KEVIN COSTNER ON “YELLOWSTONE”
AND THE APPEAL OF THE DUTTONS
On Sunday night, Fathers
Day, Kevin Costner returns to the Paramount Network for a third season of
Yellowstone, the contemporary Western family drama that pits the Dutton family
against the government, developers, American Indians, and anyone else who’d try
to wrest away control of their humongous ranch. It is the most beautifully photographed show
on the air today. Co-created and largely
written by Taylor Sheridan, who brought you Sicario, Hell or High Water, and
Wind River, it’s a highly entertaining, slick, loud update of the Dallas type
of TV drama, and the body count is truly amazing.
On Tuesday I took part in
a virtual screening and group Q&A with Kevin Costner, presented by Deadline
Hollywood, and moderated by Peter Hammond.
I had already covered much of what was discussed in my interview with
Costner for True West magazine (you can read it HERE), but there were a couple of interesting questions about what he takes away
from the role of John Dutton, and the appeal of the whole Dutton clan.
"It's a
dysfunctional family, and what your take away is that if you don't pay
attention, your children can go in (all) directions; and nobody's perfect. I
want to try to avoid that kind of drama in my own life. And I probably don't
need to be killing anybody in my life either. But what do I take away? Maybe
just the joy of knowing that I have been able to do things that other people
wish that maybe they had been able to do. I'm really aware of how lucky I've
been.
“I think people enjoy
watching a level of dysfunction. They enjoy hearing outrageous things come out
of somebody's mouth in a really critical moment. There are moments in time we
wish we were saying what these characters are saying. All of us are confronted
with daily issues and we usually have to walk away from them. And it's only in
walking away when we decide what we wished we would've said to somebody who
really deserved it. In Yellowstone, we actually get to say things to people
that I think people (at home) wish they could say to somebody else. I think one
of the reasons why Yellowstone has caught air, is that we live in a world
where, when we have problems, people turn to their lawyers to solve it. We turn
to our agents to arbitrate a problem, to PR people to try to clean something up,
when there's really nothing to clean up, when really in our own life, I'd like
to confront the person who is really bothering me personally. We put so much
distance between being able to find a level of justice that we feel is
appropriate for somebody who is really bugging us. To be honest, I think that
people would like to arbitrate their own problems. So when we see somebody like
John Dutton arbitrating his problems, sometimes we can live precariously
through people like that. I wish we could do that; I wish I would've said that;
I wish I would've smacked that guy myself. I think that Taylor captures that level
of escapism. It's tapping into a nerve where we wish we could solve some of our
own problems. That might feel really good to tell somebody who's been bothering
us really what time it is.”
‘A SOLDIER’S REVENGE’ NOW
ON SALE AND READY FOR DOWNLOAD!
You may remember that
back in March I told you about A SOLDIER’S REVENGE the post-Civil War tale of a
former Confederate soldier, Frank Connor (Neal Bledsoe), whose PTSD has made
him unable to adapt to civilian life util the unwanted responsibility thrust
upon him by a chance meeting with two desperate children leads him to uncover a
gun-running scheme operated by former friend and comrade-in-arms Briggs (Rob
Mayes).
This week the film
arrived in your choice of DVD and Blu-Ray at Walmart, Best Buy, and all of the major
VOD platforms, including Apple and Amazon.
If you missed my interview with Director Michael Feifer (or are just
dying to read it again), go HERE. And you can order it
direct from its distributor, Well Go USA Entertainment, HERE.
HOLLYWOOD STORY and NEW
ORLEANS UNCENSORED
A Blu-Ray Double-Feature
Review
Director William Castle
is so beloved for his delightfully schlocky horror movies – Homicidal,
Straight-Jacket, I Saw What You Did and I Know Who You Are – that few fans
realize what a range he had. As a
producer, he brought you Orson Welles’ Lady From Shanghai, and Polanski’s
Rosemary’s Baby. As a director of B
programmers at Columbia, he honed his considerable skills on The Whistler and
Crime Doctor series, gave Robert Mitchum his break with the noir When Strangers
Marry, and directed a slew of Westerns (HERE is a link to the 8 film
collection, Fastest Guns of the West, from Mill Creek Entertainment).
