Wild 90

Last updated
Wild 90
Wild 90.jpg
DVD cover
Directed by Norman Mailer
Written byImprovised by the cast
Produced byNorman Mailer
StarringNorman Mailer
Buzz Farbar
Mickey Knox
Cinematography D.A. Pennebaker
Distributed bySupreme Mix Inc.
Release date
  • January 8, 1968 (1968-01-08)(US)
Running time
90 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Wild 90 is a 1968 experimental film directed and produced by American novelist Norman Mailer, who also plays the starring role. The film is a creative collaboration based on three friends, Norman Mailer, Buzz Farbar and Mickey Knox, who are seen drinking, braying, and fighting in a run-down apartment in lower Manhattan. Pretending to be gangsters, the trio plays with props such as pistols and machine guns. [1] Mailer's first effort into filmmaking, the film was shot on a 16-millimeter camera and recorded on magnetic sound tape. [2]

Contents

Plot

A trio of Mafia gangsters – The Prince (Norman Mailer), Cameo (Buzz Farbar) and Twenty Years (Mickey Knox)—are hiding in a warehouse. They have surrounded themselves with guns and liquor, and they kill time by joking and bickering with scatological language. But as their isolation from the world progresses, their drinking and arguing intensify. They are briefly visited by a man with a barking dog—the canine is silenced when The Prince outbarks him—and by two women, one of whom gives The Prince a knife for committing suicide. The police arrive at the warehouse and the gangsters are taken away. [3]

Production

Wild 90 was Norman Mailer's first attempt by to create a motion picture. The concept for the film came when Mailer and several actors who were appearing in an Off-Broadway adaptation of his novel The Deer Park engaged in an acting game in which they pretended that they were gangsters. Buzz Farbar recounted the genesis of the film: "During the run of The Deer Park Norman, Mickey, and I had been hanging out at the Charles IV restaurant on Thompson and Fourth Street, and that's where the idea for the film came from — Wild 90. We were all very funny, a lot funnier than in the movie. We'd start insulting each other, each of us coming back with more, and it was Norman who said we ought to film it, and I suggested Leacock and Pennebaker." [4]

The title Wild 90 is a reference to an alleged Mafia slang term for finding oneself in deep trouble. [5]

Mailer spent $1,500 of his own money to finance Wild 90. Documentary filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker served as cinematographer and shot the film in black-and-white 16mm. The production took place over four consecutive nights and the entire film was improvised by Mailer and his cast. The resulting dialogue was unusually heavy with profanities; Mailer later claimed that Wild 90 "has the most repetitive, pervasive obscenity of any film ever made." [3]

Puerto Rican boxer José Torres appears as the man with the barking dog and Beverly Bentley (Mailer's wife) plays the woman with the knife. Mailer did not allow any retakes during the shoot. [3]

Mailer wound up with 150 minutes of film, which was edited down to 90 minutes. [3] Because of a technical glitch during production, roughly 25% of the film's soundtrack is muffled. Mailer refused to redub the problem patches on the soundtrack and later joked that the film "sounds like everybody is talking through a jockstrap." [5]

Release

Pennebaker tried to convince Mailer not to release Wild 90 theatrically because of the problematic nature of its soundtrack. [5] Mailer disregarded the suggestion and went forward by distributing the film himself. He promoted the film extensively and wrote a self-congratulatory essay on the film that appeared in Esquire . [6]

Reception

Reviews for Wild 90 were overwhelmingly negative.

Renata Adler, writing in The New York Times , opined: "It relies also upon the indulgence of an audience that must be among the most fond, forgiving, ultimately patronizing and destructive of our time ... The battle against dead forms, useless conventions, and pointless inhibitions is over, or no longer interesting; the breakthroughs are now in terms of limit, live forms, tighter economies. The very urgency that Mailer has always tried to communicate makes it impossible to wade through so much rambling for a little art." [7]

Robert Singer's review notes that the unscripted dialogue contributes to the realism of the film. Wild 90 is a not a typical gangster film but rather a playful reassertion of gangsterism. He reveals that despite production limitations, Wild 90 should be read alongside other 1960s underground films as part of the "independent production tradition of the experimental American cinema." [8]

Robert Hatch, reviewing the film for The Nation , stated that the film was "rambling, repetitious...incoherent and inept." [9] Stanley Kauffmann, writing in The New Republic , said that "I cannot say that Mailer was drunk the whole time he was on camera. I can only hope he was drunk." [10]

Mailer responded to the negative reviews by including them in the original theatrical poster. [11] Wild 90 was a commercial failure, but Mailer followed up the production with two additional improvised experimental films, Beyond the Law (1968) and Maidstone (1970). [12]

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Dont Look Back</i> 1967 documentary film directed by D. A. Pennebaker

