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Well folks, I’m gonna leave the stargazing awestruck
wonder to my good friend Quint and Peter Blood in
their coverage of EDtv... and instead I’m going to
focus on the film, and my experience with it.
First off, the event was every bit as magical as I said
it would be in my open letter to Ron Howard. The
audience packed the Paramount, and exuded love and
admiration like no tomorrow. The energy and the
thunderous BOOM of applause was... well louder and
more powerful than I have ever heard at the
Paramount.
The entire evening I continually had people coming
up to me to thank me for the event at the Paramount.
I want to clarify that.
First off.... There would have been no SXSW
screening of EDtv had it not been for the efforts of
Matthew McConaughey, Lewis Black, Nancy
Schaffer and the other SXSW people, and Rebecca
Campbell from the Austin Film Society... Oh... and
Richard Linklater. Then it also fell upon Ron
Howard and his people at IMAGINE and
UNIVERSAL. All I was in this event was a short
stop that caught the bunt and threw it to First Base. I
didn’t create the game, I didn’t own the field and
absolutely none of the equipment was mine. I was
just one of the players.
Folks... I wrote the open letter to Ron, not because I
wanted ‘better equipment’ for the Paramount... I
didn’t. For me, that issue has always been... well
secondary. The PARAMOUNT itself was what I was
speaking out for. I couldn’t stand the concept of
someone snubbing and belittling that magic old dame.
I was happy to be there. From the reviews I had been
getting from Screenings all over the country I had the
idea that this was definately ‘an audience’ film. And
by golly, it sure as hell was.
Nearly everyone in the cast was there at the screening
except for Rob Reiner and Jenna Elfman, but just
about everyone else was there. I wasn’t sitting
anywhere near them though... I had my regular 4th
row center seat. Sitting with celebs is overrated in
my opinion, because you tend to watch them instead
of the movie.
First off... If you LOVED “THE TRUMAN SHOW”
and you feel it was slighted all the way across the
board, and it was the greatest film of last year, and
Ron Howard is a hack, and that this EDtv is a piece
of shit ripoff.... Well, perhaps you shouldn’t go see
the movie. For me, the two movies are, like SAVING
PRIVATE RYAN and THE THIN RED LINE, in the
same genre, but with completely different takes on the
subject matter.
THE TRUMAN SHOW was a drama with comedic
moments, this is a comedy with dramatic moments.
THE TRUMAN SHOW was a movie about a man
who’s entire life was manipulated and twisted by a
director conducting an arty experiment/hit television
show where the star doesn’t know he’s on television,
where all his friends and family are actors and
nothing save his own emotions are true. It’s a movie
about paranoia and the ultimate ‘Big Brother’
nightmare.
EDtv is a very different film. It examines what it is to
choose to be famous. Ed decides to give up his
privacy and the privacy of his friends and family with
the benefit being fame and fortune. Sure it goes
wrong.... There’s always a bad side.
I’ve had the local Austin gossip columnist say a few
things about me I wish he hadn’t said. Hell, TALK
BACK can be a bit annoying, as well as being funny
as hell. Being recognized at restaurants, movie
theaters, book stores, etc... Is both a wonderful
sensation and amazingly bizarre and also sometimes
troublesome.
I have had a psycho con man try to, and succeed to a
certain degree, con my friends and I.... BUT I
survived... and I thrived. Lines were not irrevocably
crossed. I don’t have people camping on my
doorstep, the tabloids don’t have helicopters circling
my house. My girlfriend is not tailed. And my life is
private, at least as much as I keep it.
But here... In EDtv, we are watching a man give up
every moment save for when he’s on the john taking a
crap-a-roni. The cameras stalking his every moment.
And then a thought hit me.
You know those live streaming-video cams? Well,
the company that puts those out approached me about
a year ago with setting my house up so that there
would be a constant stream of video from my world
to yours. I, at the time felt that this was the most
ludricous thing I’d ever heard of.
Why on Earth would someone do that? I decided not
to because... well, I didn’t want to subject the human
race to the horrors of my private life. I didn’t want to
be a Zoo speciman. Typing is not an exciting
activity. Watching Harry watching a movie would
SUCK!
I really really enjoyed EDtv, and if there is a fault
with the film it is that it’s so damn entertaining that
some nimrod exec is going to do this for real. Sure at
the beginning they show us the beginnings of Ed’s
tedious perusing of his own clothed ass, but... What
about Ed putting on his shoes, Ed microwaving
popcorn... Ed sick. Ed sleeping all day. Ed
watching primetime or Burt Reynolds movies?
Of course this wasn’t the movie that Ron was making.
Instead he was making a COMEDY. And as such, it
didn’t need to strickly adhere to the world of reality.
Ok, now that I’ve said it’s so different from THE
TRUMAN SHOW, how do the two compare?
Well, EDtv is far more entertaining. The acting feels
natural, but then... it just feels like perfect casting all
the way across the board. I loved THE TRUMAN
SHOW, and Jim Carrey was fantastic... but really...
you can’t compare. After EDtv, I found myself
wondering how the films would be if Jim Carrey had
been in EDtv, and Matthew had been in THE
TRUMAN SHOW. It would be interesting... And I
think both actors would have brought extra points to
each others’ roles... but... Each are perfectly cast as
ED and TRUMAN.
There is a part of me that feels that this may very well
be Ron Howard’s best film. But to honestly say that,
I’ll need to see the film at least 3 or 4 more times.
Afterwards the whole AICN crew went to a party that
was... well... very fun. When I got home that night, I
thought about writing everything up. Spend 250 to
750 words about how Elizabeth Hurley’s body filled
and moved that pink dress of hers. But... I decided to
let the intoxication (both mental and alcohol induced)
wear off. I’ve been pushing the film around for the
last week or so and.... ya know... No matter how I cut
it, EDtv is a damn fun movie.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I did....
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