I'm Back From New Zealand

And It Didn't Hurt One Bit
The sheep-fucking jokes all go eastwards. The South Africans think Australians fuck sheep. We think New Zealanders fuck sheep. New Zealanders of course think we fuck sheep, but they're easily persuaded it is indeed the South Africans who do; this is mostly on the strength of the 1995 Rugby World Cup where some South African chef poisoned the All-Blacks the night before the Grand Final. And so it is in that spirit that I just want to quickly jot down some thoughts on NZ.

Sheep? What Sheep?
Considering that we were headed out into the rural area of NZ, and what with all the sheep-fornicating jokes, I expected to see whole lot more sheep than I actually saw. Indeed, the farms and paddocks mostly featured cows. Loads of cows. And one bull, which was happily having its way witha cow as we drove by.

Hung Election
Who really gives a shit about elections? I do.
Who really gives a shit about other countries' elections. I do.
And it so happened the Kiwis were out to vote during my stay there. Interestingly enough they don't have compulsory voting there, which means the issues of state are open to being taken hostage by the extremists of all persuasion by pure dint that political extremists are more likely to vote than moderate, easy-going, less-motivated folks. With one of the lowest voter participations in their history, the fate of the next NZ government came down to nearly equal measures right-wingers and splinter-special interest groups on the other ledger.

The Partying On The Right Are Now Partying On The... Far Right
The funny thing about trends in world politics is that the Old Left has fragmented into a bunch of single-issue causes while the Old Right has steadily drifted towards less and less liberal ideas. I don't really know why, but I can take a guess and it is the fact that in a world that increasingly relies on mass-media to carry a soundbite as THE MESSAGE, it becomes easier to just say the simple shit, reagardless of the quality of the soundbite as fact or truth. So if Truth is the first casualty in War, well, it's certainly the first thing that gets knocked comatose in an election.

Who Are You Exactly?
The funniest group of all the splinter parties in NZ is New Zealand First, an aberrant bunch of nobodies fronted by one Winston Peters. Winston Peters is legendary for being totally self-serving and vain and venal. Sure enough, he doesn't let anybody else in his party talk to the press. 'NZ First' went to the polls promising they would back which ever off the major parties came out with more votes. In other words his promise was that he would be part of a coalition government no matter what the agenda. In practical terms, a vote for 'NZ First' would mean more confusion, not less confusion, but that didn't stop him taking this truly absurd position. It was hilarious.
In the end, Winston Peters lost his seat of 21 years, but for reasons only known to the devil himself, in spite of the self-evident stupidity of their position and promise,' New Zealand First' won 7 seats. What does one make of this? I don't know.

So Why Is It So Exciting?
Democracy is cool. It's the only time you can go out there and put your views on paper and make it count; short of picking up arms and taking to the sea of troubles. I mean, I can write here endlessly about the injustices of the world and all that crud but it just doesn't do as much as voting against the current incumbent bastard. Anyway, if you hate a politician, there's nothing like ballot to do the work of a bullet. And if you hate all politicians, then it's still worth putting that down on the ballot.

The New Zealand election revealed a whole lot more about the importance of compulsory voting in our own fragile democracy that keeps on getting subverted by bureaucrats and non-liberal Conservatives who would rather not let us have our say. We live in dangerous times when the hard-won fruits of history (such as separation of Church and State) are being rescinded by asshole governments around the world and we as the populace are doing jack-shit to stop these bastards from doing so. Seriously folks, if you don't like the way the world is run, you should take time to vote carefully.
Watching another country go through the motions really made me envious we won't be having a Federal Election for a long while and that the bastard incumbents will be in there, ruining our nation for a long time more.

And One More Thing About Traveling In Times Of Terror
I always get stopped at customs coming back to Australia. They always look at my passport and ask me asshole questions.
This time, a guy asked me if as a film-maker I'd made anything he'd know. I said, "not likely."
They asked, "how long have you been in your business?"
I said "twenty years."
"Twenty years in the business and nothing I've ever heard of?"
Fucken Jesus. I felt like saying: "Go catch a real terrorist or something. For fuck's sake, leave me alone, you stupid, stupid, stupid cunt."
But of course I didn't. That's why I'm writing it here instead. Custom officers really suck scrapie sheep cocks. If the film 'Max' is anything to go by, when I'm the dictator, I'm sending these SOBs to be made into lampshades first.

A Quick Note About Working With Geoff Murphy And Brian A. Williams
I promise to write more about this one day, but not tonight. I do want to report a couple of things. We holed up in Geoff's mountain cabin for 8 working days and knocked out a script we were all happy with. Now that's pretty amazing considering that we all have very different tastes and temperaments; and it wasn't exactly a camel by committee either. So I'm happy to report here the expedition was a great success.

