There was a time before the internet, before bloggers and Facebook, that the average human being tried to live up to an ideal of what a person should be. The collection of human society as a whole, was trying to be good, honest and compassionate. Even if, as was the case, most failed at it, the ideal was still there in the back of people’s minds. It was, perhaps, an unattainable state where one was trying to make the right choices for oneself and one’s family, but also to help their fellow human being, or at the very least, not hinder their fellow humans that were not in their direct circle of loved ones, friends and associates. The idea being that we were all “in it together,” to borrow from the New Yorker motto. If we peed in one part of the soup that we swim in, sooner or later, we, also, would be swimming in it.
I say that this was a time before the internet, because the internet changed the game. But before I talk about that I would like to address who the human beings were that had such a live and let live mentality and why. Again, people who at the very least shared the mentality expressed by Moe, The Simpsons bartender, who in one episode from many years ago, when The Simpsons was still fresh, said, “I’m a well wisher, in that I don’t wish you any specific harm.” Good enough. Maybe barely. But it was, “Live and let live.” Where and how did such thinking/ belief arise in society? For the answer we have to go back a couple of generations.
The generations I’m talking about are the older generations now evaporating before our eyes. Leslie Nielsen’s generation and older. The ones that said “please” and “thank you”. These generations were not weak. By no means. Those that built our cities and communities for us endured the tests of time. They fought against tyranny in world wars, displaying epic bravery. When they returned from the wars, it was their choice to be basically courteous to one another. When the world was fascinated with the movie Jaws, myself included, my father, who was decorated for his service at sea in World War II, refused to watch the movie. He said, “I’ve seen men die from shark attacks when ships went were sunk in real life. I don’t want to see it again.” Not that I’m putting “Jaws” down. I was a boy when it came out and I saw it in the theater something like 20 times.
This world that these generations carved out was a world where all the people on a bus would overtly put pressure on a young healthy man for not giving up his seat to an elderly lady. There were many things bad about the “good old days”, don’t get me wrong. A lot of “what was” should have been discarded along with the belief that cats were the familiars of the devil because they had pointy ears and were kept by suspect earthy herbal healers. But some of the good has been thrown out with the bath water and some of that good is basic common courtesy to your fellow stranger. I’m talking about small courtesies as obvious as opening doors for someone who is carrying a load of boxes just because you are able. As I said, the distancing effect of the internet has had a great deal to do with the decay of these gentle social conventions. People say things to and about others that they would never say if they were face to face with those individuals. There’s something about the non reality of information and people coming through a glowing box that messes with our basic sense of empathy. All nature of deceptions and falsities come through the same box that delivers our contact to the world. Recently it was reported that more people than ever are getting their news from major media online sources, but fewer than ever trust that information.
It’s sad really. I read a review of a preview performance of the Julie Taymor/Bono Spider-man Musical on Broadway and the reviewer actually said he was “shtting” himself. What has happened? Though such freedom of raw thought might make us giggle or feel safe that we can say what we want, should we? Should we just do what we feel or is there more to the human experience that only the discipline of basic respect of others can bring?
As I look around, I see a lot of people plugged into their ipods or mobile devices, mostly unaware of each other as made of up of the same basic stuff that they are. This new layer of isolation from one another is in part due to the increasing draw to sit in front of glowing boxes of information. To not feel anything we don’t want to. The Matrix is not being built by some dark force artificial intelligence. We are constructing our own prison of the mind. Our friends are becoming “Facebook friends” and our social groups and gatherings of friends and loved ones are becoming, “online social networks”. So that one can switch from “the real world” of Facebook to the fantasy world of a video game where one is blowing onrushing faceless attackers to bits. Where instead of farming, we pay money to “virtually farm.” And many in the upcoming generations are clearly blurring the lines of what is real and what is make believe. It seams that people are becoming increasingly less social in the real world as they transfer that energy to the glowing box and the “world” of the digital information. A world where teenagers can be tormented to death by cyberbullies. A world where people that would be outcast as irrational or with selfish intent can masquerade as, well, whatever they want.
