The Clown Prince
06-16-2002, 07:52 PM
Woo: No More Action Flicks
06/16/2002
By DAVID GERMAIN, AP Movie Writer
SANTA MONICA, Calif. -- Fans of his intricately choreographed style may mourn, but John Woo says he's finished with the action film.
After two decades as a master of the Hong Kong action flick and almost 10 more years on explosive Hollywood pictures, Woo figures he's apprenticed long enough on a genre that never was his particular favorite.
Director John Woo poses for a portrait in his office at MGM in Santa Monica, Calif. (AP Photo)
Firmly established in Hollywood, Woo wants to emulate the American films he loved growing up in Hong Kong, focusing on serious drama, hopefully a Western, maybe even a musical.
Violence might still factor into his films, such as his new World War II saga "Windtalkers," but Woo said the emphasis no longer will be action.
"That's pretty much done," Woo, 56, said in an interview at his production offices at MGM, which are decorated with posters of his U.S. films "Mission: Impossible 2," "Broken Arrow" and "Face/Off" and such Hong Kong action masterpieces as "The Killer" and "Hard-Boiled."
"The main market in Hong Kong to make movies was action and comedy. So that's why we're forced to make action films," said Woo, who did comedies and even directed a Chinese opera but built his reputation on action when he started out in the early 1970s. "I like it, but it still wasn't my favorite."
"Windtalkers" has plenty of combat, yet it's primarily a story of unlikely camaraderie between a heroic loner (Nicolas Cage) and the Navajo Indian code-keeper (Adam Beach) he's assigned to protect.
Woo had known nothing about the code-talkers who helped foil Japanese forces by translating Allied signals into the Navajo language. What grabbed him was the kinship among the characters as they overcame mistrust and racial tension.
"The whole movie was about friendship and understanding," Woo said. "That really interested me and made me feel it was something I should do, since I came from a different country."
Woo met with Navajo leaders and surviving code-talkers, who had doubts about an Asian director telling their story. He won them over by pledging to make a heroic, human tale that would break with old Hollywood stereotypes of stiff, stoic Indians.
The director said he wanted the Indian characters of "Windtalkers" to represent the optimism, pride, charm and sense of humor he observed in his meetings with the Navajo.
Tribal leaders initially insisted that Woo cast a Navajo for the main Indian role. Woo interviewed about 400 Navajo men but did not find anyone with adequate acting skills.
The Navajo eventually agreed on Beach, a Canadian Native who starred in the American Indian road-trip film "Smoke Signals."
"Windtalkers" was Beach's first big-budget film. While he expected Woo to deftly handle the action scenes, Beach found the director especially enlightening about acting.
"He taught me about moments, that I have moments in the film when I have to give everything," Beach said. "So he basically asked me not to give my heart and soul until those moments. Every time those moments came, he'd tap me on the back and say, `This is your moment,' and I had to give my all, my focus and my life for him, right then."
By accident, Woo found a Navajo to play the secondary Indian role. Roger Willie had brought his two nephews to a "Windtalkers" casting call and auditioned on a lark. The Navajo painter and educator landed the part of a fellow code-talker who forges an inter-ethnic bond with his own bodyguard, played by Christian Slater.
Similar cross-cultural themes run through Woo's future projects. Cage, who starred in Woo's "Face/Off," teams with the director's frequent Hong Kong collaborator Chow Yun-Fat in "Men of Destiny," a story of Irish and Chinese immigrants building the Central Pacific railroad in the 19th century. Woo hopes to start production this fall.
After that, Woo wants to shoot a Western with a Romeo-and-Juliet-style romance about feuding families on different sides of the U.S.-Mexico border.
"To make a Western is one of my big dreams. I grew up with the Western," Woo said.
Along with Westerns such as "The Searchers," the films Woo was drawn to in his youth cut across genre and nationality, fanciful musicals like "The Wizard of Oz," epics like "Lawrence of Arabia," Humphrey Bogart and James Cagney gangster tales, personal stories such as Francois Truffaut's "The 400 Blows" and "Jules and Jim."
Born in China, Woo and his family left during the cultural revolution of the 1950s and settled in Hong Kong. The family was poor, and movies offered cheap entertainment.
"We could see any kind of movie, art films from all over the world, any time, anywhere," Woo said. "There were no film schools in Hong Kong. All we could do was learn from the movies. I watched French New Wave, Italian movies. American movies were the biggest market. Big Japanese movies, Indian and Russian movies."
Woo credits the influence of American Westerns with transforming Hong Kong martial-arts films from phony-looking fight sequences in the 1950s to the cleverly staged action that emerged in the '70s and '80s. Brawls in Westerns helped teach Hong Kong directors how to edit and use camera angles to craft realistic fights, Woo said.
Hong Kong cinema returned the favor as the action created by Woo and other Asian filmmakers began influencing Hollywood films. Woo in particular made dazzling use of quick cuts, slow-motion and freeze-frame editing.
"He's a tremendous filmmaker. I love the poetry of his images," said Tom Cruise, who picked Woo to direct "Mission: Impossible 2." "I felt fortunate when he said he wanted to be part of it. He's just a great action director with a very particular style of filming that I like, yet he brings a humanity to his pictures."
Woo said putting a human face on characters always has been a prime goal, whether in one of his Hong Kong gangster films or the more serious drama of "Windtalkers."
"I didn't want to make a John Wayne-type war-hero movie," Woo said. "I wanted to try to get the idea that it's a bunch of ordinary people going through the war and see how they could change, how they work together, come together.
"My kind of movie is not only about action, but I want to show a very emotional drama and something about human nature."
(Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
That's too bad. I've really enjoyed his movies. But I'm sure his future projects will be good, even though they won't be based around action anymore.
