bruce dern Tagged Articles at Cinematical

It is always a curiosity when Hollywood families come together for a project. I love seeing the Estevezes (aka Sheens) appear together -- sure, even in Men at Work. And sometimes the Coppolas do well with one another -- Talia Shire in her brother's Godfather movies, for example. But often it is a bad idea to work with or cast family members. The most obvious case is Sofia Coppola (Shire's niece) being in her father's The Godfather: Part III. Just recently Jake Paltrow received a paltry reception for a movie he made featuring his sister, Gwyneth. Now, another new filmmaker is attempting a similar feat: According to Variety, Bruce Dern will make his directorial debut with Hart's Location, in which he'll appear alongside his ex-wife, Diane Ladd, and his daughter, Laura Dern. Written by Ashley Reed, the film will appropriately be about family estrangement. Laura will star as a woman seeking to regain custody of her son while also attempting to locate her father, who left when she was 3.

It is worth noting that Diane Ladd has been nominated for three Oscars, all for films in which her daughter also appears (Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore; Wild at Heart; Rambling Rose). The last of these even saw a nomination for Laura, as well, marking the first time a mother and daughter were ever recognized by the Academy for the same film. So, for the women, at least, Hart's Location seems to be a great idea. Maybe there's more Oscars in their future. On the other hand, it also seems to have a sort of novelty to it, like the badly-received It Runs in the Family, which featured a lot of the Douglases (Michael, Kirk, Cameron and Diana), in what appeared to exist just for the stunt-casting. Like that movie, Hart's Location also unites a real-life divorced couple (Dern and Ladd parted ways in 1969). Interestingly enough, though, Ladd has already directed her ex-husband, in 1994's little-seen Mrs. Munck. Hopefully Dern can do better in this reversal of roles. As long as he spends more attention on making a good movie rather than on working out his personal issues (he told Daily Variety that the project makes sense for them because it's about the things you wish you'd said to your family members), then I'll be looking forward to it. The film begins shooting in New Orleans in February.

Frankly it doesn't matter a double-dribble whether or not the new film Believe in Me is based on a true story; the formula is exactly the same either way. A radical new coach descends upon a repressed, conservative small town, reluctantly takes on a ragtag team of losers, and whips them into shape just in time to win the state championship, all the while dealing with personal issues and maybe a stock bad guy, a sourpuss who for whatever reason can't wait to see the team lose.

Believe in Me is not much different from Miracle, Glory Road, Coach Carter, Gridiron Gang, We Are Marshall (and probably the new Pride, which I haven't seen yet) and other recent inspirational sports dramas. In fact, I'd suggest that the gruff-but-caring coach is for the current decade what drill instructors were for the 1980s. These movies take their inspiration seriously, and present their true, formulaic stories with a kind of impenetrable bombast and without much wiggle room; the packaging suggests that, if you criticize this movie, you're really criticizing the real heroes behind the story. What Believe in Me does differently is that it keeps a low profile.

Half way through the following article, I had to stop, rewind and somehow digest the fact that I just read a sentence in which legendary director Alfred Hitchcock called himself a "whore" with regards to his involvement in Steven Spielberg's "fish movie," Jaws. In his new memoir, Things I've Said, But Probably Shouldn't Have, actor Bruce Dern tells of the time he attempted to introduce Alfred Hitchcock to a then up-and-coming director Steven Spielberg.

At the time, Spielberg was coming off Jaws and desperately wanted to meet his idol, Hitchcock. Yet, when Hitchcock refused, Dern was determined to find out why -- and, here's how he said Hitchcock replied: "Because I'm the voice of the Jaws ride [at Universal Studios]. They paid me a million dollars. And I took it and I did it. I'm such a whore. I can't sit down and talk to the boy who did the fish movie . . . I couldn't even touch his hand." Whoa. First off, I had no idea Hitchcock lent his voice to that ride, did you? Secondly, it appears to me as if Hitchcock might have been a bit jealous of Spielberg and Jaws -- forced to take a massive pay day for voice over work on a theme park ride, only to go sneak into a corner and watch Jaws become one of the greatest horror flicks in history.

Of course, Hitchcock passed away in 1980 and was never able to witness (with the exception of Jaws 2 in 1978) the way in which the Jaws franchise was whored out to the moviegoing public over the years. Man, I'd love to know what he would've said about Jaws 3-D.

It took me a long time to appreciate the western. I had no interest in John Wayne or "The Man with No Name" or gunfights at high noon. It all seemed a bit hokey to me. I think the first time I actually gave it fair attention I was in my mid-20s, when I pretty much forced myself to watch the classics, such as The Searchers, High Noon, Stagecoach and The Wild Bunch.

The same is or would be true for most people of my generation. The western has little significance to anyone born in the last 35 years, not just because the genre was pretty much invisible from the mid-70s to the early 90s and has been scarce still since, but also because its conventions have become more clichés than standards, and because new perspectives on its subject matter have weakened its glorification. Today films set in the same time period are more likely to be categorized as and have the appeal of historical fiction rather than that dead brand of "cowboys and Indians."

The difference between a small-scale dogfight and a real championship dogfight in 1957 is the audience. At the former, the all-male crowd is stereotypically country-bumpkin with faces and clothes covered in dirt. At the latter, rich folks are present, including women wearing their pearls and Sunday best. The surprise isn't that each has their own demographic, though; it is that either has any enthusiasts at all. Perhaps it is the illegality that draws them in, or maybe it's that gamblers will bet on just about anything.

While I was thinking about how dog fighting would be a tough-sell for a film like Walker Payne, which stars Jason Patric as a novice of the sport, I overheard some people in the audience discussing the contrary. They claimed the picture would be more marketable if the filmmakers cut out the dramatic story and just kept the dog fighting. If there are in fact people who enjoy watching pit bulls kill each other in a ring, then that edit would certainly make sense, since the film's narrative has very little going for it.

Here in Austin, the Best of QT Fest continues through Sunday night at Alamo Downtown. I'm going to test my film-watching stamina at the all-night horror marathon on Saturday. The festival is already broadening my film horizons in the biker and kung-fu genres. In addition, I've spotted Mike Judge and Elvis Mitchell at screenings and heard Quentin Tarantino's unforgettable rendition of the theme from the movie Hollywood Man. I'll share more about the festival next week after it wraps.

• The Sinus Show guys are helping the Texas School for the Deaf with their Relay for Life fundraiser at an outdoor event tonight (Friday) at midnight. The guys will be adding their humorous commentary to Karate Kid. You can buy tickets through Rolling Roadshow.
• The Paramount is hosting the Banff Mountain Film Festival on Saturday. The festival is a collection of short documentary and experimental films about mountain and outdoors adventures, such as kayaking, skydiving, and mountain climbing.