Dont Look Back is a 1967 American documentary film directed by D. A. Pennebaker that covers Bob Dylan's 1965 concert tour in England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norman Mailer</span> American writer (1923–2007)

Nachem Malech Mailer, known by his pen name Norman Kingsley Mailer, was an American novelist, journalist, playwright, and filmmaker. In a career spanning more than six decades, Mailer had 11 best-selling books, at least one in each of the seven decades after World War II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">D. A. Pennebaker</span> American documentary filmmaker (1925–2019)

Donn Alan Pennebaker was an American documentary filmmaker and one of the pioneers of direct cinema. Performing arts and politics were his primary subjects. In 2013, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognized his body of work with an Academy Honorary Award. Pennebaker was called by The Independent as "arguably the pre-eminent chronicler of Sixties counterculture".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Hollywood</span> US-American film movement between the mid-1960s and early 1980s

The New Hollywood, Hollywood Renaissance, American New Wave, or New American Cinema, was a movement in American film history from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s, when a new generation of filmmakers came to prominence. They influenced the types of film produced, their production and marketing, and the way major studios approached filmmaking. In New Hollywood films, the film director, rather than the studio, took on a key authorial role.

<i>Candy</i> (1968 film) 1968 film by Christian Marquand

Candy is a 1968 sex farce film directed by Christian Marquand from a screenplay by Buck Henry, based on the 1958 novel of the same name by Terry Southern and Mason Hoffenberg, itself based on Voltaire's 1759 novel Candide. The film satirizes pornographic stories through the adventures of its naive heroine, Candy, played by Ewa Aulin. It stars Charles Aznavour, Marlon Brando, Richard Burton, James Coburn, John Huston, Walter Matthau, and Ringo Starr. Popular figures such as Sugar Ray Robinson, Anita Pallenberg, Florinda Bolkan, Marilù Tolo, Nicoletta Machiavelli, Umberto Orsini, and Enrico Maria Salerno also appear in cameo roles.

Renata Adler is an American author, journalist, and film critic. Adler was a staff writer-reporter for The New Yorker for over thirty years and the chief film critic for The New York Times from 1968 to 1969. She has also published several fiction and non-fiction books, and has been awarded the O. Henry Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the PEN/Hemingway Award.

<i>Monterey Pop</i> 1968 rockumentary directed by D. A. Pennebaker

Monterey Pop is a 1968 American concert film by D. A. Pennebaker that documents the Monterey International Pop Festival of 1967. Among Pennebaker's several camera operators were fellow documentarians Richard Leacock and Albert Maysles. The painter Brice Marden has an "assistant camera" credit. Titles for the film were by the illustrator Tomi Ungerer. Featured performers include Big Brother and the Holding Company with Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, Hugh Masekela, Otis Redding, Ravi Shankar, the Mamas & the Papas, the Who and the Jimi Hendrix Experience, whose namesake set his guitar on fire, broke it on the stage, then threw the neck of his guitar in the crowd at the end of "Wild Thing".

<i>The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band</i> 1968 film by Michael OHerlihy

The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band is a 1968 American comedy musical western film from Walt Disney Productions. Distributed by Buena Vista Distribution, the film is based on a biography by Laura Bower Van Nuys, directed by Michael O'Herlihy, with original music and lyrics by the Sherman Brothers. Set against the backdrop of the 1888 presidential election, the film portrays the musically talented Bower family, American pioneers who settle in the Dakota Territory. The film stars Walter Brennan, Buddy Ebsen, Lesley Ann Warren, John Davidson, and Goldie Hawn in her film debut.

<i>Maidstone</i> (film) 1970 film by Norman Mailer

Maidstone is a 1970 American independent drama film written, produced and directed by Norman Mailer. It stars Mailer, Rip Torn and Ultra Violet. The film concerns famous film director Norman Kingsley, who runs for president while a group of friends, relatives, employees and lobbyists gather to discuss possible assassination plots against him. While producing his latest film about a brothel, Kingsley's brother Raoul continues to cling to him for his money.

<i>American Gangster</i> (film) 2007 film by Ridley Scott

American Gangster is a 2007 American biographical crime film directed and produced by Ridley Scott and written by Steven Zaillian. The film is loosely based on the criminal career of Frank Lucas, a gangster from La Grange, North Carolina who smuggled heroin into the United States on American service planes returning from the Vietnam War, before being detained by a task force led by Newark Detective Richie Roberts. The film stars Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe, with co-stars Ted Levine, John Ortiz, Josh Brolin, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Ruby Dee, Lymari Nadal and Cuba Gooding Jr.

<i>Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars</i> (film) 1983 documentary by D. A. Pennebaker

Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars is a 1979 British documentary/concert film by D. A. Pennebaker. It features English singer-songwriter David Bowie and his backing group the Spiders from Mars performing at the Hammersmith Odeon in London on 3 July 1973, the final date of his Ziggy Stardust Tour. At this show, Bowie made the sudden surprise announcement that the show would be "the last show that we'll ever do", later understood to mean that he was retiring his Ziggy Stardust persona.

