The "Twilight Zone: The Movie" deaths
September 21, 2012 1:15 PM Subscribe
"Employers could get waivers to work kids later than that but Landis did not seek one. The exact reason for this failure later became a matter of intense dispute. Either he thought he would not get the waiver because the hour was too late or he knew he could not get approval to have kids around a helicopter and explosives."
The proximity of the helicopter to the special effects explosions was due to the failure to establish direct communications and coordination between the pilot, who was in command of the helicopter operation, and the film director, who was in charge of the filming operation.
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A seven-man, five-woman jury deliberated nine days before finding the 36-year-old film maker innocent of five counts of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the July 23, 1982, helicopter crash. Three other film makers, George Folsey, Dan Allingham, Paul Stewart, and pilot Dorcey Wingo also were acquitted on all counts against them.
The proximity of the helicopter to the special effects explosions was due to the failure to establish direct communications and coordination between the pilot, who was in command of the helicopter operation, and the film director, who was in charge of the filming operation.
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A seven-man, five-woman jury deliberated nine days before finding the 36-year-old film maker innocent of five counts of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the July 23, 1982, helicopter crash. Three other film makers, George Folsey, Dan Allingham, Paul Stewart, and pilot Dorcey Wingo also were acquitted on all counts against them.
See you next Wednesday, not.
posted by sciencejock at 1:20 PM on September 21, 2012
posted by sciencejock at 1:20 PM on September 21, 2012
Holy hell, Egg Shen.
I've seen some messed up videos since the dawn of easily shared digital video. But there's something about that, probably the VHS grain on top of film grain. Torture porn gore movie deaths in infinite clarity don't have shit on a blurry image of some shadows scattering into the night sky.
Death is never as big and momentous as it is in movies that glorify it.
It reminds me of the first time I saw the death of Dale Earnhardt, television and movies have taught me to expect fatal crashes to be massive events of twisted metal and fireballs. I remember hearing about it, and watching the news with a friend for a couple hours straight just to see the footage. We were laughing, waiting to see the awesome finale of some drivers life. And when it showed, it was just a simple crash into a wall. No explosion, no spin out with smoke and tires burning. Just a man, colliding with a wall at incredibly speed, and the distance of a camera angle separating you just enough to realize how fucking horrible and lonely an event it was.
posted by mediocre at 1:54 PM on September 21, 2012 [7 favorites]
I've seen some messed up videos since the dawn of easily shared digital video. But there's something about that, probably the VHS grain on top of film grain. Torture porn gore movie deaths in infinite clarity don't have shit on a blurry image of some shadows scattering into the night sky.
Death is never as big and momentous as it is in movies that glorify it.
It reminds me of the first time I saw the death of Dale Earnhardt, television and movies have taught me to expect fatal crashes to be massive events of twisted metal and fireballs. I remember hearing about it, and watching the news with a friend for a couple hours straight just to see the footage. We were laughing, waiting to see the awesome finale of some drivers life. And when it showed, it was just a simple crash into a wall. No explosion, no spin out with smoke and tires burning. Just a man, colliding with a wall at incredibly speed, and the distance of a camera angle separating you just enough to realize how fucking horrible and lonely an event it was.
posted by mediocre at 1:54 PM on September 21, 2012 [7 favorites]
Landis was acquitted, but boy did his career suffer afterwards.
The Three Amigos? Spies Like Us? The Stupids?!! The guy forgot how to be funny... and apparently forgot what funny was.
In my opinion, he didn't make another truly funny movie again until 2010, with Burke and Hare.
posted by markkraft at 2:33 PM on September 21, 2012 [1 favorite]
The Three Amigos? Spies Like Us? The Stupids?!! The guy forgot how to be funny... and apparently forgot what funny was.
In my opinion, he didn't make another truly funny movie again until 2010, with Burke and Hare.
posted by markkraft at 2:33 PM on September 21, 2012 [1 favorite]
One of the more distasteful revelations in the article was that Landis attended the funerals and spoke on what a blessing it was that the victims "would live on" since the movie was still a go.