Bookending his 1950’s
Westerns are a pair of noirish stories that Mill Creek has beautifully restored
and released as a Blu-Ray set, Hollywood Story (1951) and New Orleans
Uncensored (1955). Hollywood Story, scripted
by Frederick Kohner (who penned Deanna Durbin musicals, created Gidget, and
also wrote the first screen version of Donovan’s Brain, 1944’s The Lady and the
Monster), and Frederick Brady (a prolific early-TV writer), it’s the story of
independent producer Larry O’Brien (Richard Conte), who is looking for a story
to film, and stumbles into the true unsolved case of a director who was shot
while making a film, just at the dawn of talking pictures.
And more people start
dying when O’Brien pulls together all the survivors who were associated with
the film, a terrific cast that includes Henry Hull as the screenwriter, Paul
Cavanagh as the aging leading man, and lovely Julie Adams as the daughter of
the leading lady (you can read my interview with the late Julie Adams HERE), plus non-comic
performances by Jim Backus and Fred Clark, and Richard Egan as the cop. Clearly inspired by the truly unsolved murder
of Director William Desmond Taylor, this is Castle’s Sunset Boulevard, and he
peppers the film with cameos by silent stars like William Farnum, Francis X.
Bushman, Betty Blythe, Helen Gibson, and Elmo Lincoln.
The story and
performances are solid, but in a way, the biggest star is the locations. Though a Universal film, it was mostly shot
at the quaint old Charlie Chaplin Studio on La Brea, plus scenes during 1950’s
Santa Claus Lane Parade on Hollywood Boulevard, and in the chic, now gone,
restaurants in Beverly Hills and West Hollywood, all captured in wonderfully
crisp black and white by Carl E. Guthrie.
Edited by Virgil E. Vogel, it’s a pleasure from beginning to end.
New Orleans Uncensored
is, sadly, not in the same league. An
expose’ of longshoreman’s rackets in New Orleans, this poor man’s On The
Waterfront is ploddingly plotted. It is cast with a mix of non-actor government
and Union officials playing themselves, badly; and cultured actors like Arthur Franz,
William Henry and Stacy Harris laughably miscast as tough-guys. Beverly Garland and Helene Stanton are pretty
to look at, and Michael Ansara and Mike Mazurki are believably tough, but not
enough to save this bore. On the plus
side, like Hollywood Story, its location work features landmark’s like Café du
Monde. I recommend the set, but Hollywood
Story is the fun one. You can order it from
Mill Creek HERE.
WESTERN ACTOR GREGG
PALMER’S ESTATE SALE
Big, handsome,
intimidating actor Gregg Palmer died on Halloween, 2015, at the age of 88. The son of Norwegian immigrants, he was a cryptographer
during the Second World War. Afterwards
he became a radio announcer, then decided to give acting a try, was a contract
player at Universal for a while, and much more successful after he decided to
freelance. Although he acted in all
genres, he’s best remembered for his Westerns.
He did four with his friend Audie Murphy: The Cimarron Kid (1952),
Column South (1953), Murphy’s autobiographical To Hell and Back (1955), and The
Quick Gun (1964).
Wardrobe test from Column South
He was particularly lucky
to become part of the John Wayne stock company, and do six films with the Duke:
The Comancheros (1961), The Undefeated (1969), Chisum (1970), Rio Lobo (1970),
The Shootist (1976), and the one he’s best remembered – and reviled – for, Big
Jake (1971). He’s the one who shoots John
Wayne’s dog!
Last weekend there was an
estate sale at his beautiful Hollywood Hills home. I was happy to pick up a couple of his
scripts, from episodes of The Lawman and Gunsmoke. But I’m
sure glad I didn’t have my heart set on a mug.
Starting in the 1960s (I think), John Wayne famously commissioned a
commemorative coffee mug for each movie, with a personalized mug going to each
and every cast and crew member. They had
four, Gregg’s mugs from Big Jake, Chisum, Undefeated, and Rio Lobo. I asked to see them, and they handed them to
me in a shoebox. How much, I asked? $5,000.