<i>Star!</i> (film) 1968 film by Robert Wise

Star! is a 1968 American biographical musical film directed by Robert Wise and starring Julie Andrews. The screenplay by William Fairchild is based on the life and career of British performer Gertrude Lawrence.

<i>Finians Rainbow</i> (1968 film) 1968 musical film directed by Francis Ford Coppola

Finian's Rainbow is a 1968 American musical fantasy film directed by Francis Ford Coppola and adapted by E. Y. Harburg and Fred Saidy from the 1947 stage musical of the same name. It stars Fred Astaire, Petula Clark, and Tommy Steele. The plot follows an Irishman and his daughter, who steal a leprechaun's magic pot of gold and emigrate to the American South, where they become involved in a dispute between rural landowners and a greedy, racist U.S. senator.

<i>Paint Your Wagon</i> (film) 1969 film by Joshua Logan

Paint Your Wagon is a 1969 American Western musical film starring Lee Marvin, Clint Eastwood, and Jean Seberg. The film was adapted by Paddy Chayefsky from the 1951 musical Paint Your Wagon by Lerner and Loewe. It is set in a mining camp in Gold Rush-era California. It was directed by Joshua Logan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Hegedus</span> American filmmaker (born 1952)

Chris Hegedus is an American documentary filmmaker. She and her husband, filmmaker D. A. Pennebaker, founded the company Pennebaker Hegedus Films.

<i>Western Pacific Agent</i> 1950 film by Sam Newfield

Western Pacific Agent is a 1950 Sigmund Neufeld Productions crime drama directed by Sam Newfield and starring Kent Taylor, Sheila Ryan, and Mickey Knox. The picture was written by Fred Myton based on a story by Milton Raison. It was released in West Germany as Jack der Killer.

Justin Bozung is an American biographer, author, and editor of several cinema books and articles.

Town Bloody Hall is a 1979 documentary film of a panel debate between feminist advocates and activist Norman Mailer. Filmed on April 30, 1971, in The Town Hall in New York City. Town Bloody Hall features a panel of feminist advocates for the women's liberation movement and Norman Mailer, author of The Prisoner of Sex (1971). Chris Hegedus and D. A. Pennebaker produced the film, which stars Jacqueline Ceballos, Germaine Greer, Jill Johnston, Diana Trilling, and Norman Mailer. The footage of the panel was recorded and released as a documentary in 1979. Produced by Shirley Broughton, the event was originally filmed by Pennebaker. The footage was then filed and rendered unusable. Hegedus met Pennebaker a few years later, and the two edited the final version of the film for its release in 1979. Pennebaker described his filming style as one that exists without labels, in order to let the viewer come to a conclusion about the material, which inspired the nature of the Town Bloody Hall documentary. The recording of the debate was intended to ensure the unbiased documentation, allowing it to become a concrete moment in feminist history.

Beyond the Law is a 1968 independent film written by and starring Norman Mailer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norman Mailer bibliography</span>

This Norman Mailer bibliography lists major books by and about Mailer, an American novelist, new journalist, essayist, public intellectual, filmmaker, and biographer. Over a fifty-nine-year period, Mailer won two Pulitzer Prizes and had eleven books spend a total of 160 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. Mailer's output included fiction, non-fiction, poems and essays. Biographer J. Michael Lennon called Mailer the chronicler of the American Century, and a talent whose career has "been at once so brilliant, varied, controversial, improvisational, public, productive, lengthy and misunderstood".

References

Citations

  1. ↑ Singer, Robert (Fall 2016). "Performing Norman/ Norman Performing: Wild 90 As Disruptive Narrative". The Mailer Review. 10: 160.
  2. ↑ Mailer, Norman (Fall 2009). "Some Dirt In The Talk". The Mailer Review. 3: 447. Retrieved 6 December 2018.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Wild 90". Time Magazine. January 12, 1968. Archived from the original on October 15, 2007.
  4. ↑ Manso 1985, p. 440.
  5. 1 2 3 Dearborn 1999, p. 233.
  6. ↑ Medved 1980, p. 71.
  7. ↑ Adler, Renata (1968-01-08). "The Screen: Norman Mailer's Mailer". The New York Times . p. 33.
  8. ↑ Singer, Robert (Fall 2016). "Performing Norman/ Norman Performing: Wild 90 As Disruptive Narrative". The Mailer Review. 10: 158.
  9. ↑ Robert Hatch (February 5, 1968). "Films (fee access required)". The Nation.
  10. ↑ Medved 1980, p. 72.
  11. ↑ Akiva Gottlieb (July 18, 2007). "Norman Mailer, Auteur". The Jewish Daily Forward.
  12. ↑ Medved 1980, p. 74.

Bibliography

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.