What an honor, to live on in a shitty segment in a shitty movie that killed you.
posted by availablelight at 2:46 PM on September 21, 2012 [12 favorites]
What an honor, to live on in a shitty segment in a shitty movie that killed you.
posted by availablelight at 2:46 PM on September 21, 2012 [12 favorites]
Spies Like Us, unfunny? I'll give you The Three Amigos as being a matter of taste.. but Spies Like Us is unequivocally genius! It also marked the last time Chevy Chase was funny or relevant before Dan Harmon came around and pulled his ungrateful ass from the tar pits.
posted by mediocre at 2:53 PM on September 21, 2012 [8 favorites]
posted by mediocre at 2:53 PM on September 21, 2012 [8 favorites]
Landis was acquitted, but boy did his career suffer afterwards.
Trading Places and Coming to America are both comedy classics and both (sadly) have aged better than Animal House (which I love, but am starting to think you had to have been there) and as much as I will always love Blues Brothers, it succeeds far more on charm and great music than comedy, though its comedy does hold up really well.
So if this was a graph, he actually would have gotten funnier after the disaster.
posted by Senor Cardgage at 3:15 PM on September 21, 2012 [1 favorite]
Trading Places and Coming to America are both comedy classics and both (sadly) have aged better than Animal House (which I love, but am starting to think you had to have been there) and as much as I will always love Blues Brothers, it succeeds far more on charm and great music than comedy, though its comedy does hold up really well.
So if this was a graph, he actually would have gotten funnier after the disaster.
posted by Senor Cardgage at 3:15 PM on September 21, 2012 [1 favorite]
Oh also they were monster box office hits as well, so I think he did alright in the wake of tragedy.
posted by Senor Cardgage at 3:17 PM on September 21, 2012
posted by Senor Cardgage at 3:17 PM on September 21, 2012
I don't know how true it is but I heard a rumour that a lot of people just did not want to work with him after the tragedy and so his career afterwards did not end up being what it could have been... he was a major director in the 80s but his output almost dried up in the 90s and beyond.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:59 PM on September 21, 2012
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:59 PM on September 21, 2012
I've heard that rumor too, from very credible sources in the industry. There are significant groups of people that will not sign onto his project.
It's a shame - when he's good, he's very good.
posted by Sticherbeast at 4:02 PM on September 21, 2012
It's a shame - when he's good, he's very good.
posted by Sticherbeast at 4:02 PM on September 21, 2012
It's fascinating to hear people putting themselves in Landis's shoes and, in effect, cheering him on because of his talent. I don't mean this personally, but I just tried to think of this with the framing of, say, the Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire. "They make such nice shirtwaists! It would be a shame if they were hounded out of the industry." This was, essentially, a violation of labor protections for the basest of motives -- profit, saving a bit of money -- and I wonder why it isn't being seen that way. I've been as guilty of seeing his movies as anyone, so again, this isn't personal. But I wonder if I'd feel better having boycotted his work.
Interestingly, as well, it was a scant eight years later that the "Indian Dunes Park" location -- in reality a private tract of land -- would end its long association with Hollywood and be converted to farmland by the owners, a big land concern. I wonder if the notoriety factored into it.
posted by dhartung at 4:33 PM on September 21, 2012 [12 favorites]
Interestingly, as well, it was a scant eight years later that the "Indian Dunes Park" location -- in reality a private tract of land -- would end its long association with Hollywood and be converted to farmland by the owners, a big land concern. I wonder if the notoriety factored into it.
posted by dhartung at 4:33 PM on September 21, 2012 [12 favorites]
It's a shame - when he's good, he's very good.But when he's bad he kills two kids? Landis' career after the accident always reminded me of Noel Edmonds, the very public way in which everyone agrees not to talk about it.
posted by fullerine at 5:19 PM on September 21, 2012 [2 favorites]
It's fascinating to hear people putting themselves in Landis's shoes and, in effect, cheering him on because of his talent.
It's almost as if he married his adopted foster daughter or anally raped a teenager on champagne and pills.
posted by docgonzo at 5:30 PM on September 21, 2012 [5 favorites]
It's almost as if he married his adopted foster daughter or anally raped a teenager on champagne and pills.
posted by docgonzo at 5:30 PM on September 21, 2012 [5 favorites]
The Three Amigos is (are?) awesome, so there!
married his adopted foster daughter
No famous directors have done this, as far as I know.
posted by ShutterBun at 5:48 PM on September 21, 2012 [1 favorite]
married his adopted foster daughter
No famous directors have done this, as far as I know.
posted by ShutterBun at 5:48 PM on September 21, 2012 [1 favorite]
Replying to Chen's lawsuit, the law firm hired by Warner Bros. made an argument that was startlingly callous in describing a 6-year-old. They contended that "the risk, if any risk there was, was knowingly assumed by the decedent, Renee Shin-Yi Chen."
