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3/15/01 |
BEAVER TRILOGY by William Becton |
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Griffith, who had done impersonations throughout his life and had dubbed himself the "Beaver Rich Little," was in Salt Lake to check out the TV station. He was taking snapshots of the Sky 2 helicopter when Harris approached him. Griffith hammed it up for the camera and did impressions of John Wayne, Sylvester Stallone and Barry Manilow. Later, with the help of a screwdriver, he started his 1964 Chevy Impala (replete with engravings of Farah Fawcett and Olivia Newton-John on the front side windows) and simply drove away. Trent Harris then started receiving letters from Griffith about a talent show hed organized in Beaver in which he was going to perform as "Olivia Newton-Dawn." Harris agreed to come and film it for Channel 2. After getting his makeup done at a local funeral parlor, Griffith took the stage as the final act of the talent show in the Beaver High School Auditorium dressed as a leather-clad Olivia Newton-John and sang a heartfelt rendition of "Please Dont Keep Me Waiting." The next day they said their goodbyes and Harris returned to Salt Lake City. That was the last that they would see of each other until January of this year when Beaver Trilogy played at the Sundance Film Festival. But something about Richard Griffith had got a hold of Trent Harris. After moving to L.A. he made two short films over the next five years that were basically just reenactments of his chance meeting with the kid from Beaver, Utah. The first of these,The Beaver Kid (1981), features a very young Sean Penn, who shot with Harris during his off hours from Fast Times at Ridgemont High. The second, The Orkley Kid (1985), features an equally young Crispin Glover the same year he appeared in Back to the Future . (Harris had initially invited Sean Penn to reprise the role of Griffith in The Orkley Kid, but he wasnt available; Nicolas Cage, Eric Stoltz and Anthony Edwards all auditioned before the part went to Crispin Glover.) In both reenactments of his initial encounter with Griffith, Trent Harris explores themes that are present, if only subliminally, in the original footage. The reenactments also delve into the fictional aftermath of Griffiths performance as "Olivia Newton-Dawn" in a small, Midwestern town. Before and during the talent show people are seen trying to disassociate themselves with the (potentially embarrassing) event. While Larry (the name of Griffiths character in both reenactments) is getting his "makeover" done by a local mortician, he confesses that shes the "only one thats come through so far." He later calls the director and requests that he bury the footage. In The Beaver Kid, he even contemplates suicide, putting the barrel of a hunting rifle into his mouth. Harriss own self-portrait in these reenactments is no less forgiving. While driving into Beaver, he and his cameraman make fun of the town and the spectacle they are about to see. During the show itself the filmmaker climbs on stage to get a better camera angle, showing little concern that he might actually be disrupting the performance. After the show, when Larry pleads with him not to do anything with the footage, he callously denies his request. Twenty years later, Trent Harris (who also directed the features Ruben and Ed and Plan 10 from Outer Space) finally got around to editing the original video footage. Paired with the two reenactments, he submitted Beaver Trilogy (85 min., color and b&w) to the New York Video Festival, where it premiered in July 2000. It was later invited to the Edinburgh and Sundance film festivals. Harris, though, had no idea what had happened to Richard Griffith. He had tried to track him down without luck. At Sundance, waiting outside the theater before the films screening, he had given up any hope of seeing him. Unlike the callous filmmaker depicted in the film, Harris has a genuine respect and affection for Griffith and he wasnt sure what to think when Griffith didnt materialize. He was, he admits, partly relieved, partly disappointed and partly worried. He had no idea that Griffith had waited on line, purchased a ticket, and was sitting in the audience.