So it is of no small consequence that a man like Stephen Tobolowsky should come along in these times. Nearly everyone who goes to the movies has seen Mr. Tobolowsky’s extensive work. Most recently, the youth will know him from the TV series, GLEE. I believe he rather refers to himself as the man in the scenes with the movie stars. Mr. Tobolowsky has often occupied the wonderfully crafted jeweled performance pieces that enwrap a movie and make the stars shine. A constantly working actor, Mr. Tobolowsky is famous for, among many fresh performances, Ned Ryerson, the persistent insurance salesman in the sublime and profound comedy, GROUNDHOG DAY.
Mr. Tobolowsky is a breath of fresh air from the moment he bursts on the screen at seeing Bill Murray’s character Phil Conners, a high school alumni. Tobolowsky goes at Murray with a gentle ferocity as he attempts to make a personal reconnection in order to sell insurance. The movie itself is profound. I have read that prominent members from virtually every religion lay claim to the picture and its beautifully honest and true unfolding message, all cleverly woven in a broad comedy. Mr. Tobolowsky pulls off showing the annoying character, without actually being annoying. In fact, a joy to watch. Mr. Tobolowsky’s character Ryerson is a major lynchpin in helping us to discover that which irritates us about life is actually not the nagging insurance salesman, but something from within that we personally bring to life. The “nagging” part is in our heads. William Shakespeare once wrote, “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so”, At every given moment, there is a galaxy being violently pulled into a black hole, there are storms, tragedies and death. At the exact same moment, there is joy, weddings and a bunny rabbit sitting in a sunny field near a perfect pond, munching greens and enjoying the calm. Perspective, what one chooses to focus on, makes it good or bad. The movie GROUNDHOG DAY illustrates this, and that we must relive our mistakes until we get it right, beyond articulation. And I’m not just saying this because I was born on Groundhog Day.
GROUNDHOG DAY is a brilliant movie, directed by Harold Ramis, starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell. Presented simply and comically, with each added piece of information, the movie lays out the way to live. That is to say the way Jesus, The Buddha and Mohamed and Moses would teach you to live: Live present, respect yourself and the world around you, and treat others as you would have others treat you.
So I am listening to National Public Radio many weeks back and I stumble across Stephen Tobolowsky’s radio show, The Tobolowsky Files. A compilation of spoken essays by Mr. Tobolowsky about his experiences in life and the movie business. His fresh and kind honesty is sublime and brilliant. I was at once riveted to the radio as Mr. Tobolowsky seemed to be speaking directly to me, the mark of a great entertainer. He seemed to be addressing the issues I was dealing with at the moment. Now I know that this isn’t true. The man on the radio is speaking to masses of people and no one individual, though an actor will often pick one specific person to play to in their mind. This muse is usually very private and known only to the actor. I remember a chilling scene in a documentary where John Lennon was talking to homeless man who believed that Lennon was writing songs directly for him and Lennon gently explained that it was just coincidence. Just personal words that the man happen to relate to.
Anyway, as I heard Mr. Tobolowsky speak of his travails at scaling the Hollywood walls, I heard my own story, my own voice, the best part of my own humanity. I have since learned I am not alone in this. Many of his fans feel a deep connection to Mr. Tobolowsky and his ability to remind us of where our humanity is. Mr. Tobolowsky tells the truth. The universal truth that we all really know, but sometimes turn our back on in the false pursuit of personal gain or the myth that we are creating a place of safety and certainty for ourselves.
Tobolowsky has this way of expressing common, mundane, everyday things that display their truth and meaning to us. He naturally and inherently reminds us of our humanity and our compassion and demonstrates in a myriad of ways how such traits of respecting one another are not only of no harm to us, but crucial to our existence and ultimate survival.
I am now a huge fan of Mr. Tobolowsky’s work. So I was pleasantly surprised when Steven Tobolowsky talked a couple of weeks back about one of his three heroes, Actor Jack Clay. I had directed Jack Clay in my artistic failure, (though it earned $7 million in DVD sales), of a motion picture, H.G. WELLS’ THE WAR OF THE WORLDS, in 2005, also recut as THE CLASSIC WAR OF THE WORLDS.
I must digress a moment on this point. None of the movie’s failure was due to the cast or any of the hardworking actors and artists that I shot the picture with. The movie’s failure was due to my level as an artist at the time, far too short of a post production schedule, and the tricks of a distributor who mass released my unfinished rough cut. I knew there was a good movie in the mess that went public. But unfortunately the picture went out with temporary special effects, unbalanced and wrong sound effects and a host of rough edges that had yet to be sanded.
