your f*cking footage, just don’t call them, there’s no need to call them. Let‘s get this sh*t done the right way”. And we’re like “no, you gotta call them.”
And I’m sitting with the guy, the cop, waiting for the call, the lawyer thought they were so stupid, he typed up a quick disclaimer, saying you guys are like retards, and I’m not going to be held responsible for you guys later, when they take all your footage. So, he was advising guys on a real case as to what the circumstances of the film we made were. The movie theater — I really cut open a display, and crawled into it. And I filmed patrons. And, of course, I would get releases from them, you know, after they knew they were recorded. The behind the scenes production people would run up to people and say “hey, can you sign this, we’re making a film” but nobody knew we were recording them. So, you know, I could really disarm alarms, I could really record people’s phone conversations, I could really cut open a safe during the filming of a film. And those things were all real, in fact. So, those are things you don’t see in a big budget film, or you can’t really do it, you can’t take those risks.
CSB: That was going to be one of my questions, did you get releases, did the supermarket know? And it sounds like maybe after-the-fact the answer is yes, but before-the-fact, no.
Malik Bader: It was like, wherever we could get away with it, after-the-fact we did. So, for example, we got permission from the police department to film at that police station, the film office. But the cops there, they didn’t know. We wanted them to come out and chase us away, but they didn’t, you know. So we tried to push the envelope as much as we could. In the South Water Market, where Kaspar is telling you that they’re tearing the place down to build condos, well to get the shot we wanted on the back fire escape, we had to break into the wrong place. But, we were hoping to God after we pried the door open, because they were like going to demolish the place in the month, so we didn’t think there would be any damage anyway. But that’s like, you gotta get the shot, it’s really important. And I thought, we pretty much are real burglars now, so let’s just get this open and get the shot, it was to an abandoned wearhouse already, so we didn’t really break in anywhere. But it gets to the point where you’ll do it under any circumstances to kind of deliver what you’re trying to deliver here.
CSB: And I would think, especially for an airing on A&E, I would think it’s hard to get Tribeca comfortable, but it’s got to be especially hard to get A&E comfortable for a national broadcast…
Malik Bader: A&E just wanted to make sure, like they were just worried because my brother who was involved in that criminal case, that has nothing at all to do with this film, it’s just something that coincidentally happened on his own. Which, kind of, you know, people, journalists love to take things and run with them, and I guess that’s just the nature of the beast. But to make a long story short, they just wanted to make sure, you know, you need releases for every single thing, and you need to get errors and omissions insurance, and they just wanted to make sure that the project was legit. And, I felt that A&E was a weird kind of like, match for the film, because what they show is just not that crazy and provocative, and you know, it’s not HBO, and you know this foul-mouthed crazy burglar, but the executive Molly Thompson over there just loved the film. And when we started to think do we go with a smaller company to put it in a limited theatrical release in four to six theaters, and then cross our fingers and then nothing happens? And you have this opportunity to have A&E’s entire viewing audience watch the film? And it kind of becomes more about having as many people as possible enjoy the film and watch it.
CSB: You know, ever since seeing your film at Tribeca, I would periodically do an Internet search for news about it, and it seemed like the official website that was up for it disappeared, and…
Malik Bader: Yeah, we did that, not purposely, but kind of purposely, because it was still in the air, and what was going to happen with it. We thought we’d do more harm than good, if someone came out and wanted to get rid of everything out there surrounding the film, and bring it out as if it was something real, and if a distributor wanted to do that, I wouldn’t have anything against it. So, I kind of wanted to leave that option open for whoever picked it up and distributed it.
CSB: A couple months ago, I finally found something listed on a subdivision of A&E’s website, like they were just starting to seek out advertising for it before an announcement had been made that they would be airing Street Thief, and we actually put a post up on the website about it…
Malik Bader: I actually noticed that, I saw that and I was like “holy cow, these guys are good”.
CSB: But I was like, wow, A&E, I wouldn’t have… you know, like, ok, good for A&E, but, hey, I think that‘s cool….
In any case, what I was trying to get at before (when I was comparing Street Thief with these triad and other crime movies), is that they basically described themselves as simply realistic crime dramas. Did you ever consider pitching it or describing it to people that way? What led you to want to emphasize a half-documentary, half-real aspect to it?
