A great film needs to dream big, but these movies go a bit too far.
News releases have recently enlightened us to the fact that the latest James Bond film, Spectre, spent more than $37 million on destroying Aston Martins in order to get enough footage for four seconds. The remaining 149 minutes and 56 seconds cost more than $313 million dollars, making it one of the most expensive movies ever made.
But compared to some other films’ production woes, Spectre’s expensive decisions are just a drop in the bucket. Whether it be heart attacks or weather-related problems, some filmmakers just don’t know when the line should be drawn.
Take the silent and colorless 1925 version of Ben-Hur for example. Director Fred Niblo’s climactic chariot race sequence has been acclaimed for its realism and intensity in depicting the dangerous rush for victory. Niblo achieved this goal by convincing the chariot stunt drivers to act in the most recklessly dangerous way possible to capture the gritty realism.
Niblo felt that his drivers were being way too careful in their chariot maneuvers and decided to encourage them to risk their lives. His incentive was a $100 bonus that would be rewarded to the person who won the race. Because that $100 would be worth roughly $1,370 today, the poorly-paid stunt drivers leaped at this jackpot opportunity, resulting in the death of one driver and a massive chariot pile-up that ended up killing several horses. Niblo was very pleased by the reckless charioteering.
Filmmakers don’t just torture the unknown stunt actors and set assistants. Sometimes, the A-listers suffer just as much, although they are less likely to be actually killed. Take Martin Sheen from Francis Ford Coppola’s war film Apocalypse Now as an example.
Filmed in a Filipino civil war zone and with weaponry and machinery borrowed from the official Filipino government, Coppola was having a good time making his war epic. However, in the midst of shooting, actor Martin Sheen suffered a major heart attack.
Fearing that his lead would return to the United States for medical treatment, Coppola did the logical thing and claimed that Sheen simply was suffering from heat exhaustion and that all he needed was a little rest. Eventually, Sheen was sent to a hospital in Manila and was back on set within a month.
A more recent production struggle is Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s highly-anticipated Birdman follow-up, The Revenant, a Western revenge thriller starring Leonardo DiCaprio. After filming for nearly an entire year, unpleasant rumors started spreading from the set.
Inarritu was accused of being an extraordinarily difficult director who never filmed a scene the way he said it was going to be filmed, creating major rifts between him and the production crew. The complicated production has caused the budget to balloon from $60 million to $135 million.
Members of the production crew also accused Inarritu of causing unnecessary amounts of suffering, such as dragging a naked cast member on the ground and making actors stand around in autumn-clothing in sub-zero temperatures, all of which was filmed on location in the wilds of Canada and Argentina.
Inarritu defended himself by saying, “If we ended up in green screen with coffee and everyone having a good time, everybody will be happy, but most likely the film would be a piece of s---.”
Only time will tell if The Revenant lives up to Inarritu’s glowing expectations, but even so, one can only gape at the insane budgets and problems that Hollywood has to deal with.
Richard Hwang is a student at Athens High School. What do you think of these directors and their production choices?Email him at rhwang999@gmail.com.