I will report one funny anecdote. Geoff was working on the sound post of 'Under Siege 2' when in storms Steven Segal who starts to complain about the sound effect of a single gun. He says to Geoff that the specific type of gun used on screen does not make such a loud sound; but Geoff explains this is the movies and people expect to hear a dramatic bang when there's a dramatic bang on screen. Steven Segal huffs and puffs and says: "but I'm only interested in making realistic pictures."

...It's even funnier when you have seen the ending of that film. :)

Going To NZ

That's NZ, Not OZ
I'll be leaving this Saturday with Mr. Williams to visit Mr. Murphy in New Zealand to a do rewrite of the 'Giants at Dawn' script. It's long overdue, but hey, better that it gets done now than even later. That's the way it goes in the film business.
I'll be back on the 20th. If I don't post in between, it'll be because I'm not near the internet to make my un-humble opinions known. :)

Depressing Article About Screenwriting
This is truly depressing to read on almost the eve of departure.

After 20-plus years of a middling career as a Hollywood screenwriter, Mr. Benedek, 56 - the brother of Peter Benedek, a partner in the United Talent Agency - is forging a new path in the field of fine arts, using the raw material of his past failures for a canvas. Having shot the "Ivory Joe" script, which he wrote in 1992, Mr. Benedek will make it into a bronze sculpture, or take photographs with a special camera for striking jumbo prints. He will show these and other pieces this month in an exhibition at the Frank Pictures gallery in Santa Monica titled "Shot by the Writer - Works on Paper: 1982-2004."

In an era of self-referential entertainments like "Entourage" and "Fat Actress," it all seems somehow appropriate. With his shuffling gait, hangdog air and dark-rimmed glasses, Mr. Benedek might be the contemporary answer to the Michael Douglas character in the 1993 vigilante drama "Falling Down." In that film, Mr. Douglas was an otherwise peaceable Everyman who, after being fired from his white-collar job and suffering other indignities, takes control of his life by shooting his way across Los Angeles.

In the Hollywood hierarchy, the screenwriter is Everyman, an undervalued cog - albeit a well-paid one - in the whirring entertainment machine. Mr. Benedek's move to take control of his own work sounds like a dark fantasy for many of the movie world's ink-stained wretches.

It ain't art in my books. It's just misery; but you see, I still write screenplays and it hasn't completely burnt me out.
Hollywood film development is such a crappy process.

From The Pleiades Mailbag
It's an outrage. It really is. Incompetent idiots you wouldn't leave in charge of a high school chemistry laboratory are in charge of the the world's most powerful nation.

There's also this link to an editorial by Keith Olbermann:

And as that sorry recital of self-absorption dragged on, I have resisted editorial comment. The focus needed to be on the efforts to save the stranded — even the internet's meager powers were correctly devoted to telling the stories of the twin disasters, natural... and government-made.

But now, at least, it is has stopped getting exponentially worse in Mississippi and Alabama and New Orleans and Louisiana (the state, not the city). And, having given our leaders what we know now is the week or so they need to get their act together, that period of editorial silence I mentioned, should come to an end.

No one is suggesting that mayors or governors in the afflicted areas, nor the federal government, should be able to stop hurricanes. Lord knows, no one is suggesting that we should ever prioritize levee improvement for a below-sea-level city, ahead of $454 million worth of trophy bridges for the politicians of Alaska.

But, nationally, these are leaders who won re-election last year largely by portraying their opponents as incapable of keeping the country safe. These are leaders who regularly pressure the news media in this country to report the reopening of a school or a power station in Iraq, and defies its citizens not to stand up and cheer. Yet they couldn't even keep one school or power station from being devastated by infrastructure collapse in New Orleans — even though the government had heard all the "chatter" from the scientists and city planners and hurricane centers and some group whose purposes the government couldn't quite discern... a group called The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

And most chillingly of all, this is the Law and Order and Terror government. It promised protection — or at least amelioration — against all threats: conventional, radiological, or biological.

It has just proved that it cannot save its citizens from a biological weapon called standing water.

Mr. Bush has now twice insisted that, "we are not satisfied," with the response to the manifold tragedies along the Gulf Coast. I wonder which "we" he thinks he's speaking for on this point. Perhaps it's the administration, although we still don't know where some of them are. Anybody seen the Vice President lately? The man whose message this time last year was, 'I'll Protect You, The Other Guy Will Let You Die'?

I don't know which 'we' Mr. Bush meant.

For many of this country's citizens, the mantra has been — as we were taught in Social Studies it should always be — whether or not I voted for this President — he is still my President. I suspect anybody who had to give him that benefit of the doubt stopped doing so last week. I suspect a lot of his supporters, looking ahead to '08, are wondering how they can distance themselves from the two words which will define his government — our government — "New Orleans."

For him, it is a shame — in all senses of the word. A few changes of pronouns in there, and he might not have looked so much like a 21st Century Marie Antoinette. All that was needed was just a quick "I'm not satisfied with my government's response." Instead of hiding behind phrases like "no one could have foreseen," had he only remembered Winston Churchill's quote from the 1930's. "The responsibility," of government, Churchill told the British Parliament "for the public safety is absolute and requires no mandate. It is in fact, the prime object for which governments come into existence."

