Well, dear readers, back in 1982 I was invited to the opening night premiere of a little film at the Cinerama Dome. I knew the little film had gotten a standing ovation at the Cannes film festival a few weeks prior to the film’s opening in Los Angeles, California. I also had already had a tiny bit of history with the film, so I was very much looking forward to seeing it. In 1981 I made a motion picture entitled The Creature Wasn’t Nice. We shot the film at Laird Studios, which, once upon a time, had been the Selznick Studios. Our offices were in a two story building towards the back of the lot, the back of the lot actually being close to the front building, the famous Selznick building you see on films from the Selznick Studio (you actually entered the lot elsewhere). After we wrapped principal photography, in my office the creature itself sat on a chair facing my desk, which always made me smile. Our cutting room was downstairs in another building, close by.
At some point, another film company moved into offices near ours and began shooting their low-budget film. All I knew was there was a creature in their film, too. I knew that because I ran into two twins that I’d gone to high school with, Richard and Ronald Zarro, and they were part of the creature operator team. Eventually, someone from their company approached us and asked if they could take over my office and use it as their cutting room. The studio was willing to move us into a back office in the Selznick building and make the move worth our while, and I had no problem with that. I was told the director of the low-budget film had liked our office and found our creature amusing. At that point, all I knew was that the film was called A Boy’s Life.
A few months after they wrapped my commercial agent called and said we’d had an offer of a buyout for a commercial I’d been in – a film wanted to use a clip of it, just a short bit of it, and they were offering us $1,500 flat, with no royalties ever. I asked what the film was and was told A Boy’s Life, a low-budget film. I thought that was funny that it was the same little movie that had taken our office for their cutting room. The three of us who appeared in the commercial all agreed to the buyout. After all, how much money was a low budget film called A Boy’s Life going to make? After that, I forgot about it, embroiled in what became the saga and drama of The Creature Wasn’t Nice’s postproduction problems.
Anyway, there I was in a great seat at the Dome ready to see Steven Spielberg’s latest film, which was called E.T. The Extra Terrestrial. The theater was jammed with celebrities and I always enjoyed going to openings (I no longer remember why I was invited or who invited me). The film began and five minutes in we all knew we were seeing something truly special. The laughs were huge, and the audience was just mesmerized by the film. And suddenly E.T. was watching television, trying to figure out how to contact home, when a commercial came on. It was a commercial for a telephone company. And there, for one brief moment, was me. And it all came back to me. A Boy’s Life had become E.T. And I was in (albeit for two seconds) what was about to become the biggest grossing film in history. At the end of the film, the audience stood, cheering, crying, applauding. The film was an instant sensation, just as Star Wars had been. Within two months the backlash began, because no film can live up to the kind of hype that E.T. had. It was so huge that people simply refused to give in to it. Those who saw it at the beginning knew just how magical an experience it was and actually the curmudgeons who wouldn’t give in (you know who you are) were few.
I saw it two or three more times during its initial run, and then owned it on laserdisc and DVD. The DVD had that hideous politically correct version, where the government guns were replaced with CGI walkie-talkies, and certain lines re-dubbed, a couple of cut scenes put back in, and CGI used to replace certain E.T. shots. That version, for me, was utter garbage and ruined the film. At some point, Mr. Spielberg had a light go on in his head and realized that he’d perpetrated a travesty on his own film, and when the Blu and Ray was announced, he would not allow that version in the set, and bravo to him for that decision. So, the Blu and Ray arrived yesterday and last night I sat on my couch like so much fish and watched it.
Thirty years later, the film remains fresh and wonderful. The humor, the pathos, the suspense still grabs from the start and never lets go. The film has one of the most emotional roller coaster rides in its last forty minutes of any film ever made. The actors are wonderful, the Carlo Rambaldi E.T. is amazingly emotive (the film’s camerawork is perfection and very, very clever in the lighting, so that you never see more than you should), and the script just gets it right at every step. And it’s so wonderful to hear a real authentic film score – not just noise and pounding and pad – but a real film score doing what a real film score should do: Getting under the skin of the drama and the characters and taking the film to a place that it would never get to without the music. The score is the spine of the film and it’s a breathtaking piece of work by John Williams. It’s got everything that today’s film scores lack – melody, subtext, and complex writing and incredible colors. The most amazing thing is and it’s the most important thing to remember – they weren’t lying when they told us it was a little low budget film – E.T. cost ten million dollars in 1982 at a time when most films were costing $25 million and up. But Spielberg knew exactly what he was doing – he hired terrific actors who were not big names and he told his story. It wasn’t about anything other than telling his story. Yes, there are special effects but they are central to the storytelling and never there to show off. In fact, E.T. was made back-to-back with another blockbuster hit called Poltergeist – same thing – ten million dollars, great cast of non-name actors, great script, great production and an awful lot of bang for the buck considering the budget.