On line outside the theater, Griffith had asked a woman from New York what she was waiting to see. She answered, "The Beaver Trilogy." He said, "Really, whats that about?" She said it was about some guy from a town called Beaver, Utah. Later in the conversation she asked him where he was from. "A town called Beaver, Utah," he replied. Totally unaware that she was talking to the original Beaver Kid himself, she reassured him, "Well, I guess this will probably hit pretty close to home then, wont it?" The party following the screening was held in a huge tent. After what seemed like an eternity of wading through people I finally came upon Trent Harris and Richard Griffith. Both had these wonderful, amazed expressions on their faces as they reminisced. "My gut was in a knot," said Griffith, reflecting on the screening. "I thought, My God, what have I done? Being as crazy as I was back then I figured I'd have to do something pretty outlandish to get any news media to come down [to Beaver]. As far as Park City goes, though, people made me feel real special. But I can't see what other people see, because it's me. I still think, Man, was it really good or was it really bad? I'm still trying to shuttle that around in my mind. Do people really like this or are they making fun of this? "I didn't want people to think that I was really tweaked or anything in that respect," Griffith said about his performance as Olivia Newton-Dawn. "To me it was just like another impersonation, you know what I mean? And that's the whole thing I wanted to present. It's just like an actor: if he wants to get inside a character he's got to become that person no matter what." The following day, Trent Harris microwaved some coffee at his condo in Park City and showed me some things hed picked up in places like Russia and Timbuktu. (Harris had paid for his trip to Timbuktu by selling his invitation from Penn and Madonnas wedding to a collector. Ironically, Penn and Madonna later bought a house in Malibu from you guessed it Olivia Newton-John.) We then retrieved his cigarettes from underneath his car and sat down with a tape recorder.
Will Becton: So that first bit with Richard, that was literally just a camera test? Trent Harris: Yeah, I just walked right out into the parking lot to test the video camera. It was the first time Id ever picked one up. Id been used to shooting on film and then they came up with this new contraption called a video camera, so I walked out into the parking lot to test it out. And there he was ... Becton: Taking snap shots? Harris: Yeah he was just taking pictures. He was all excited to be in Salt Lake and looking at the TV station. He was just taking pictures of the helicopter and the building. [Later], he set up the talent show and started calling me and writing me letters to try and get me to come down. And I did. Never regretted it. Becton: Were you aware of the themes that you delve into in the second and third installments of the Trilogy during the filming of the documentary, or were these things that you discovered or invented later? Harris: When you watch the documentary footage you think, "What a wonderful guy [Griffith] is. Hes funny. God, hes funny. Hes got the energy of a hundred Beagle puppies. Hes just going like a madman." But underneath that I sensed some pain, really, is what it was. And also, I grew up in a small town like that so I know what theyre like. [The reenactments] explain the subtexts that werent necessarily in the documentary, that I didnt capture in the documentary. It was subtext that I knew about. A lot of people think documentaries are truer than fiction, and its not necessarily the fact. Often you have to make something up to get to the truth. Its sort of an odd thing but I think thats what it is. Becton: When I saw the first bit I just thought it was hilarious, it just seemed like it was from outer space or something. But when I watched the second two and went back and watched the first one ... Harris: You see it in a different way. Individually they all kind of work by themselves, but when you hook them together they become a whole new animal. I think people are responding to it the way they are is because its such an odd form, and it works. And nobodys quite seen that form before. Becton: Yeah, it seems almost obvious. Like the most obvious thing youve never thought of or something. (Laughs.) Harris: "The most obvious thing youve never thought of." I like that. Becton: Another thing that surprised me was that apparently all the footage went unedited for years? Harris: You mean the documentary stuff? Becton: Yeah. Harris: Yeah, I didnt edit that stuff until pretty recently. It wasnt until about a year ago that I really fine cut it. Id put some of it together about a year or so previous to that, but I really put it all together and fine cut it about a year ago this time, in January. Becton: Why did you wait so long? Harris: Well, partly I didnt have an editing system. Until I bought a G3 I didnt have any way to cut it. That was really a lot of it. I hadnt had a chance to fiddle with it previously because its always