Alternate Takes 08.15.09: Bad Taste
Posted by Shawn S. Lealos on 08.15.2009
District 9 is one of the smartest sci-fi movies of recent memory and its release is all thanks to the generosity of Peter Jackson and his WETA studios. Alternate Takes looks at the film that gave Jackson his start.
Welcome to Week 64 of Alternate Takes. I am Shawn S. Lealos and you have entered my world.
District 9 is not only the most interesting movie to come out this weekend but might be the most interesting movie of the summer. The movie trumps all other science fiction films of the year in intelligence and creativity, including the very good Star Trek. Director Neill Blomkamp based the movie on a short film he made called Alive in Joburg about aliens who have been living on Earth for 28 years, mostly in slums, with a strong illusion to the apartheid problems in South Africa. The movie was made with a relatively small budget but looks like a big budget sci-fi film thanks to the assistance of Peter Jackson's WETA effects house. I cannot recommend this movie enough and you can read my full review HERE.
Onto the column...
With the thought of a low budget film based on alien visitors to our planet, I can't help but think of the movie that opened the door for Peter Jackson to enter the Hollywood subculture. There have been many stories about underdogs making small films and hitting the jackpot. Sam Raimi did it with The Evil Dead and that movie became a template for Jackson to follow when he started his own feature length debut. Much like Raimi, Jackson had been making short films with his friends for years using an 8mm camera his parents had bought for him. Jackson attempted to make his first movie in 1981, a vampire film inspired by his love of Hammer horror movies. After a year of shooting, Jackson quit and resolved not to film anymore until he could buy a 16mm camera.
In 1983, he bought a 16mm Bolex camera and set off to make a new ten-minute short film called Roast of the Day.
The movie begins with a small James Bond inspired prologue (one of Jackson's original films was called Coldfinger) where an unseen government official gets a recording of a distress call from the small New Zealand town of Kaihoro. When he is convinced there is a full scale invasion of this town he makes the choice to call in The Boys, a special military unit known as the Astro Investigation and Defense Service (AIDs) to deal with it. We cut to the town where a shoddy looking man in an obvious (very bad) blonde wig wielding an axe follows another man to the beach. Someone unseen is speaking to the man through a walkie-talkie and eventually the man is forced to pull out a gun and, after a couple of misses, makes a perfect head shot, which blows the top of the skull off, brains splattering on the ground in great detail. The Evil Dead actually looks tame compared to this gore and the title screen pops up: Bad Taste.
When the ten-minute film was eventually edited together a year after filming started, it was 50 minutes long. This was 1984, the same year The Evil Dead screened at the Wellington Film Festival and Jackson was convinced they could stretch Roast of the Day to feature length. Jackson wanted to call the new film Giles' Big Day but was convinced to change the title to Bad Taste, a title he never really cared for.
Giles is a collector for famine relief and was the star of the original short film's screenplay. The film was supposed to have him arrive on collections day to find the town lifeless. On his way back to his car he is attacked by a maniac with a bayonet. He escapes, reaches his car and eventually finds a big house where he stops to call for help. Unfortunately for him, the residents of this house are cannibals associated with the nut job with the bayonet. They knock him out, cook him and relieve their hunger.
Actor Craig Smith, who was cast as the hero of the movie Giles, got married, had a nervous breakdown, became a born again Christian and said he refused to appear in such a violent and sleazy movie. The movie also called for government agents who were actually cannibal aliens who liked to play with their food. When Terry Porter, one of the agents cast, also got married and asked to be written out of the script so he could move to Australia. Jackson had a lot of work to do. He rewrote the movie, making the agents good guys investigating the possible alien abductions and added the character of Derek.
We learn that the two men from earlier are there to investigate the aliens, the unseen man with the walkie-talkie is scientist Derek (Peter Jackson) and the man on foot is Barry. Barry knows a collector is coming but before he can do anything about it he is tracked by a group of men, who are aliens in disguise. Derek has also captured an alien, who is hanging by his foot over the ledge of a cliff, named Robert (also Peter Jackson). When Derek begins to torture Robert, the alien screams for help bring the other aliens after Derek. What results is a movie that owes as much to Troma as anything else. By the end of the fight, Derek is thrown to his death by Robert, his brains splattering from his head. Jackson has said he finds excessive gore funny and compares the ridiculous amounts of gore in this movie comparable to Monty Python
The scene is brilliant and shot in such a way that it packed the punch needed but never once could you tell it was the same person playing both combatants. For Derek, Jackson shaved his beard and cut his hair back on his head. Robert looks just like Peter Jackson. The scene was shot with Jackson first playing Robert with Ken Hammon doubling as Derek and then a year later Jackson shaved, cut his hair and played Derek while Hammon put on a wig to double as Robert. This was not the last time we would see Derek because Peter Jackson liked the character so much, he brought him back later to complete the film.