Malik Bader: It really came, for me it was more about feeling. You kind of get caught up in what you’re preaching or what you’re talking about. And we thought, if we tried to pull off a realistic drama, it’s actually much more difficult to do that than what we accomplished in Street Thief. You’re making a film, but you’re also trying to make it as realistic as possible, so how do you match up? We wanted to get attention for ourselves, we wanted people to take notice — I wanted people to take notice of what I was capable of cinematically, but also make something that people enjoyed. How do you match up to something like Heat, or Thief, or any Scorsese film on a tight budget, running and gunning in Chicago? So, we knew we couldn’t do that. My thing was how do I deliver a real look into the life of a burglar. And initially, it was really more about things like feeling. Like, I wanted people to really understand the tightening in a person’s stomach, and all the anxiety and hard work that goes into it. And of course some of that gets lost because you know, you’re trying to make a dramatic film, even though it is in the style of a kind of cinema verite or documentary of whatever you want to call it, you still want it to be dramatic and some sort of a ride for people. So, it was something that was thrown around, and it came from I wanted to give people a true look into the life of a burglar, and experience kind of what he experiences and feel what he feels, and it kind of came more from that than anywhere else.
And we knew it was going to be hard. We thought about maybe opening it up, and we talked about the ending. We had this idea where he would disappear, you would see the blood, and instead of the documentary searching for him, it would cut to like a beautiful 35mm, really anamorphic, kind of widescreen look, with these same documentary filmmakers in their office, with all these academy awards and all this shi*t on their shelves, and these guys are like “holy sh*t, you’re not going to believe it” and they run into a conference room and on the TV set, it’s like a Brazilian film crew, and Kaspar Carr has been spotted. And after this, what we were going to do was make the first two-thirds and after it was over, give this feeling that there was this cult following after Kaspar Carr, and after the documentary that had been made years prior, and you had just watched that documentary that was made years earlier, and here it is now, and on this Brazilian news, Kaspar Carr has been spotted, and all these Brazilian news teams are in front of his house, and Kaspar Carr comes out, and he’s married this Brazilian chick and they had a baby, and they can’t extradite you for non-violent crimes from Brazil, if you have a kid in Brazil, to the US.
CSB: Wow!
Malik Bader: There were other ideas, but where we were putting it together it was like so real, and so, and it was more real than we anticipated it would be. The sales agent who picked it up thought it was real, the publicist thought it was real. The Hamptons Film Festival and AFI Film Fest both invited it to be in competition as a real documentary, and we had to convince Tribeca not to list it as a documentary, and that’s another thing out there, that we tried to convince people, that we tried to pull the wool over people’s eyes. But we actually went out, that’s why I did the Q&A. You know, I didn’t want this film to be about is this real or not, I wanted it to be about, is it good or does it suck? And, so, but I think I f*cked up, I think I should have just not showed up, and there would have been a much crazier buzz about the film. And me worrying too much about the wrath of journalists had us go down the … And after we went down a million little pieces, this thing broke on Oprah, and so the publicist really worried about lying to journalists and putting a disclaimer out, and “what you were about to view is not real”, and we were like “man, the timing sucks for us so bad”.
CSB: It’s funny, I guess, I hadn’t scrutinized the credits enough, so when you walked out at the end of the screening as the director, it was like “Oh! Well…”
Malik Bader: Isn’t that fun! That was fun. And not that I fooled people. But it’s got to be exciting to see something and think it’s real, and then realize that it’s not. And I wanted that secret to be kept, and I just wanted viewers to watch it on A&E and argue about it. Like, I argued with my brother about Man Bites Dog. I don’t know if you’ve watched that film?
CSB: Sure.
Malik Bader: There’s that lady on the couch, and I don’t know if he shoots her, or what — he gives her a heart attack. And my brother was like “Bro, that’s f*cking real” and I’m like “Come on, it’s a film” and we know it’s not real, but we’re arguing about it. You know, it’s part of film, and it’s part of the fun of it. And that all happened after the fact, but it’s fun to kind of watch and experience.
CSB: I remember, at the screening I was at, literally the first question was “Why aren’t you in jail?” and then someone asked for their money back… and part of me was thinking “Wow, I thought we were all just having fun here”, but then I’m also wondering did you plant all these people to drive up the buzz?
Malik Bader: No, no. And you know, the only questions that pissed me off were the questions like “the documentary genre is so sacred, and what you’re doing is so wrong”. What does that have to do with this film, dude? You’re mad because you bought it, and you should be happy, because now you’ve truly experienced something that… Believe me, people are smart enough to know, that if they’re watching a doc and it’s not real, they’re going to know and they’re not going to buy it. You know, and if you’re watching it and it’s totally blown out of proportion, and it’s billions of dollars he’s taking, and kind of doing these high-tech explosions like De Niro does in The Score, you know, I think that’s part of why people were upset, because they bought it, and they just wanted it to be real. And I think most of those people are more the filmmakers than the average viewer.
So, yeah, that was — were you at the first screening when there was this old guy asking “Where did you find this guy and why did he agree to do it? And why do you look so much like him?” And I thought he was joking and was like “ha ha, next question” and he was like “No really, where did you find him and why do you look so much like him?” And a guy in the back yells “Yo, clean up your motherf*cking glasses”.
">Clint Eastwood