Each. I gave them all back. I told my daughter one would make a great
Fathers Day gift, but I think I’m getting a necktie.
In case you’re interested
in seeing what they had, I’m including a link to the estate sale HERE, but it’s
just for your curiosity; the sale is over.
CASPER VAN DIEN ON ‘THE
WARRANT’, WESTERNS, AND A LITTLE MOVIE CALLED ‘STARSHIP TROOPERS’
INSP’s The Warrant
premieres on INSP on Saturday night. The
new Western stars Neal McDonough and Casper Van Dien as former Union soldiers
who now find themselves on opposite sides of the law: McDonough is a lawman,
and Van Dien runs a band of outlaws still fighting the Civil War. And just to be clear, although Van Dien’s
character is nicknamed The Saint, there is no connection with the Leslie
Charteris detective stories. In the
previous Round-up (the last Round-up sounds too ominous), I interviewed
McDonough (HERE).
Here is my interview with
Casper Van Dien. I told him that it was
a beautiful day to be quarantined in Los Angeles, and asked him where he was.
CASPER VAN DIEN: I'm in Florida and it's just beautiful down
here. I moved out of California.
HENRY PARKE: You're
happier in Florida?
CASPER VAN DIEN: Yes, I
am.
HENRY PARKE: Let me just
say at the outset that I've always enjoyed your work. When I told my daughter
at the interviewing you today, she said to ask you about Starship Troopers and
I had to admit I hadn't seen it, so I watched it yesterday afternoon. What a
picture!
CASPER VAN DIEN: Oh yeah! That's actually just like a Western
in space. That's was a fun movie to do. And your daughter told you to see that?
That's awesome.
HENRY PARKE: I
particularly loved you riding on the back of that huge bug and throwing the
grenade into it.
Van Dien and a bug in Starship Troopers
CASPER VAN DIEN: It's almost like the hull of a boat but
upside down, on top of a Caterpillar truck, moving around on four pistons,
going side to side, backward and forward. And I think the reason I was able to
ride it at such a high speed -- and I did it for three days, like 12 hours a
day -- was because I ride horses. So I think that helped. I also sail, and I
surfed a little but, so I had a couple of different things that helped me to be
able to stand up on that. I mean, I fell down a lot, and had wires attached so
I wouldn't fall off because I was
twenty-five feet up in the air on this thing while it was going. But it was a
blast to do.
Dr. Quinn can tell Van Dien's up to no good
HENRY PARKE: So that just goes to show that The Warrant is
not your first Western. But then again
you did a Western Western even before Starship Troopers didn't you? I'm
thinking of Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman.
CASPER VAN DIEN: Yes, I
did a Dr. Quinn. Cattle Drive (1994); I was a cattle rustler. And then they came
to me after two days of filming, and said they want to make this a two-part
special. Can you work next week? That was a lot of fun for me. And then I got
to do Aces 'N' Eights (2008), which was with Ernest Borgnine and Bruce
Boxleitner. Which was a lot of fun to do as well. It was co-written by one of
the guys who wrote Pale Rider (1985), Dennis Shryack. That was fun Western to
shoot, too. I loved meeting, working with Ernest Borgnine, just being on set
with him and hearing his stories. He was quite a character.
HENRY PARKE: Terrific
actor. So, you had experience with horses?
CASPER VAN DIEN: I did. I
had my own horse for a while, and I love riding. I rode for years over by the
Equestrian Center in Burbank.
HENRY PARKE: Growing up, were
you a fan of the Western genre?
CASPER VAN DIEN: Yes,
very much so. I loved John Wayne, John Ford films. I just love Westerns; I
watch them all the time. Edward Neumeier, who wrote Starship Troopers, and
Robocop (1987), he is a huge John Wayne, John Ford fan. And we do little
homages to them in that movie. We did things from They Were Expendable (1945)
and Westerns like She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949). When I was reading the
scripts, because I read all the different versions he wrote for that, and it was
just amazing, because he'd write these different homages to different John
Wayne and Ford films. And I was like, oh my God, you did that? And he's like,
yeah: you remember everything! But it was fun for me because I just love old
Hollywood and John Wayne's my favorite actor. So I love being a part of that. It
was just a blast to be in The Warrant, because for me it's just like a
wholesome, old fashioned Western.
