Sunday, January 30, 2005

Watched half of Patton before Lisa got too sleepy. It's research for Billy Wes.

I was struck by the opening scene - the big speech Patton gives about "no poor bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor bastard die for his country." It's without an audience of soldiers, just a speech given by Patton in front of a huge American flag.

I wonder if that speech was a reshoot. It's just the sort of thing you can do as a pickup: put your star in front of a big American flag and have him give a speech. Doesn't require any other actors, and you can do it in studio. Was that speech always there, or was it added later?

Woody Allen's monolog at the beginning and end of Annie Hall, for example, about not wanting to belong to any club that would have him as a member, was shot after he and Ralph Rosenblum had been working on the movie in the editing room for a while, and it needed something. (Or so says Rosenblum, in his excellent book When the Shooting Stops... the Cutting Begins.)

Anyone know about this? I guess I'll have something to ask Coppola if I ever meet him.

10:51 PM

1 Comments:

I recall reading years ago that the opening speech was the last thing shot. That would point toward its being a pickup, though I don't know for sure.

By  Anonymous, at 11:51 PM  

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