Reviews

I was Best Boy on this show. The most pleasant movie experience I've had. Gunnison, Nome (in Feb!), Douglas AZ, Nogales AZ, and a ranch near the Mexican border. I just saw the Director's Cut last night in L.A. ------ Where is the 1000' mag Steadicam shot?! We built an entire cyclorama stage in the alley behind the auto dealer, painted outerspace, rigged a Caddy on a forklift, lit it big (including the only Titan arcs that Mole Richardson had working at the time), and flew a wall up and down for various parts of the 10:00 shot. It was great. Where is it!? That scene took lots of work, time, thought, rehearsal, and we were all very proud of it. I think we did 3 takes, and at dailies (upstairs in the deserted department store next to the hotel) the whole crew was thrilled. Where is that shot?!?!?!?!!?

This was only a few years after I started working in Hollywood, and my first show on location. I loved it; Flagstaff in the autumn, cool talent (one day they even helped us wrap out a location far from the trucks by carrying sandbags!), cool teamsters who were actually working w/ teams of horses, watching the '86 World Series at the motel, arc lights (I was an electrician), DC power, staying warm next to an arc grid (if only the production manager knew that we were burning a $15 stick of carbon just for the heat!), San Antonio Peaks, Schneblee Hill Road, Oak Creek Canyon, and just working in the Great West on a Western. The director and Tom Conti were perhaps better suited to working on a stage drama concerning manners and mustaches, however I found the rest of the crew to be very glad to be working on a Western. And Sam Elliot was just ............ cool. Good times.

I was the Elec. BestBoy. It was a casual show (good for non-union), we all had fun, nobody got hurt, and it was a summer of work during the Writers' strike of '88 (or whenever that one was). I can't say it was a great movie, but Walken is an ........................ interesting fella. Good. For the alien exam sequence (shot at the HW Athletic Club while it was being rebuilt) I took some great (if I say so!) photos of him and Mora in the set. Kodak Tmax 3200 looked good! No still man on the show, no real publicist, no pix; whatever. Worth renting? No. Good times.

Oh my, that was only three lines of text, and they want ten. Guess I need to hit 'return' more often. Anyway, the gaffer was Kevin Williams. I wonder what he's doing these days. Last I talked to him, he was fixing up houses in Bakersfield or something. Fun guy; may he find his way. Is this enough now?