In forgetting that, the current administration did not merely damage itself — it damaged our confidence in our ability to rely on whoever is in the White House.

As we emphasized to you here all last week, the realities of the region are such that New Orleans is going to be largely uninhabitable for a lot longer than anybody is yet willing to recognize. Lord knows when the last body will be found, or the last artifact of the levee break, dug up. Could be next March. Could be 2100. By then, in the muck and toxic mire of New Orleans, they may even find our government's credibility.

Somewhere, in the City of Louisiana.

Now, if you spoke to the Angry Fat Man he'd tell you that George Dubya Bush was doing a 'magnificent' job (what an asshole, but it needs to be said for what he truly is: WHAT AN ASSHOLE!) I guess it's unfair to judge a leader based on the quality of his supporters, but then again, whoever vouches for you should tell you a lot about who you are. It was no surprise that Pauline Hanson's supporters were the least well-educated and had to lowest IQs of any group of voters.

Cowra Visit 2005 - Part 1

The Director Cometh

The 'Giants at Dawn' creative team finally got to gather in Cowra, thanks to the efforts of Michelle Wilde and Robin Clifton at the NSWFTO. In rode director Geoff Murphy and producer Brian Burgess, and then it was on the road to Cowra via Goulburn with producer Brian Williams; Japanese producer Hideki Ujiie; project stalwart Michael Jacob, and omni-functional cameraman Peter Beeh.


It might not seem like much to outside observers, but I have to say it was a big event. Most importantly, we got to the actual place where the events took place, and presto, everybody got a feel for exactly what the event might have looked like. For years Brian and I have been talking about the importance of the landscape, both geographically but also morphologically, as having had a big input into the events that transpired 61 years ago. Once we were on the sloped hill. Geoff was onto its important in a flash. Looking at the diagram on the sign, he commented, "looking at this alone, it's clear they weren't breaking out. Their intent was suicide."


There's a lot that was discussed and analysed on the site; one of the big cards played was by Cowra 'heavyweight' Don Kibbler who broached the concept of actually building replicas on the site and shooting the film there on-site. Geoff commented that perhaps that would be something that would galvanise the cast if they knew what they were about to re-enact actually took place on the very slope. It seemed insane, but also inspired. All I thought was, "Why does that seem like such a damned natural idea?"
Anyway, I told Geoff it would be excellent because it would extra weight when he gives the cast his famous direction "Run like bastards" on the day.


I looked for the flat bit of ground in the private property that had the baseball field, but this time, the earth was not exposed, and so the old baseball diamond was not visible. Instead, I give you this rather lame picture (above) of the flat bit where they played ball. How do I know for sure? It's because it's the only flat bit in the entire campsite where they could have played baseball. The slope on the hill is that steep.

Brian Williams was pretty excited that things were going really well, and Brian Burgess was motoring away asking the hard questions; and as it turns out Hideki Ujiie was asking the very same questions in Japanese, so I had a heck of time interpreting on the fly. It was madness at one point as Brian Burgess and Hideki Ujiie were asking each other the very same questions about the logistics of the possibility of actually shooting on the site. Don's suggestion essentially blindsided us and we were staggering around wondering the same questions at once.


Later we visited the cemetery as well as the gardens, but undoubtedly the biggest breakthrough of the day was the possibility of shooting the actual exterior stuff on the actual site. Are we excited yet? Oh yes we are.
Mr. Ujiie came to the stone laid in honour of the Japanese war dead and said, "Art, I think we'd better go deliver a prayer."
And it so happened Don Kibbler had some incense ready; he actually keeps them stocked in his car for these moments, which goes to show how well-practised his routine is. Thus it was that Mr. Ujiie (above) got me up to the stone to lay down some incense for the Japanese war dead and *gulp* pray. What can I say, but *things* keep coming up with this project. :)

---

A funny note: Over a few beers at the Imperial Hotel Geoff and I got into a discussion about the suicide mission mentality as he's been reading a detailed account of the kamikaze missions staged out of the Philippines in late 1944. - Geoff's a big time WWII buff; like me he just digs aircraft carriers and naval aviation stuff. Some guys are into infantry or artillery; some guys (like Peter Jackson) like tanks. Geoff and I like airplanes and aircraft carriers. Indeed, Geoff's first words off the plane to me were "I've built the (aircraft carrier) Shokaku. It's about 6 foot long at 1/144tth scale."
I asked him what he thought of 'Pearl Harbor' and he commented "I was in Hawaii at the time it came out. I heard there were actual veterans who saw action at Pearl Harbor, who were invited to the movie premier and they came out crying. They were crying because it was so wrong; not because it was any good."
Not to mention the zero fighters were painted ocean green (!).