Ted
Kotcheff is best known as the director of FIRST BLOOD (1982), the first
(and best) film to feature Sylvester Stallone as Rambo; comedy drama
THE APPRENTICESHIP OF DUDDY KRAVITZ (1974),
based on the Moredecai Richler novel and providing Richard Dreyfuss
with his breakout role; comedy hit WEEKEND AT BERNIE'S (1989); and the
recently re-discovered masterpiece WAKE IN FRIGHT (1971), a
drama-thriller set in the Australian Outback. Kotcheff is also a
veteran of sixty years of television, theatre and film work, and his
films have traversed many different genres, whilst remaining true to his
preoccupations and the themes that attract him. His other work includes
the comedy FUN WITH DICK AND JANE (1977) with George Segal and Jane
Fonda; the thought-provoking football comedy drama NORTH DALLAS FORTY
(1979) with Nick Nolte; Vietnam thriller UNCOMMON VALOR (1983) with Gene
Hackman, and twelve years as a producer on the acclaimed TV series Law
and Order: Special Victims Unit (1999-2011). Kotcheff recently published
his memoir Director's Cut: My Life in Film, which also details his
incredible life and career outside of his films. In the second part of a
two-part interview, I spoke to Kotcheff about what drew him to write his autobiography; the roles chance and seizing opportunities took in his success; working with Liverpool playwright Alun Owen on stage and TV plays; the importance of finding the right locations and the role they play in his films; his opinion on the Rambo sequels; working with Richard Dreyfuss on THE APPRENTICESHIP OF DUDDY KRAVITZ; turning down a Timothy Dalton James Bond movie; and the project that he is most excited to bring to the screen. Part one of the interview.
After I finished on Law
and Order: Special Victims Unit, where I produced 289 shows and
directed 7 episodes over thirteen years, I decided I wanted to go
back to films. I had some time on my hands and I got invited to all
kinds of festivals. They honored me at the Oldenburg Film Festival in
Germany and then I went to the Lumiere Film Festival in Lyon, France.
I also got a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Canadian Director's
Guild. All of this time I was meeting young filmmakers and people in
the film business and I was telling them stories from my life. Some
of them would tell me ''Ted, these stories are wonderful. You ought
to write a book about your life. ''
My wife finally
prevailed on me to write a book. Writing it forced me to look at the
things that have shaped me, and how I got into the film business. I
thought it would be of interest, especially to young filmmakers. I
was lucky enough to have my mentor in Sydney Newman, who let me
direct for television. I guess I am a good storyteller because the
essence of filmmaking is telling good stories. I've had a long career
and I have had a gypsy existence, which is one of the things that
attracted me to filmmaking. I have made films all over Europe, and
I've made films in Israel (BILLY TWO HATS), Thailand (UNCOMMON
VALOR), Australia (WAKE IN FRIGHT) and a lot of other places. I've
had a very colorful career from many points of view. I've always had
a good sense of humor, which comes in handy when you've have
problems, which sometimes I've had.
If I had not been
banned from America for 17 years, how different would my creative and
professional life have been? Thinking about such things is a waste of
time. Whatever circumstances life hands out to you, you have to take
it and make the best of it that you can.
WAKE IN FRIGHT was a great script. It knocked me out. It was given to me by its writer, Evan Jones. I think I am always attracted to characters who don't know themselves, which is something I discovered as I started working on the book. I'm interested in the mystery of human behavior. The schoolteacher in WAKE IN FRIGHT and Duddy Kravitz don't know what drives them or what motivates them. I also don't know what sometimes drives me or motivates to do certain things.
WAKE IN FRIGHT was a great script. It knocked me out. It was given to me by its writer, Evan Jones. I think I am always attracted to characters who don't know themselves, which is something I discovered as I started working on the book. I'm interested in the mystery of human behavior. The schoolteacher in WAKE IN FRIGHT and Duddy Kravitz don't know what drives them or what motivates them. I also don't know what sometimes drives me or motivates to do certain things.
When I came to England
one of my first big successes was a television play by Alun Owen
called No Trams to Lime Street. I also did a stage play of his,
Progress of the Park, which was a love story about a Catholic girl
and a Protestant boy, and a very successful stage musical that he
wrote called Maggie May. When we were first paired together by Sydney
Newman, I called Alun up and said ''Can I read your script?'' He said
''You know Ted, I think it's better if you let me read it to you
because I can do it in the right accent. The Liverpool accent is very
important. '' So he read it to me and he said ''Well, what do you
think?'' I said ''This play is wonderful, but I'm not going to direct
it. '' He said ''What? Why?'' I said ''I'm a Canadian. What the hell
do I know about Liverpool working class people? You can't direct a
play about people if you don't know the details of their lives. '' He
said ''Ted, you don't understand. This is England. By the virtue of
you having listened to my play being read to you for the last hour
you know more about Liverpool than 99% of this country! Most people
don't know anything about anything that happens outside of the London
suburbs!'' I said ''OK, but I want to spend some time in Liverpool.
