American Cinematographer - February 1990 - 34

CINEMATOGRAPHY
K R I J

1:2

MALM C W 1

visual clues that

people in his
family and community don't ap¬
prove of what he has done and

intense

what has become of him.
"Bruno Rubeo (produc¬

where he stays at a resort

tion

/KOND
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BIRNS & SAWYER,INC.
1026 N.

designer), Oliver and I talked

about what to do with the family's
house when Kovic returns home
from the V.A. hospital," Rich¬
ardson recalled. "It seemed like a

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FAX: 213-466-7049

213-466-8211

big house when he was nine years
old. But in reality, it is a two bed¬
room

house in a lower middle class

neighborhood. When he comes
home in a wheelchair he just barely
gets through the doorway."
The world

seems

to be

on Kovic. To visually
enhance this feeling, Rubeo moved
the walls in just a bit and painted
them darker colors. In addition, he
used over-sized furniture. All of
these things were done very sub¬

closing in

tly. Cumulatively, they create

an

environment where it seems that
there is just marginally enough
room for Kovic to
get around in his
wheelchair.
Richardson continued,
"Oliver has a penchant for camera

movement, more so now than in
the past. He likes to give perform¬
ers room to breathe.
Invariably,
you are covering 240 degrees. It
gives you less space to work with,
but it feels natural for him, and he's
the director."
The coming home parade
is

information, call
40

or

complete

write:

as

point is extremely participatory.
it goes. What he

Where Kovic goes,

.

Patent 284,333

isolated

again

through the

eyes of 180mm and
360mm lenses.
He becomes a self-ab¬
sorbed drunkard, whose world is
a

tequila bottle. The images get

darker with sharper reds, greens
and blues, punctuated with wider
shots and slightly distorted camera
movement. At this point, Stone has

stripped away all of the outer lay¬
of Kovic's life. He has
down to the hard core.

ers

come

Against all odds, Kovic
just being alive is
enough if your life has a purpose.
discovers that

He returns to the U.S. for the cul¬

scene, a 4th of July pa¬
rade which coincides with the 1968

minating

Republican convention in Miami.
The picture really re¬
volves around the three parades.
The first parade in Kovic's youth
symbolizes his innocence. The
second parade after he returns
home from the veteran's hospital is
a visual
metaphor for the death of
his innocence. The third parade in
Miami is like

a

rebirth. A new,

stronger person emerges from the

There is an explosive
scene with Kovic and his mother
when he comes home extremely
drunk. It is a cold, blue, rainy night

slowly through the crowd on its
way to the convention center. The
camera moves down
slowly from
a very
high position until you see
an
eye level shot of Cruise right in

which

the middle of the crowd.

sees,

it sees.

symbolizes his predica¬

ment. The camera

tight,
leaving Kovic no room to breathe.
The Steadicam operator is follow¬
ing on his heels as Kovic wheels
through the house moving in and

The sparkle is back in
Kovic's eyes.
"In a film like this, you
can't just drag the audience down
and leave them there," Richardson

out of

said. "Ron Kovic hit bottom, but he

The

work is

patches of light and shadow.

light devours all colors with

Larry Huston Studio,
E. 21 St., N.Y., N.Y. 10010
212-777-7541

seen

"We shot the scene in
Dallas and planted a lot of palm
trees to make it look like Miami,"
Richardson said. "We shot both
35mm and 16mm footage of
crowds of extras converging on the
convention center and the parade,
and we degraded the images to
make them look like news film."
Once again, Richardson
used the Matthews remote camera,
this time to shoot a bird's eye view
of a car caravan working its way

street

He slowly becomes more self-ab¬
sorbed. The camera work at this

Satisfaction guaranteed. For

tones. Kovic is

the childhood

same

the crowd, but others are hostile.
Kovic realizes that half
the community doesn't accept him.

designed by a working filmmaker.
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for para¬
plegics and quadraplegics. These
sequences were filmed in the Phil¬
ippines. The colors and lighting are
garish with lush blacks and hot

catastrophic experiences that
Kovic has lived through.

parade, but there is nothing in the
air to echo the soft golden hue.
Kovic is the hero, driving in an
open car. There are warm smiles
and waves from some people in

bag

His father tells him to take
vacation. He goes to Mexico

harshly-lit, highly over-exposed
and bleached out. It takes place in
the

The first filmmaker's

a

patches of shadow.

February 1990

found his way

back. That's

an
American Cinematographer - February 1990

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - February 1990