The Clown Prince
06/16/2002
By DAVID GERMAIN, AP Movie Writer
SANTA MONICA, Calif. -- Fans of his intricately choreographed style may mourn, but John Woo says he's finished with the action film.
After two decades as a master of the Hong Kong action flick and almost 10 more years on explosive Hollywood pictures, Woo figures he's apprenticed long enough on a genre that never was his particular favorite.
Director John Woo poses for a portrait in his office at MGM in Santa Monica, Calif. (AP Photo)
Firmly established in Hollywood, Woo wants to emulate the American films he loved growing up in Hong Kong, focusing on serious drama, hopefully a Western, maybe even a musical.
Violence might still factor into his films, such as his new World War II saga "Windtalkers," but Woo said the emphasis no longer will be action.
"That's pretty much done," Woo, 56, said in an interview at his production offices at MGM, which are decorated with posters of his U.S. films "Mission: Impossible 2," "Broken Arrow" and "Face/Off" and such Hong Kong action masterpieces as "The Killer" and "Hard-Boiled."
"The main market in Hong Kong to make movies was action and comedy. So that's why we're forced to make action films," said Woo, who did comedies and even directed a Chinese opera but built his reputation on action when he started out in the early 1970s. "I like it, but it still wasn't my favorite."
"Windtalkers" has plenty of combat, yet it's primarily a story of unlikely camaraderie between a heroic loner (Nicolas Cage) and the Navajo Indian code-keeper (Adam Beach) he's assigned to protect.
Woo had known nothing about the code-talkers who helped foil Japanese forces by translating Allied signals into the Navajo language. What grabbed him was the kinship among the characters as they overcame mistrust and racial tension.
"The whole movie was about friendship and understanding," Woo said. "That really interested me and made me feel it was something I should do, since I came from a different country."
Woo met with Navajo leaders and surviving code-talkers, who had doubts about an Asian director telling their story. He won them over by pledging to make a heroic, human tale that would break with old Hollywood stereotypes of stiff, stoic Indians.
The director said he wanted the Indian characters of "Windtalkers" to represent the optimism, pride, charm and sense of humor he observed in his meetings with the Navajo.
Tribal leaders initially insisted that Woo cast a Navajo for the main Indian role. Woo interviewed about 400 Navajo men but did not find anyone with adequate acting skills.
The Navajo eventually agreed on Beach, a Canadian Native who starred in the American Indian road-trip film "Smoke Signals."
"Windtalkers" was Beach's first big-budget film. While he expected Woo to deftly handle the action scenes, Beach found the director especially enlightening about acting.
"He taught me about moments, that I have moments in the film when I have to give everything," Beach said. "So he basically asked me not to give my heart and soul until those moments. Every time those moments came, he'd tap me on the back and say, `This is your moment,' and I had to give my all, my focus and my life for him, right then."
By accident, Woo found a Navajo to play the secondary Indian role. Roger Willie had brought his two nephews to a "Windtalkers" casting call and auditioned on a lark. The Navajo painter and educator landed the part of a fellow code-talker who forges an inter-ethnic bond with his own bodyguard, played by Christian Slater.
Similar cross-cultural themes run through Woo's future projects. Cage, who starred in Woo's "Face/Off," teams with the director's frequent Hong Kong collaborator Chow Yun-Fat in "Men of Destiny," a story of Irish and Chinese immigrants building the Central Pacific railroad in the 19th century. Woo hopes to start production this fall.
After that, Woo wants to shoot a Western with a Romeo-and-Juliet-style romance about feuding families on different sides of the U.S.-Mexico border.
"To make a Western is one of my big dreams. I grew up with the Western," Woo said.
Along with Westerns such as "The Searchers," the films Woo was drawn to in his youth cut across genre and nationality, fanciful musicals like "The Wizard of Oz," epics like "Lawrence of Arabia," Humphrey Bogart and James Cagney gangster tales, personal stories such as Francois Truffaut's "The 400 Blows" and "Jules and Jim."
Born in China, Woo and his family left during the cultural revolution of the 1950s and settled in Hong Kong. The family was poor, and movies offered cheap entertainment.
"We could see any kind of movie, art films from all over the world, any time, anywhere," Woo said. "There were no film schools in Hong Kong. All we could do was learn from the movies. I watched French New Wave, Italian movies. American movies were the biggest market. Big Japanese movies, Indian and Russian movies."
Woo credits the influence of American Westerns with transforming Hong Kong martial-arts films from phony-looking fight sequences in the 1950s to the cleverly staged action that emerged in the '70s and '80s. Brawls in Westerns helped teach Hong Kong directors how to edit and use camera angles to craft realistic fights, Woo said.
Hong Kong cinema returned the favor as the action created by Woo and other Asian filmmakers began influencing Hollywood films. Woo in particular made dazzling use of quick cuts, slow-motion and freeze-frame editing.
"He's a tremendous filmmaker. I love the poetry of his images," said Tom Cruise, who picked Woo to direct "Mission: Impossible 2." "I felt fortunate when he said he wanted to be part of it. He's just a great action director with a very particular style of filming that I like, yet he brings a humanity to his pictures."
Woo said putting a human face on characters always has been a prime goal, whether in one of his Hong Kong gangster films or the more serious drama of "Windtalkers."
"I didn't want to make a John Wayne-type war-hero movie," Woo said. "I wanted to try to get the idea that it's a bunch of ordinary people going through the war and see how they could change, how they work together, come together.
"My kind of movie is not only about action, but I want to show a very emotional drama and something about human nature."
(Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
That's too bad. I've really enjoyed his movies. But I'm sure his future projects will be good, even though they won't be based around action anymore.
The Clown Prince