Taking care with Taking Chance
By Robert Goldrich
In our 2009 Sundance Film Festival coverage in January centering on advertising industry artisans whose work was being showcased, SHOOT did not list Taking Chance. That’s because the first-time director of the film didn’t have a spotmaking affiliation.
But since then, the poignant Taking Chance has aired on HBO, received rave reviews, and director Ross Katz has come aboard the roster of TWC, Santa Monica, to direct commercials.
Now that we’re armed with hindsight, Katz’s entry into the ad arena seems a natural given the dialogue/storytelling prowess reflected in Taking Chance, which he not only directed but also co-wrote with Lieutenant Colonel Michael Strobl, USMC (Ret.), a Desert Storm veteran. With a tasteful and restrained hand, Katz chronicles the journey of Strobl (portrayed by Kevin Bacon), a volunteer military escort officer who was assigned to accompany the body of 19-year old Lance Corporal Chance Phelps, USMC. Phelps was killed in action in Iraq. Strobl escorted the fallen soldier across America back to Phelps’ hometown of Dubois, Wyoming, in the spring of 2004.
The film is based on Strobl’s diary of the trip, which captures his own inner thoughts and emotions as well as the reactions of the people he encountered along the way. Like the diary itself which has taken on a life of its own online and been embraced by families who have made the ultimate sacrifice, this film is touching, moving, caring and pays homage to the life and story of the individual who sadly ends up coming home in a flag-draped coffin. The film is an honest look at what the war means in the context of a single person and all those who have been touched by him or her. It’s a thoughtful and emotional departure from the politicizing of the war that has become otherwise inescapable. Remarkably the film doesn’t fall into the trap of manipulative patriotic sentimentality, in large part due to Bacon’s performance, the attention to detail such as in the military’s fastidious preparation and presentation of Phelps’ body and his personal effects, and most notably Katz’s directorial touch.
Asked why he chose Taking Chance to take a chance on his directing debut, Katz related, “Ironically when HBO first sent me this project, I sat on it for a couple of weeks. I didn’t want to do anything that had to do with the war in Iraq. It was fall of 2006 and if you didn’t know where you stood on the war at that point, you were living under a rock. I didn’t think there was anything I could add to the discussion.”
But then Katz read the story and was captivated. “It added something original that I hadn’t known, delving into this amazing purgatory between the time someone dies in the field and when they are delivered to their family for burial. It gave me a hunger to know more,” recalled Katz, “and what started out as sociological in nature became very personal for me, an obsession really that resulted in a very personal film. I wanted to create something that was beautiful but not unreal. I did not want to make a documentary but rather something that captured the poetry of what it is these individuals do whom we never see–the escort, the cargo handlers, the volunteers.”
For Katz, the project passed the litmus test as explained by a good friend. “She said if you’re going to lose sleep at night and live with regret that you never did the project, then it means you should do it. Anything else, you should pass. This met the test,” affirmed Katz. “I couldn’t sleep after I read the story.”
Katz himself was well prepared to pass the litmus test of transitioning from noted feature producer to a successful first-time director. He is a two-time Best Picture Academy Award nominee as a producer for director Todd Field’s In The Bedroom and filmmaker Sofia Coppola’s Lost In Translation.
“As a producer, I was very hands-on,” said Katz. “I was on set every day for all the films I produced and had a kind of front row seat to working with remarkable directors. That helped me a lot as a director. I had all of this physical production experience, creative producing experience and was a well rounded producer. I understand the mechanics of filmmaking in terms of the minutiae as well as the big picture. But still once you get in the director’s chair, it’s completely different. In some ways it’s familiar. In other ways it’s like completely starting over again–but that made it exciting, daunting and without question the most thrilling experience of my career.”
He’s now looking to add to the thrill by diversifying into commercials. “You’re in a feature for the long haul. You’re living in one world for a long period of time. But I love to stretch different creative muscles,” explained Katz. “And you get to do that, moving from one world to another in commercials. You get all the wonders of filmmaking and have the great challenge of having to say a lot within a small time frame.”
The other allure of spots for Katz is the chance to collaborate. “I’ve never been one of those people who says, ‘I do what I do, you do what you do, leave me alone.’ I have found great inspiration in the folks I’ve worked with over the years. I like the idea of collaborating with others, working with an agency, kind of completing and arriving at a vision for what the intent is for a commercial.”
As for why he gravitated to TWC, Katz said he had an instant rapport with company partners Mark Thomas and Ralph Winter who both saw Taking Chance. “They had an incredibly passionate response to the film and wanted to meet with me. In the middle of the chaos that is Sundance I saw down with Mark and Ralph and connected with them. They’re filmmakers.”
Katz’s next feature project as a director is a political thriller, Amateur American. Still, he also plans to honor prior producing commitments for three other films: Jonathan Mahler’s The Challenge; Strange But True based on the best selling novel by John Searles; and Road Movie, co-produced by Susan B. Landau.
“These are three stories that I want to help to get told so I’m producing them,” said Katz. “But beyond that my full focus will be on directing.”
Review: Malcolm Washington Makes His Feature Directing Debut With “The Piano Lesson”
An heirloom piano takes on immense significance for one family in 1936 Pittsburgh in August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson." Generational ties also permeate the film adaptation, in which Malcolm Washington follows in his father Denzel Washington's footsteps in helping to bring the entirety of The Pittsburgh Cycle — a series of 10 plays — to the screen.
Malcolm Washington did not start from scratch in his accomplished feature filmmaking debut. He enlisted much of the cast from the recent Broadway revival with Samuel L. Jackson (Doaker Charles), his brother, John David Washington (Boy Willie), Ray Fisher (Lymon) and Michael Potts (Whining Boy). Berniece, played by Danielle Brooks in the play, is now beautifully portrayed by Danielle Deadwyler. With such rich material and a cast for whom it's second nature, it would be hard, one imagines, to go wrong. Jackson's own history with the play goes back to its original run in 1987 when he was Boy Willie.
It's not the simplest thing to make a play feel cinematic, but Malcolm Washington was up to the task. His film opens up the world of the Charles family beyond the living room. In fact, this adaptation, which Washington co-wrote with "Mudbound" screenwriter Virgil Williams, goes beyond Wilson's text and shows us the past and the origins of the intricately engraved piano that's central to all the fuss. It even opens on a big, action-filled set piece in 1911, during which the piano is stolen from a white family's home. Another fleshes out Doaker's monologue in which he explains to the uninitiated, Fisher's Lymon, and the audience, the tortured history of the thing. While it might have been nice to keep the camera on Jackson, such a great, grounding presence throughout, the good news is that he really makes... Read More