STACK NZ May #73

DVD & BD FEATURE

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HELL

APOCALYPSE NOW Francis Ford Coppola's Vietnam War masterpiece still tops the list of the most chaotic and hellish productions. Star Martin Sheen suffered a heart attack, a typhoon destroyed the sets, and drug abuse and alcoholism were rampant. A six-week shoot became 68 weeks. "I felt like I had fought in the war," said Dennis Hopper.

In the quest for authenticity, the cast and crew of THE REVENANT endured an arduous nine-months in extreme conditions.

I t's been described as the

toughest shoot in film history, its temperamental director

was labelled a madman, and its vegetarian A-list star consumed a raw bison liver for the sake of authenticity. Give the man an Oscar. The fact that The Revenant was an endurance test for those involved begs the question: Does living the survival experience while making the film actually count as acting? "The great thing was that as actors, we were actually reacting to the elements," offersWill Poulter. "When you're scaling a mountain in minus 20-degrees, there's nothing better from an actor's perspective to get you fully in the moment." The Revenant is based on the real-life ordeal experienced by Hugh Glass (played by Leonardo Di Caprio), which also loosely inspired the 1971 film Man in the Wilderness , starring Richard Harris. Although a legend among mountain men and the perfect campfire story, scant historical facts are known about the real Glass. But what is known is that he joined an expedition to

THE ABYSS A problematic six-month shoot led the cast and crew of James Cameron's underwater sci-fi epic to dub the production "The Abuse". Ed Harris still refuses to discuss his experience making the film and even Cameron has admitted, "I knew this was going to be a hard shoot, but even I had no idea how hard. I don't ever want to go through this again."

DVD & BD

To make a film like this is the journey of a lifetime.

capturing the essence of the primal no man's land of the American West, prior to the arrival of settlers and covered wagons. Filming chronologically and eschewing CGI, greenscreens and artificial lighting in favour of sun and firelight and forbidding locations in Canada and Argentina, the nine-month production was a punishing experience for all involved, with hypothermia and the presence of bears a constant threat. On the final day of shooting, Iñárritu addressed his assembled cast and his crew thus: “To make a film like this is the journey of a lifetime. It’s been a journey of wonder with challenging moments and tough ones and beautiful ones. I feel honoured, thankful, humble, happy and sad that we achieved what we achieved. What we achieved is amazing. Every single day of the production was difficult, but I think this has been the most fulfilling artistic experience of my lifetime.”

explore the Missouri River in the early 19th century, where he was savaged by a grizzly bear and left by his two companions, who presumed him to be dead. Despite the severity of his injuries, the tenacious Glass alternately crawled and drifted on a makeshift raft for six weeks and 200 miles to reach the nearest human settlement, Fort Kiowa. "If you study the Rocky Mountain fur trade history, one of the first things you'll learn is Glass's story. It's that epic," notes The Revenant 's director, Alejandro G. Iñárritu. Revenant: A Novel of Revenge (2002), is considered to be the most accurate account and served as the basis for the film's screenplay. Iñárritu was determined to craft as authentic a Michael Punke's fictionalised account of Glass's story, The

FITZCARRALDO A crucial scene in Werner Herzog's jungle adventure involves a 30 ton steamship being manually hauled over a hill in the Amazon. So Herzog did it for real. That was the easy part; the director also had to contend with egomaniacal star Klaus Kinski, accusations of exploiting the local tribes, and a border war.

• The Revenant is out on May 18

representation of Glass's survival story as possible,

MAY 2016

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