Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. The film programming at the Santa Barbara Film Festival is a bit like a game of Russian Roulette. Since they're so close to Sundance and Slamdance many of the high profile indies are sucked up into Park City. That means the quality of indie isn't as easy to predict. You take a lot more chances randomly picking a film here than at a buyer's fest like Sundance.
I've seen some stinkers this year, but also some quality flicks, the best of which is this one I'm about to talk to you about.
I figured I couldn't go wrong seeing a documentary on Hal Holbrook, especially since it focused on his legendary Mark Twain one man show. Holbrook/Twain: An American Odyssey is a mouthful as a title and I must admit that when the film was introduced as part of the local filmmaker's program I got a little nervous.
You pick up patterns when you go to a lot of film festivals. One of them is that the “local” program, which every single fest has, is usually no good because the only real criteria to get in is to be made locally or by local filmmakers. I thought I was in for a miserable 90 minutes, but low and behold one of the most charming, elegant and honest documentaries I've seen in a long time unspooled before me.
The secret to this documentary's success is that it jumps back and forth between Hal Holbrook's life as an actor and his performance on the stage as Twain himself, so you never get tired of one or the other.
Holbrook has been playing Mark Twain as a one-man show for half a century now and in the process has become one of the foremost Twain scholars, so when he's discussing the man he's not doing so hollowly, but rather with a passion backed up by decades of intricate understanding of the man, his public persona and all the gray areas in-between.
Conversely, Holbrook himself is a charming, humble, funny guy who has lead a very interesting life and while the doc isn't really about his career it does give us a glimpse at his roots, his real life loves and his process as an actor.
There's a moment in the movie where you literally see him turn from Hal Holbrook into Mark Twain that is one of the most amazing examples of an actor working his craft I've ever seen documented. It's a quiet moment, but you see Holbrook sitting in front of his make up kit and mirror with his Mark Twain prosthetic nose glued on, but it looks like he's asleep. His head is tilted back, his eyes are closed and the camera stays on him for a long time. Then his breathing deepens and lips begin to twitch, forming single words until you can hear one of Twain's speeches coming out of his mouth. His eyes open and he continues applying makeup, but now speaking as Twain.
It's a fantastic transformation and a moment that has stuck with me in the days since seeing the film.
There's also a lot in there from some famous faces like Sean Penn and Emile Hirsch and Cherry Jones, but the real meat is Holbrook himself. At this point in life he's very honest about his strengths and weaknesses, most of which seem to be centered around his need to work and how that made him a terrible father, in his own eyes anyway. His kids are interviewed, too, and agree that he was too distant, but I didn't get the feeling they resent him for it.
The movie's about an actor and his craft and when you have someone as interesting to watch as Holbrook playing a character as iconic as Mark Twain you end up with a film that has a life to it in a way that a lot of docs about this subject don't. The heart's there as well as the humor and insight into a great actor's process.
I've experienced his process in a very slight way, but one that I'd like to share, if you'll indulge me for a little bit. As many of you may remember there were a series of announcements a few years ago about a script I wrote called The Home. The story of the movie almost happening and falling apart 6 weeks out from shooting is a long and sad one, much too long and sad to get into here, but there is an aspect to it that relates to this movie.
The story revolved around a nursing home, so we were able to have a pretty impressive cast of great older actors. The main character was a younger guy who was put in the home to recover from a horrible accident and the longer he spends there the crazier things get. One of the elderly residents becomes his mentor and protector and we really needed a strong actor to play him.
Over the casting process we got and lost a few people in this part. We locked in Brian Cox and then had to push and the schedules didn't match up. Holbrook was always high on our list and thankfully for us he was friends with Ed Asner, who was also in our cast and one of our biggest cheerleaders. Ed pushed Holbrook to read the script and we were told Hal needed to speak with Aaron Morgan, my partner in crime and the director of the film.
Aaron and I shared an office during pre-production and I was on the call when he rang in. We both expected this was Holbrook wanting to talk over the character, but it became quickly apparent he had other reasons for wanting to speak with us.
The first words out of his mouth were “This is the most disgusting script I've ever read.” He was calling to turn us down and to make sure we knew how awful we were for birthing this nutty little horror story. Needless to say we were both caught off guard, but then I got to observe Aaron talk him through the story and understand the humanity underneath the scares.
It was fascinating to me because I saw how his imagination took what was hinted at on the page and ran with it. There were creatures and yes, there were some rather violent deaths involved, but once Aaron explained the focus of the story wasn't the gore, but rather the people in peril, citing work by Holbrook's old collaborator John Carpenter, Hal softened. By the end of the call he said he was going to read it again with this in mind and the next thing we heard from his manager was that he was in.
My point is that Holbrook's passion was apparent (staggeringly so) at the beginning of that call and continued on in a different way as the conversation went on. Hearing him respond to the emotional beats as Aaron walked him through the story and injecting his own thoughts and ideas was a pleasure and I really wish we would have had the chance to actually realize the character with him.
Watching Holbrook go through his process to prepare for a performance as Twain gave me a little pang of regret because of that missed opportunity. I can't deny that and obviously not every person who watches this doc will feel that, but I do think that there's a little something for anybody who is even a tad bit curious about the craft of acting. At no point does Holbrook/Twain feel like homework or a dull talking heads story. In a weird way seeing Holbrook's dedication to his craft as a man well into his 80s sparked a little light inside of me that made me want to give all my creative endeavors, be it AICN related or not, a kick in the butt.
I really do hope you guys get a chance to see this one. It's a brilliant portrait of a brilliant man known for playing an even more brilliant man. God willing you'll see this one pop up on Netflix soon. If so I can't recommend it enough.
-Eric Vespe
”Quint”
quint@aintitcool.com
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