Thursday, May 15, 2008
Film / Internet Rambow-related clips, 2: Home movies
Posted by Curt Holman @Curt_Holman on Thu, May 15, 2008 at 8:25 PM
One of the pleasures of Son of Rambow is the way it captures the childlike excitement of making home movies, and attempting to film an epic in your own back yard. Since digital movie cameras are so cheap and easy to operate, home movies are significantly easier for young people to make now than 25 years ago (roughly the time Son of Rambow takes place). Amateur recreations of classic films can be superficially funny, with their jerry-rigged production values, but they can also contain an element of tenderness — they emerge as awkward but sincere declarations of love.
A vogue for home movies seems to be moving through the film business. In addition to Son of Rambow, Be Kind Rewind from earlier this year made a running joke of amateur recreations of popular movies, including RoboCop, Ghostbusters, Driving Miss Daisy and Rush Hour 2.
Possibly the crowning achievement in 1980s-era home movies is Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation. From 1982-1989, three teenage boys in Ocean Springs, Miss., filmed a shot-by-shot remake of the first Indiana Jones adventure. The "Adaptation" was rediscovered in 2003, won praise from Steven Speilberg himself, and has received charity screenings around the country. Reportedly Paramount Pictures is developing a film based on the boys' experience in (re)making the film. The first 10 minutes are on Youtube, and while it won't be mistaken for the real thing, you can appreciate the pains they took to emulate the original film.
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/upqiq6MUAh0" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
Closely related to this phenomenon, but slightly different, is the appeal of "The Max Fisher Players." In Wes Anderson's cult classic Rushmore, workaholic prep schooler Max Fisher's many endeavors included a student theater troupe that staged such incongruous works as the cop drama Serpico. In 1999 The Max Fisher Players produced three "school play" adaptations of of major movies as a tie-in with the year's MTV Movie Awards:
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/gzkkzDEaBak" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
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