Giles is still present in Bad Taste, driving to the town (past a road sign with Castle Rock on it, homage to Stephen King) for collections. He arrives in town before Ozzy and Frank, the other team members, show up. Giles finds no one in the town until he happens upon Robert, eating someone's brains, from out of the skull, with a spoon. Giles' story is exactly what it was meant to be in the original short film as he escapes the alien and reaches the big house where he is conked on the head, dragged inside by a guy in a kitchen apron and prepared for dinner. In the meantime, the three remaining agents attack the house, full of aliens preparing for their return to their home planet. It turns out the aliens are planning to try to use humans as a new kind of food for an intergalactic fast food restaurant called Crumbs.
To complete the film, Jackson desperately needed more money and submitted the initial 50-minute film to the New Zealand Film Commission to apply for funding. They were denied funding despite the Commission being amazed by what Jackson was able to accomplish with little money up to that point. They applied again for funding in 1986 and The Commission was even more impressed but since it was a government agency it was hard to pass the mustard since it lacked almost any redeeming qualities. Jim Booth, the CEO of the Commission, found a way to help without ever having to send the footage to the NZFC Committee. He awarded Jackson small sums of money over time from the Script Development Fund, which Booth personally had approval over. Booth and Jackson became fast friends and Booth served as a producer on Meet the Feebles, Braindead and Heavenly Creatures.
Using this money Jackson was able to finally quit his day job and work full time on Bad Taste. He used most of the money to design and build the complicated SFX including the alien make-up, Derek's brain surgery and the conversion of the house into a spacecraft. The alien transformation and makeup is amazing considering how little money Jackson had to spend. It is a testament to the skills of Peter Jackson that he created this. There is even a scene with an exploding car. There might not be another movie ever made that looks like it was worth more than it actually was.
By this time, Craig's religious fever wore off and Porter returned from Australia, both were back in the film although Derek was re-written to be the hero. He spent much of the second half of the movie trying to keep his brain matter from falling out a hole in his head. As you might expect, he became more and more loopy as he lost brain matter along the way. The escape includes another homage, this one to The Three Musketeers when a half dozen aliens fall from a tree thanks to rapid machine gun fire. There is also a scene where one of the aliens shot in the gunfight is clearly Pete O'Hearn, the same actor who plays Barry. Between that and an errant bazooka blast that blows up a sheep in the distance, it is almost as much Loony Toons as splatstick comedy. While Craig Smith likes to joke "it was an old sheep", Jackson actually accomplished this using a sawhorse covered with sheepskin rugs. Originally the sheep was supposed to have a larger role (emphasized by repeated looks at it to this point) but that is one of the few areas the director was unable to successfully implement. There was a scene they planned to have the sheep attack Barry and Ozzy but every time they let it loose, the sheep would run for a nearby cliff and attempt to leap off the cliff. The filmmakers finally decided the sheep would rather die than appear in their movie and scrapped the scene.
What the film is best known for is the rebirth of Derek in the final confrontation. This one scene, and one shot in particular in the scene, is the definition of Bad Taste. Derek finally arrives at the house, which is actually the spacecraft, with a chainsaw. He chainsaws his way in to the house while Ozzy and Frank are killing all the other aliens. Derek joins in the fight using his chainsaw and finally gets the idea to replace his lost brain matter with that of a dead alien. When his partners can't stop Lord Crumb from starting his spacecraft (house) and flying off into outer space, Derek realizes it is all up to him. He lures Lord Crumb out of the cockpit and waits until he is in the right place. Derek then uses his chainsaw to drill a hole in the floor above Crumb and then leaps down head first with the chainsaw, slicing through Crumb's head. He follows the path of the chainsaw and ends up coming out through Crumb's crotch, mimicking a birth canal. When he finally makes his way through, he looks to the camera and states "I've been born again!"
It is ridiculous. It is gore that goes so far over-the-top there is no looking back. It is brilliant fun. It is also a jaw dropping end to an impressive film debut.
It took four years to complete shooting Bad Taste. The movie had to be changed and changed again to overcome numerous obstacles. Actors dropped out and actors returned but Peter Jackson never lost sight of the prize at the end of his journey. The first screening for the film was at the Cannes Film Festival in 1988 and received a strong reception making every penny the Commission pumped into it worth it. It played sold out shows at the Wellington Film Festival with the cast and crew in attendance. Peter Jackson was able to watch as people laughed, shrieked and applauded his years of hard work.
It was just the start of the amazing career for the director who went on to make the disgustingly hilarious Muppet-like movie Meet the Feebles, the fantastic Braindead and the intelligent and gorgeous film Heavenly Creatures. Hollywood finally took notice and he got his chance to make a movie with American stars called The Frighteners before setting out on his amazing journey to recreate The Lord of the Rings. Peter Jackson, a man who began making movies that Troma would be impressed with reached the top of the ladder and created one of the most successful film franchises of all time. Not bad for a kid from a small town in New Zealand who started out with nothing more than a Super 8 and a dream.
