By Jason Pyles
*This column was originally printed in the November 2018 edition of The BP Times newspaper.
Want to spice up your Thanksgiving dinner conversation? This month’s Considering the Cinema gives you fascinating movie trivia. You won’t believe these films exist! Some of these tales are sad, but all of them are true.
Roar (1981) – Considered “the most dangerous film shoot in history,” “Roar” is a bizarre Drama film in which a family lives among wild lions (with leopards, tigers, cheetahs and elephants nearby). During the 11-year film production, the actors were in genuine peril, with reports of 70 crew members getting injured by the predators. No one was killed, but some of the attacks actually appear in the film. “Roar” may be rated PG, but the blood and violence depicted onscreen is real.
Fitzcarraldo (1982) – Inspired by a real-life event, “Fitzcarraldo” was directed by Werner Herzog, an eccentric German filmmaker who made a movie about a madman who drags a large steamship over a steep hill to build an opera house in the jungle. So, what did Herzog do? He compelled his film crew to actually drag a real steamship up over a hill in a South American jungle. (Even the real Fitzcarraldo moved his steamship in pieces, but Herzog insisted on transporting the whole ship at once.) For additional shocking details, I’d recommend the behind-the-scenes, making-of documentary, “Burden of Dreams” (1982).
The Bridge (2006) – One of the most haunting and tragic films I have ever seen, “The Bridge” is a 94-minute documentary where director Eric Steel and his crew filmed something like 5,000 hours of footage of the Golden Gate Bridge in 2004, thereby capturing 23 of the 24 known suicide jumpers. Many of the film’s detractors consider it exploitative and insensitive, but Steel claims his film serves the altruistic purpose of trying to understand more about suicide. The filmmakers interview family members of the deceased to bring us their stories. The film is not uplifting, and it’s difficult to watch, but it is truly unforgettable.
The Up Series (1964 – 2012) – We all saw the “Harry Potter” actors grow up in eight films over 10 years. And Richard Linklater’s 12-year project, “Boyhood” (2014), is a film that shows a boy growing up before our eyes, from age 7 to 19, within a three-hour film. But “The Up Series” documentaries are a longitudinal study that begins in the early 1960s by interviewing 14 children that are all age 7, and then revisits them every seven years! Since then the filmmakers have followed up with these 14 individuals at regular, seven-year intervals. To date there have been eight films, with the most recent documenting the subjects at age 56!
P.S. Thanksgiving movies: A quick Google search yields enough Thanksgiving-related productions to watch one each day of November, but here are a few noteworthy, “not-family-friendly” titles: “Krisha” (2015), “The Ice Storm” (1997), “Kristy” (2014), “Home for the Holidays” (1995), and of course, “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” (1987).
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