HENRY PARKE: From Johnny
Rico in Starship Troopers to the Saint in The Warrant, you've played a lot of
characters with a military background. I read that you attended military
school.
CASPER VAN DIEN: I did; I
went to Farragut Academy in St. Petersburg, Florida.
HENRY PARKE: Did that experience help you playing
characters with a military background?
CASPER VAN DIEN: I think
it helped. I grew up in a family with a lot of men who served in different
branches, Marines, Air Force, and I was in the Coast Guard as well. My
grandfather, my father, my grandfather that I didn't get to meet was in the
Navy, too. My brother-in-law was in the Army up until recently, and my cousin
was in the Army Air Corps. My dad's a Navy pilot, so I grew up in that
lifestyle. And I think it was a great, solid upbringing and helped me playing
each character, and also just being an actor. So I attribute that a lot to
military school and military family.
HENRY PARKE: You've
played a wide range of characters, even a werewolf recently. But considering
Johnny Rico and Tarzan especially, I usually think of you in good guy, hero
roles. With that in mind, how did you like playing the villain in The Warrant?
CASPER VAN DIEN: I think
The Saint, he has a lot of depth, and a lot of history. The way he's written,
there was probably something a little bit askew with him from the beginning.
But the tragedy that happens, the man he turns into, I had a lot of sympathy
for him, and I think that helped me be able to play the character.
HENRY PARKE: That tragedy,
of course, is the death of your son from a Confederate bullet, and you go AWOL
to seek revenge. The scene where John Breaker has brought you back, and is lecturing
you about how you shouldn't be going after revenge, and you break down. Your
scene is, to me, the dramatic high point of the picture.
CASPER VAN DIEN: Thank
you very much. I appreciate that. That scene was the one that really sold me on
the picture. And when we were doing it, there was a Vietnam vet there, a
relative of the guy who was in charge of our guns. He left the set while we
were filming. And later he said, I'm sorry, I had to leave. You took me back to
a place where -- I don't cry. But I did twice, once was for the guys in
Vietnam, and the loss of my wife was the other time. I was sorry I, just had to
leave, and I just want to say thank you. I appreciated that a lot. You know,
you get older, you live through losses, and divorces, and life experience that
helps you bring more depth to certain roles. You're not grateful for some of
the things that happen in your life, but when you get to certain scenes in a
movie, you can hit something like that, and where'd that all come from? You can
feel it. I guess you learn to appreciate life's journey in doing that. But
yeah, that scene was a day. My wife was, was there on-set, too, and she was
just like, I was nervous, afraid that you were just going to be really
destroyed. Afterwards I was okay. When you're doing a physical thing, all the
fights and things, at the end you're just physically tired. But when you
something where you cry, and you really go there, that's more draining. You get
more exhausted from something like that.
HENRY PARKE: You also have some physically demanding
scenes. You have a lot of good fighting. Did you enjoy that?
CASPER VAN DIEN: Yeah,
and Neal really wanted to go with it. When you have an actor who steps up like
him -- I'm a huge fan of Neal -- he's a really solid actor, and he really put
everything into it when we were doing a fight sequence. We had so much fun
doing it.
HENRY PARKE: With Neal as the hero and you as the villain,
did you feel like you were playing each other’s parts?
CASPER VAN DIEN: Usually
I would play the John Breaker role, but when they offered me The Saint I was
really grateful for the opportunity. There's a lot to that character. You know,
32 years as an actor right now, and when somebody says something like, that's
the highlight of the movie, that means a lot; I appreciate it.
HENRY PARKE: Any other
people that you worked with on the shoot, that were memorable? Any other
memorable events?
