Travicity
02-07-2011, 11:27 PM
KEVIN Costner thinks most Western movies are terrible.
The actor — who starred and directed a number of films in the genre — spoke to the Los Angeles Times newspaper about why he thinks many cowboy movies bomb at the box office.
“Because mostly they’re not done well,” he said. “It was a very complicated time, and filmmakers tend to simplify them with the black hat, white hat. When they were enjoying their largest acceptance back in the ’50s and ’60s, [filmmakers] just got lazier and lazier.
“When they’re done really well, there’s a lot of dilemma because the way you and I live, if someone threatens us, there are three or four different layers that we can go to — the police, our politics, our PR person, our agent, our lawyer — to arbitrate our problems.
“Back then you had nobody to arbitrate your problems, and very often you found yourself even against the law because it’s not a cliché for the lawman to have been bought back then. If somebody came and wanted your property, you had to make up your mind quickly.
“Very few of us have those instincts now about how we would behave. And so if you can create those in your story — the dilemma that men and women faced — then they can be incredibly entertaining.”
Costner then spoke about the cost of his 1990 film Dances with Wolves.
“When I tried to make it, I thought the budget would be $15 million,” he said. “Every time I tried to make it, they’d say, ‘We’ll make it, but can you make it for 12?’ Then they got afraid because I wouldn’t get rid of the [Lakota] subtitles, and I told them it would be long right up front.
“Everybody says, ‘Get ‘em pregnant and then you can do whatever you want.’ I didn’t want to be arguing about something I knew was going to actually happen. So we got $9 million overseas. The first people who believed in the movie were the international community. I went to Orion — I had just made Bull Durham for them — they gave me $4 million, and I eventually put in $3 million, so it was $16 million.
The actor — who starred and directed a number of films in the genre — spoke to the Los Angeles Times newspaper about why he thinks many cowboy movies bomb at the box office.
“Because mostly they’re not done well,” he said. “It was a very complicated time, and filmmakers tend to simplify them with the black hat, white hat. When they were enjoying their largest acceptance back in the ’50s and ’60s, [filmmakers] just got lazier and lazier.
“When they’re done really well, there’s a lot of dilemma because the way you and I live, if someone threatens us, there are three or four different layers that we can go to — the police, our politics, our PR person, our agent, our lawyer — to arbitrate our problems.
“Back then you had nobody to arbitrate your problems, and very often you found yourself even against the law because it’s not a cliché for the lawman to have been bought back then. If somebody came and wanted your property, you had to make up your mind quickly.
“Very few of us have those instincts now about how we would behave. And so if you can create those in your story — the dilemma that men and women faced — then they can be incredibly entertaining.”
Costner then spoke about the cost of his 1990 film Dances with Wolves.
“When I tried to make it, I thought the budget would be $15 million,” he said. “Every time I tried to make it, they’d say, ‘We’ll make it, but can you make it for 12?’ Then they got afraid because I wouldn’t get rid of the [Lakota] subtitles, and I told them it would be long right up front.
“Everybody says, ‘Get ‘em pregnant and then you can do whatever you want.’ I didn’t want to be arguing about something I knew was going to actually happen. So we got $9 million overseas. The first people who believed in the movie were the international community. I went to Orion — I had just made Bull Durham for them — they gave me $4 million, and I eventually put in $3 million, so it was $16 million.