I was so dissatisfied with my own film, that I have done something rather unprecedented. I’ve taken the raw performances of the original production, chosen new takes, recreated the special effects, filmed and recorded new performances and reconstructed and re-envisioned the movie entirely from the ground up. The new version is a reboot, WAR OF THE WORLDS – THE TRUE STORY, read more about it here and here.
WAR OF THE WORLDS – THE TRUE STORY, now in post production, is a mock documentary, like the famous 1938 Orson Welles CBS radio broadcast that terrified America. The new motion picture deliberately blurs the lines between reality and fiction.
The premise is that in 1965 a film crew captured the memories of the last living survivor of the war between Earth and Mars that took place at the end of the 19th Century. The footage was discovered in a basement vault of a condemned house in 2006. Also found in the vault was previously unknown footage of the actual Martian invaders and their war machines. This motion picture is a presentation of that eyewitness account.
I had originally planned to have WAR OF THE WORLDS – THE TRUE STORY ready for release by October, but that date has come and gone. Not because we are in any production trouble. Quite the opposite. To get it right has taken longer than originally planned. Post is going so well that I will not rush it for any reason. The fanboys can scream, critics can critique, mountains can fall and I will not put the movie out until it is right. At present, I am close to announcing a realistic release date.
But back to Stephen Tobolowsy’s radio broadcast of Jack Clay. Jack Clay headed the Professional Actors Training Program, known as the PATP Program at Southern Methodist University, and the University of Washington, the first professional actors training program at University in the United States. He is a distinguished member of the College of Fellows of the American Theatre. He was the champion and teacher of Academy Award winning actress Kathy Bates, star of Misery, amongst many others of great fame and accomplishment. Jack is one of the most kind and gracious people I have had the privilege to work with. Jack Clay was also one of Stephen Tobolowsky’s acting instructors. Steven Tobolowsky tells a wonderful story of his acting training under Mr. Clay.
In my upcoming movie, Jack Clay portrays the astronomer Ogilvy, a pivotal character in H.G. Wells' book, THE WAR OF THE WORLDS. Working with Jack, I found him to be an open and generous actor. His sense of humor on the production was refreshing. In one scene, Bertie Wells, portrayed by Anthony Piana, joins Ogilvy (Jack Clay) at the bottom of the massive pit created by a cylinder that skidded in from the sky, landing on Horsell Common, in England. At one point Wells asks Ogilvy from where does he believe the cylinder has come. Jack Clay, in his late seventies at the time of the filming, says, “Mars,” and then goes to great lengths to explain why he believes the cylinder has been shot from the planet Mars. Now it was about 105 degrees Fahrenheit at the bottom of the dried up lake in the middle of a sand quarry where we were filming.
The reflected heat, combined with the air temperature was unbearable so the cast and crew were a bit punchy. The crew wore ice rolled in a towels around their necks. The cast also did this between takes.
After Jack Clay delivered a perfect take of his elaborate explanation as to the Cylinder origins, Anthony became confused in the heat and asked the same question as to from where does he believe the cylinder had come. The look on Jack’s face was priceless and without missing a beat, or losing character, Jack blurted out “Mars, you imbecile, what do you think I have been babbling about for the last forty five seconds.” Anthony turned beat red and burst into laughter as did the film crew. Jack winked.
I learned much from working with the legend that is Jack Clay. More than I can share in a single blog or many blogs. Generations of acting students whom he has taught, are sharing that wisdom through their performances on screen and stage around the world today. Like Jack Clay, Mr. Tobolowsky reminds us of some of the humanity that the internet has ebbed away. I recommend everyone track down Mr. Tobolowsky’s radio show and give a listen. The piece I heard concerning Jack Clay, was entitled, CONFERENCE ROOM. You will become enriched in the way a well cooked meal enriches one.
Back to post production. Also, a personal note to Ultrakarl, great work on the alien. You were right to push for the creature to be full scale, though at points during filming with the small sea of technicians having to work in precise coordination, it was a bit nerve wracking. In the end, the fans will love you for it.
~later-
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