Now there's corporate America for you! That the type of legalese that makes this country great!
posted by goethean at 5:51 PM on September 21, 2012
Now there's corporate America for you! That the type of legalese that makes this country great!
posted by goethean at 5:51 PM on September 21, 2012
No famous directors have done this, as far as I know.
Okay, married his wife's adopted foster daughter?
posted by goethean at 5:52 PM on September 21, 2012
Okay, married his wife's adopted foster daughter?
posted by goethean at 5:52 PM on September 21, 2012
They were non co-habitating boyfriend and girlfriend for 12 years until she found her adopted daughters naked pics in his apartment. Pretty creepy but I don't think she ever sued him; just talked a lot of shit.
posted by bukvich at 5:55 PM on September 21, 2012
posted by bukvich at 5:55 PM on September 21, 2012
"No famous directors have done this, as far as I know.
Okay, married his wife's adopted foster daughter?"
Why are we talking about Woody Allen now?
posted by MrChowWow at 7:10 PM on September 22, 2012
Okay, married his wife's adopted foster daughter?"
Why are we talking about Woody Allen now?
posted by MrChowWow at 7:10 PM on September 22, 2012
The most depressing thing about all of this is how nothing has changed on the job site in the movie business. Yesterday I was at work when I read about yet another death on a film set, this time on the new Lone Ranger project. I said to my co workers that I bet everyone in this room has either been on a movie where someone was killed or has close ties to such an event, all those present lowered there heads and nodded.
We then proceeded to work until 4am, a 15 hour day and all drive home half alive on the freeways of Los Angeles.
It is not going to change, but it is certainly one of Hollywood's dirty BIG secrets and it is astoundingly harsh. People die making movies
posted by silsurf at 7:52 PM on September 22, 2012 [1 favorite]
We then proceeded to work until 4am, a 15 hour day and all drive home half alive on the freeways of Los Angeles.
It is not going to change, but it is certainly one of Hollywood's dirty BIG secrets and it is astoundingly harsh. People die making movies
posted by silsurf at 7:52 PM on September 22, 2012 [1 favorite]
What an honor, to live on in a shitty segment in a shitty movie that killed you.
The film was a group of 4 stories. That whole story was removed from the film.
I worked in Hollywood at the time of this tragedy. It really shook the industry as a whole, when they considered that a stunt man accident or other unpredictable event could land a director in jail. I think this one incident changed the Hollywood system more than any other. It resulted in movies being run by "professional management" rather than producers and directors, partly to shield the CEOs and stockholders from liability. Unfortunately, as a secondary effect, it caused an upgrade to all the other filmmaking systems, from equipment up to story writing, resulting in a bureaucracy that clogged the system to the point where nothing daring or original can be made.
But nothing has changed. Helicopter accidents on film shoots are still happening.
posted by charlie don't surf at 6:18 AM on September 23, 2012
The film was a group of 4 stories. That whole story was removed from the film.
I worked in Hollywood at the time of this tragedy. It really shook the industry as a whole, when they considered that a stunt man accident or other unpredictable event could land a director in jail. I think this one incident changed the Hollywood system more than any other. It resulted in movies being run by "professional management" rather than producers and directors, partly to shield the CEOs and stockholders from liability. Unfortunately, as a secondary effect, it caused an upgrade to all the other filmmaking systems, from equipment up to story writing, resulting in a bureaucracy that clogged the system to the point where nothing daring or original can be made.
But nothing has changed. Helicopter accidents on film shoots are still happening.
posted by charlie don't surf at 6:18 AM on September 23, 2012
The film was a group of 4 stories. That whole story was removed from the film.
I don't think this is true.
posted by not that girl at 6:57 AM on September 23, 2012
I don't think this is true.
posted by not that girl at 6:57 AM on September 23, 2012
The film was a group of 4 stories. That whole story was removed from the film.
I don't think this is true.
They kept the story in but cut all the scenes with the kids
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 8:36 AM on September 23, 2012 [1 favorite]
I don't think this is true.
They kept the story in but cut all the scenes with the kids
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 8:36 AM on September 23, 2012 [1 favorite]
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It's a terrible story all around. I remember Landis fuming at Tarantino's allegedly glib treatment of violence in the then-new Kill Bill Vol. 1. I wonder if this incident was part of that attitude.
posted by Sticherbeast at 1:20 PM on September 21, 2012 [3 favorites]