so expensive to go into an editing session. Becton: Did you show Sean Penn and Crispin Glover the [documentary] footage? Harris: I showed them some footage, yeah. But you have to be careful about that because if you show them too much, I think, it makes them self-conscious, in a way, and they start to try to mimic, which doesnt work very well. What they really have to do is understand whats going on inside the character and then they can play it. I wrote out the dialogue, so they had scripts to work from. And you get a lot about that character from his language. Hes got the most remarkable speech patterns. The way he talks, its just wonderful. Its very poetic and funny and one thing flows into another. He doesnt talk like other people. I mean everybody has a unique speech pattern but he has a particularly interesting one. Its not planned out; it will just come to him and hell say it and it works. And then sometimes hell laugh at his own jokes. Becton: Well, growing up in a town like that youd probably have to laugh at your own jokes a lot of the time. A lot of people might not get his free associations. Harris: Those places can be rough. If youre any kind of outsider there is an awful lot of pressure to conform to everything in a small town. Everybodys got to conform and everybody knows what everybody else is doing. Its like an unwritten rule that "We all have to act the same way here." I mean nobody would ever say that but its kind of the way it works. Its very strange. You find that in big cities too, actually. Theyll be cliques and you all have to dress in a certain way and like the same kind of music. In a big city there are a lot of groups like that, whereas in a little city theres just like one or two. Becton: Did the other people in the talent show seem committed to it? Harris: I dont think they knew what the hell was going on, to tell you the truth. I think he got some people to do it and they werent quite sure but "Okay, its a talent show and Channel 2 is coming to do something." And I think a lot of people did back out. In fact I know they did. And lot of people would say theyd do it or something and then they didnt. Becton: Thats something that youd never know if you just watched the original documentary footage. Harris: Yeah ... Becton: Did you have any warning that you would see Richard at the screening? Harris: Well, I tried to find him. And it wasnt easy. I hadnt seen the guy in twenty-two years. I tried to find him and hadnt had any luck. So I got my friend Diane on it because I was running around doing a bunch of other stuff and she managed to find him and called him up and told him about it. He wasnt sure how to handle the whole thing. I mean, you can imagine . Becton: Hed seen none of the footage right? Harris: Hed seen none of the footage and here, all of a sudden, its playing at Sundance and its starring Sean Penn and Crispin Glover and him! And its kind of a weird episode in his life. Hes ambivalent about it. Hes got mixed feelings about what he did. So we were like "If you want to come down thats fine or if you want us to send you a tape . However you want to handle this, well do it." He said he might come down. Well, we didnt know. We waited outside the theater with tickets and he never showed up, so we didnt know what had happened. And to tell you the truth, I wasnt sure I wanted to spring this on him in front of fourteen hundred people. In fact, I was terrified about doing that. It was really an odd experience. I went out in the parking lot during the screening and started drinking Jack Daniels with a friend. (Laughs.) And then I did the Q&A after the screening, which was great. Nobody left. Normally after those things half the audience will leave. It was completely full. It was amazing. People asked all kinds of questions and stuff, and then afterwards a bunch of people rushed up to the stage to, you know "sign this" or whatever and all of a sudden this face pokes up and says "You probably dont remember me . " (Laughs.) I just looked at him, and he looked at me. And I just grabbed him and started hugging him, and he started hugging me and then we started to hyperventilate. Im going "I dont, well you, uhh ..." and hes going, "You dont, why the ? How the ...?" (More laughter.) And all these people are standing around so I said, "Come on!" and we ducked out a side door out into this snowdrift to try and get away from everybody. Then a whole bunch of people went around to the front and then saw us and came running down. They recognized him and started taking pictures of him and getting his autograph. Everybody just loves the guy. They just adore him. And seeing [the film] in front of all those people, I think, turned out to be a real fortunate thing, a very good thing. Because he saw how much people liked it. You were at the party last night. I mean he was the biggest star in the room. Nobody asked about Sean Penn or Crispin! He was just having a blast. Becton: He just seemed much more comfortable in his own skin. Harris: Well, hes a little older now and matured a bit and has been through a lot. I mean, talk about