'' I remember that I loved the women there. They were so spunky. I
was in a pub once having a beer and I saw an attractive girl sitting
near me. She looked at me and said in her Liverpudlian accent ''Had a
good look? You'll know me next time, won't you?''
In DUDDY KRAVITZ,
getting the perfect lake is of utmost importance in the film. Because
if the lake is not extraordinarily beautiful and it's a puddle, you'd
hate Duddy for some of the nasty things he does to get that lake. My
location manager on the film saw 450 lakes and she showed me a
hundred, and I told her ''I'm not interested in that one'' each time.
The producer said to me ''Ted, we start shooting in two weeks. We
need to choose a lake. What's the problem? One lake is as good as
another. '' I told him ''One lake is not as good as another. This has
to be the ultimate lake, the Platonic lake. It has to be the lake of
lakes. '' He said ''You're crazy, Ted. '' I told him ''I'm crazy, but
not stupid. I'm not going to compromise on this location. '' Finally,
about a week before shooting, my location manager called me and said
''Ted, I think I found the location, and if it's not the one, I'm
committing suicide!'' Luckily it was the one!
It was the same thing
with FIRST BLOOD. There was some talk of shooting it in Oregon, but
that location didn't have that threatening quality or openness.
Finally someone said ''How about British Columbia?'' It was a
wonderful location. It had canyons and chasms and tunnels and rapids
and rivers. It was really wild. As soon as I saw it, I knew it was
the one. The producer said to me ''What is it with you and
locations?'' I said to him ''What is your idea of a movie?'' He said
''What do you mean?'' I said ''What is your idea of a movie?'' He
said ''It's telling a story. '' I told him ''No, it's locations. And
your stars are in front of them. The essence of movies are two things
– the people and the world. There can't be anything more obvious
than that. You don't want to compromise on the locations because if
you do, you're compromising pictorially on the film. ''
Yes, it was always wet.
I had to change my clothes three times a day. Whatever you put on,
the wind would blow the water up and down inside your clothing. As
uncomfortable as it was, it was good for the audience to feel the
wetness and discomfort of the location.
Were you disappointed
with the sequels to FIRST BLOOD?
First of all, I am not
that fond of sequels. I didn't do WEEKEND AT BERNIE'S II (1993). They wanted
me to make RAMBO, but my whole point was that this character was full
of the violence from Vietnam. His friends were killed around him. He
saw Vietnamese women and children get shot as they got caught up in
the fighting. Rambo had had his fill of violence. In his soul there
was deep revulsion at what he had had to do in Vietnam. The last
thing he was going to do was go back to America and start shooting
people. If you notice in FIRST BLOOD, he doesn't actually kill
anyone. In the script we originally had him shooting and killing two
or three of the National Guard but Sylvester said ''Ted, he's a
Congressional Medal of Honor winner, a soldier, and these guys are
weekend warriors, working in drugstores. And he's popping them off.
The audience is going to hate Rambo. '' I said ''You're right.
There's no way that he would go to any kind of violence. '' In the
sequel, Rambo suddenly turned into a killing machine and killed 74
people. After I read the script I said ''No, I'm not going to do the
film. You're betraying the character that we created. '' I could have
been a rich man had I done it!
I love Richard and he
was spectacular in the film. Let's just say that the last time I met
Richard he said ''Ted, that was the best performance I ever gave, and
I owe it all to you. You're a fabulous director. I wish we had made
ten more films together. '' I told him ''You did it all yourself. I
just shaped it. ''
What do you remember
about the Timothy Dalton James Bond movie that you turned down?
It was the only time
that I turned down a movie over money. I thought ''If I'm going to do
a Bond movie, I want to get paid. '' Nobody is going to look at a
Bond film and say ''Oh, what a great directorial job. '' On a Bond
film what you need is a good stunt co-ordinator. It's too bad. I do
like the series, and I love Sean Connery in particular.
Has there been a
special project that you have never managed to get made that you
still want to make?
I'm turning 86 soon but there's one project that I have wanted to make for many years. It's the true story of King Boris of Bulgaria, who saved every single Bulgarian Jew during WW2. He spent a lot of time with Hitler, but he was a cunning, wily fox and managed to pull the wool over his eyes. It's a very dramatic story, obviously kind of like SCHINDLER'S LIST (1993). Because of King Boris, the Bulgarian Jewish community was the only Jewish community in the whole of Europe to increase during WW2.
I'm turning 86 soon but there's one project that I have wanted to make for many years. It's the true story of King Boris of Bulgaria, who saved every single Bulgarian Jew during WW2. He spent a lot of time with Hitler, but he was a cunning, wily fox and managed to pull the wool over his eyes. It's a very dramatic story, obviously kind of like SCHINDLER'S LIST (1993). Because of King Boris, the Bulgarian Jewish community was the only Jewish community in the whole of Europe to increase during WW2.
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