Author:
Suky
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Date Posted: 19:26:32 11/04/01 Sun
Well, I don't really have the time, but for *you* guys ... (BTW, Jen, we have a similar pile of tapes in our living room!) Below are all the DW segments, which appeared in about the first 45 minutes of the show. (One thing that struck me seeing the *real* David Warner speak was the warmth, gentleness that come through in his eyes. I mean, we always knew he was a nice guy in real life, but actually hearing and *seeing* him speak makes you wonder how on earth he could possibly play such bad guys so convincingly--and just proves what an amazingly talented actor he is!)
Anyway, here are all the DW scenes:
DW: "This isn't the horror genre. I never saw it as a horror movie myself; I saw it as a— more of a kind of a strange, supernatural thriller, um, suspense drama rather than a horror film." [another scene is shown] "The whole script was so fantastical. So fantastical that one didn't know whether it would work."
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Narrator Jack Palance: "Shooting the rotweilers proved to be tremendously difficult, not because they were dangerous but because they were, in fact, timid."
DW: "They just wouldn't come anywhere near us, so we had to put meat down our [laughs] shirts, under our armpits, things like that, to get them to come. Because, you know, I mean they just wouldn't attack us."
Richard Donner: "Half the time you looked, they were humping each other. You know, you'd say, 'Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, you can't have this,' you can't have dogs making love when they're supposed to be attacking."
Palance: "With the help of trainers [B&W close-up stills of Gregory Peck, then DW being attacked by dogs], Richard Donner was finally able to complete the scene."
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[Warning: Next segment deals with the decapitation scene, in case you're one of those who don't like hearing about it.]
Palance: "Perhaps the most graphic and technically challenging death in the movie was that of the photographer played by David Warner."
[Scene is shown.]
Harvey Bernhard: "David Warner wouldn't attend the uh, that scene."
[B&W still of DW in glasses on the set]
Robert Munger (religious advisor, who first suggested the idea for the film to Harvey Bernhard): "It was so realistic he *refused* to come out of his dressing room and even watch as that scene was being done."
[Continuation of scene as people react and remains of Jennings are shown]
DW: "You don't see the blood splattering, like in a Peckinpah picture or something. I mean you just get the-- [makes slicing gesture] you know, and it bounces [gesturing up and down with hand]."
John Richardson (special effects coordinator): "The tricky thing with it was lining it all up so it hit in exactly the right place because if it hit it too low [gesturing with hand, moving it down to just below his throat], it'd just knock the body over and the head would drop. And what we were trying to do was just *catch* the head so that as it came off it spun."
[Still photos of scene]
Donner: "There's no blood, but what I did do was put a bottle of wine on the table when the glass goes through the, into the little compartment [scene of glass going through window and blood- red wine flying through the air in slo-mo], so when the head's rolling around, the wine is spilling, you see red wine, but it's not blood."
Palance: "David Warner wasn't the only nervous member of the crew. A series of eerie happenings had haunted the production from the moment filming began." [Examination of the so-called "Omen Curse follows."]
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The whole documentary is fascinating, of course. (I just love behind-the-scenes stuff to begin with.) Hope they'll show it again!!
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Thanks for the transcript, Suky!
I'm confused...