So, how does E.T. look on Blu and Ray? Well, I can sum it up in a word: Perfect. It looks just like it should and obviously sharper than the release prints, which were a few generations away from the camera negative. The only downside when you’re doing a hi-def scan from the camera negative is that the resolution becomes sharper than what you’d have seen projected, and therefore certain effects are not quite as seamless as they were in the theatrical prints. The sound is fantastic and everything about the disc is first rate. At the end of the film, I was a blubbering idiot. And I have to say, it’s nice to be the reason E.T. figures out that he should “phone home.” My little two seconds is a key plot point, and I must say my silent performance is excellent (I have lines in the full-length commercial, which also features a wonderful actress named Mallory Sandler, who I was quite friendly with back then, and who was a member of the LA comedy group, Kentucky Fried Theater). Highly recommended by the likes of me.
I also finished watching Thunderball. When all the elements finally came together in Goldfinger, you’d think that would have taught everyone everything they’d need to know, but Thunderball proves otherwise. It’s pacing is glacial, there are some truly bad lines, the quips are way too many (Goldfinger gets the quip ratio just right), and it just doesn’t amount to anything. The transfer is a real mixed bag. The first fifteen minutes looks way too brown, and the entire transfer is never really sharp enough. But the transfer people seem to have come awake about halfway through, and most of the underwater photography (of which there is too much) looks terrific. Good title song, and Thunderball is the first Bond film to have credits by the man who would go on to do most of the Bonds – Maurice Binder (the previous three films had titles designed by Robert Brownjohn).
Prior to all that, I’d had a gloriously glorious nine hours of blessed sleep. I never really got much done – we’re still trying to fill the last slot of our cast and until we do I can’t finalize song choices, which is irritating. The piano tuner was thirty minutes late and he ended up working for two hours, as we had to deal with some action issues and other stuff. By the time he was done, it sounded great again. While he was tuning, I made some tuna and had a couple of sandwiches. After he left, I went to the mail place to pick up the one package I knew that was coming and it wasn’t there, thanks to Ontrac, a delivery service that likes to come as late in the afternoon as possible. I did pick up the annoying mail and I did, as promised, deposit it directly into the trash. But I also received two annoying e-mails and responded to both. Nothing horrendous, but by that point I’d had it with irritating, and I just put aside all the irritants and went back to feeling positive. One simply cannot let twits drag one down, and I know you dear readers go through similar things occasionally. As Sheriff John said, laugh and be happy.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I really must get another good night’s beauty sleep.
Today, I shall have an early lunch with Alet Taylor, then I have errands and whatnot to do, hopefully pick up some packages and no annoying mail, then I have to attend to some busywork that I know will be irritating, but I’ve been putting it off for too long and must get it done, because until I do people will keep bugging me about it. That will probably take up most of the afternoon, and then at seven we’ll start finessing the mixes on the Christmas album. Some of the songs require little finessing, while some require major finessing.
Tomorrow I’m seeing Alet’s show, Friday something is going on during the day but I can’t remember what, and then Friday night is more finessing mixes (and hopefully finishing them). Not sure what’s happening on the weekend, but one thing I’d like to do is go out somewhere and have a nice, leisurely dinner with friends. We’ll have to see what friends are available.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, have an early lunch, hopefully pick up some packages, do busywork all afternoon, finesse mixes, and then relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Ask BK Day, the day in which you get to ask me or any dear reader any old question you like and we get to give any old answer we like. So, let’s have loads of lovely questions and loads of lovely answers and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, wondering just how much money we would have made in E.T. royalties had we not done the buyout for a little, low budget film called A Boy’s Life.