CASPER VAN DIEN: Well, I loved working
with everybody on this movie. I mean, Steven R. McQueen, who's the grandson of Steve
McQueen. I really loved Gregory Alan
Williams, my sidekick or my partner or whatever. He's an actor who's been
around a while, and I really just wish I had had more with him, but I liked all
the characters that they had. I didn't get to work with Annabeth Gish, but
she's awesome. But you know, it's good to be in the movie with her. There's a
lot of good people in there.
HENRY PARKE: You've
certainly done a lot of contemporary stories, as well as futuristic ones and
period stories. Do you have a preference?
CASPER VAN DIEN: I think
I probably watch more old Westerns than a normal person, (laughs), so I would
probably say I liked period best. Because I love history. I look at history of
films. Our film industry almost went belly-up during the Great Depression, and
the only thing that kept us alive were Westerns. I think of Star Wars as like a
Western. Paul Newman and Robert Redford -- I got my daughter to watch them in
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and she just loves them, and watched all of
their films. There are so many wonderful Westerns, from Blazing Saddles to
Tombstone to Shane. I just love watching them, and I'm thrilled to be a part of
them. Director Brent Christy is a great guy, and I'd love to work with him
again, and do more Westerns. He started out as a cinematographer, and he had
such beautiful shots; I only wish we had more time, and I think everybody
always says that on films. And I wish I was on it for longer, but I was
thrilled to be a part of it.
HENRY PARKE: Now this is completely off The Warrant, but
in Sleepy Hollow (1999), you worked with two of my absolute film heroes. No
offense to Johnny Depp, but I mean Hammer horror stars Michael Gough and
Christopher Lee.
CASPER VAN DIEN: Well, I didn't work with Christopher Lee, but
Michael Gough was amazing. Johnny was amazing on that film, and I got to ride a
horse in that one. And funny enough, when I went over to England (to film), my
horse was the original Black Beauty from the TV series. Steve Dent was the
horse coordinator on Sleepy Hollow, and the horse's name was Sam. And then when
I did an Outer Limits, we did a scifi Western thing called Heart's Desire, and
the horse in that was also called Sam; that was in Canada. I had a horse for two and a half years, I
rode her every day, and she was Sam. So I've, I've had a lot of experience with
Sams. I did another movie not too long ago called Roped. There were all these
Cowboys around, but I wasn't a cowboy, which was frustrating. I'm not the lead,
I'm the father of one of the leads. It was a lot of fun. Modern day, so they're
all modern-day cowboys, which I don't mind either, but I like the old west. I
like that genre; I like that time period. And The Warrant was fun to do because
we had the Civil War, and we had Civil War reenactors. And they have all their
authentic gear, and uniforms. That's a cool part of our history. (laughs) I
mean, it's cool that we got through it.
HENRY PARKE: The country
survived it. The reenactors are great to work with because they just bring so
much knowledge onto set
CASPER VAN DIEN: And they
love it. They love being a part of the movie. They want it to be authentic, and
they have so much pride and that's awesome. Sometimes you hire extras, and
they're not that into it. I mean, most people want to do a good job acting. But
when it's reenactors, it's just another level of commitment. I once had somebody
at a convention going up to me and asking what do you think of these people
that come to these cons and dress up as characters? And I'm like, what do you
mean, what do I think of that? That's what I do for a living. (laughs) That's
my job. I think that's awesome. Here's these people that're doing their
reenactments because they really love it. I think that's just beautiful. And I
get to hang out with them, and they were really supportive.
If you don’t get INSP, or
if you’d like to own a copy of The Warrant, you can buy it at Walmart, or
direct from Mill Creek Entertainment HERE.
…AND THAT’S A WRAP!
Ida Lupino directing
And maybe it’s a little
early, but check out my article in the July/August 2020 issue of True West
magazine, about the fistful of women who’ve directed Westerns, HERE.
And I hope all you dads out there have a wonderful Fathers Day!
And I hope all you dads out there have a wonderful Fathers Day!
Happy Trails,
Henry
All Original Contents
Copyright June 2020 by Henry C. Parke – All Rights Reserved
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