The movie Dennis Hopper was blackmailed into directing: “I’m closing down production”
Dennis Hopper was a key figure in the New Hollywood era, which was a rapidly changing time in cinema history. With his directorial debut, Easy Rider, which he also co-wrote and starred in alongside Peter Fonda, he defined an era of dying hippie optimism, capturing those flickering embers of a once-bright fire of freedom, progressiveness, and hope.
Easy Rider ends tragically, but for Hopper, the film earned him widespread acclaim. He was nominated for a ‘Best Original Screenplay’ Oscar alongside Fonda and Terry Southern, while Cannes granted him ‘Best First Work’. It was a landmark indie movie that paved the way for similarly nihilistic stories about the futility of the American Dream, although Hopper would soon find himself realising the futility of Hollywood with his next project.
The Last Movie, released in 1971, would be marred by difficulties between him and Universal Pictures, with Hopper telling The Talks, “They wanted me to re-edit it and I refused to re-edit it after I had won in Venice. [Lew] Wasserman [Universal CEO] said, ‘Look, if you don’t re-edit it, I am only going to show it for two weeks in New York, two weeks in Los Angeles, three days in San Francisco, it will never be seen in Europe, and then we are going to shut it down.’”
After the failure of The Last Movie, Hopper ruled out a career as a filmmaker, going into relative exile and only starring in a handful of films. Then came 1980’s Out of the Blue, which came from an idea by Leonard Yakir and Brenda Nielson. Yakir was also signed on as director, while Hopper was cast to play the abusive father of Linda Manz’ character, Cebe.
However, it soon became apparent that Yakir didn’t know what he was doing, so Hopper was convinced to take on the role of director – something he didn’t plan on doing again, thinking that The Last Movie would really live up to its name.
Talking to Interview Magazine, Hopper revealed how he came to direct the film. “What happened was that Out of the Blue was written by this husband-and-wife writer team, and the guy who was going to direct it had never made a real movie before. Paul Lewis [producer] wanted me to play the father of Linda Manz’s character. So I go to Vancouver to play this father character, and I’m sitting in my trailer ready to work for two-and-a-half weeks, and Paul keeps coming to me and saying, ‘This guy can’t direct, man. This is awful. There’s no usable footage.’ He said, ‘You go in there.’ So I said, ‘I’m not going to go in and fucking intimidate this guy. I’m going to stay here until he wants me to work.’”
However, Lewis eventually managed to get Hopper on board: “So after two-and-a-half weeks, it’s a Friday, and Paul and I are having dinner and he said, ‘I’m closing down production.’ So I said, ‘What? I haven’t even worked yet!’ He said, ‘There’s no usable footage.’ But, he said, ‘You could make it in three-and-a-half weeks. But we’ve got all of these locations. We can’t move them.’”
Miraculously, Hopper did it. “I said, ‘I’m going to move them all to the center of Vancouver.’ So, it’s like, boom! I move all the locations, rewrite the whole thing, and shoot it all in three-and-a-half weeks.” The movie, which explores many tragic themes, such as murder, incest, suicide, and drug abuse, didn’t exactly hit the mainstream to widespread success, but it has since been widely praised by critics.
It’s an example of Hopper’s great filmmaking abilities, but due to the movie’s taboo themes, it has remained a cult favourite rather than a well-known piece of cinema.