brave, thats one brave son of a bitch to come down here to do that. I mean, can you imagine? Seeing that up there on the screen? Im sure he was completely horrified and excited at the same time. Becton: One of the things I really admire about the second and third part of the Beaver Trilogy is that you werent afraid to portray yourself or filmmakers in general as being callous. Harris: Well I think can you imagine if Id done it the other way? Made myself to be some sort of [hero] ... I mean, it wouldve sucked a big one. It really wouldnt have worked for a couple of reasons. Dramatically it wouldnt have worked very well because you need that opposing force. And another thing is, it adds an interesting element to the story about how people are exploited by the media. Ive wrestled with that myself about whats exploitive and what isnt. When does it become something thats mean? And when isnt it? Some people think this movie is mean. Ive had that response. There were some people in New York who thought that, and some people in Edinburgh asked, "How could you do it?" Ive decided the reason I dont think its exploitive, and the reason a small group of people think it is, is because they see him as being sick. And I dont see that at all. I mean, what are going to do? Turn the camera off? Give me a break. Thats what I told the person in New York. I said, "Do you want me to turn the camera off?" Of course not. Ive made an awful lot of documentaries and its usually about people talking about the past. Its very seldom that you capture something thats happening right there in front of you. And part of it is that Im a part of that. I mean the whole reason thats happening is because Im there, so you dont hide that. A lot of [documentaries] try to hide the fact that theres a filmmaker present. Which is very odd, Ive always thought. You werent at the awards ceremony last night, were you? Becton: No. Harris: Anyway, they gave one of the Maysles brothers an award. [Albert Maysles received a cinematography award for the documentary Lalees Kin: The Legacy of Cotton Ed.] Are you familiar with their movies? Becton: No. Harris: Well, theyre the greatest. The guys old. He looks like hes pushing seventy now but hes the guy that got me going. I was so excited he was up there because he made a film called Grey Gardens. [Grey Gardens, 1976, was co-directed by David Maysles, Albert Maysles, Ellen Hovde and Muffie Meyer. Ed.] If you get a chance, go rent this thing. Its brilliant. And what it is is the filmmakers move into Jackie Onassiss crazy aunts house [in East Hampton]. And shes nuttier than a fruitcake. She got her skirts upside down and raccoons living in the ceiling. Its a big mansion and its all falling down and its this weird-ass woman [Edie Bouvier Beale] and her mother [Edith] whos dying, and the woman starts to fall in love with one of the filmmakers . But they didnt hide the fact that they were filmmakers. When I saw that for the first time it was like, "Of course!" I saw it when I was just probably in my teens. And he got an award last night. It was just great. Becton: Did you talk to Sean Penn and Crispin at all about why you were creating the reenactments? Harris: Sure. Becton: And were these to be separate films, or did you know that they would eventually all be put together? Harris: No. They were all films in themselves. I mean that film with Sean Penn, we literally shot that in three days with a home video camera. Hundred-dollar budget, literally. That money went for pizza and a few tapes and that was it. Sean has been great. He is so supportive. Becton: That was while he was shooting Fast Times? Harris: When we shot it, yeah. He just signed off on [Beaver Trilogy] a few weeks ago [prior to Sundance]. He said, "Of course Ill do that." He could have really been the other way around, "No, I dont want to do that. Are you kidding?" But not him. Hes one of the few people in Hollywood I actually like and respect. Most of those people are jerks. Becton: Do you want to continue to explore the possibilities of the reenactment? Harris: Yes, I am actually. I dont know how practical its going to be with this piece Im doing right now. Its about this Khmer Rouge soldier I met in Cambodia. He had joined the Khmer Rouge when he was eight years old. He spent his whole childhood in the jungle, fighting, laying land mines. And now he has decided that hes going to go out and clear the land mines. So he goes out by himself, nobody pays him; he goes out by himself with a stick and clears land mines. So far hes gotten over four thousand. I went out with him one day and we got forty in one day. Hes fearless. So what Im doing is, Ive shot some footage of him which is like a documentary, but what Id really like to do is a small dramatic piece that would be tacked onto the end of it which would be [about] little kid soldiers in the jungle and what thats like. Just a day-in-the-life kind of thing. For additional information about Beaver Trilogy, contact the films sales agents at Strand Releasing, at strand@strandreleasing.com. |
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