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Equilibrium Commentary
Kurt Wimmer
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10. A Big
Mistake
Transcription by ChronosX
Was
it manipulative of me to use the puppy? Well at the end of the day I
think that anytime, that every decision a film maker makes is
ultimately manipulative because he's trying to get the audience to feel
something, otherwise what's the point? He doesn't have any sort of
sense of what he's about. So of you end up feeling as designed what he
intends for you to feel, then I suppose you've been manipulated. In
truth, when I set out to write this film, I wasn’t trying to be
calculating at all. I needed to show that he was beginning to feel. I
didn't want him to go from zero to infinity in one instance and
suddenly embrace his family. So you know, in honesty, what better
creature to use than a puppy? I could've used a parakeet, it's true,
but I think it would've been silly at the end of the day.
Having
said that; truth of the matter is that a puppy as it has many times
before, just works. Let's watch.
The
elite sweeper here is a fellow named Dan Clark, who you may recognize
as Nitro, from American Gladiators. He was very nice, nice enough to
come over to Germany and help us out on this. He's a talented actor and
a screenwriter as well. Very nice guy; let's watch.
Amazing.
That guy was wearing a mask in the middle of the night that had black
glass on it, thick leather gloves and he was able to catch those keys
with one hand every time. It was amazing. I don't think any
professional baseball player could do that.
 So this gun fight coming up is
worth commenting on in that I actually had an idea that actually worked
for once and that was that we would put strobes into the ends of
Christian's guns and attach them by wires to all of the squibs in these
costumes of the sweepers. In that way every time you pointed a gun and
fired at one of these sweepers they would be illuminated by the light
and the strobes would go off in perfect concert with his movements. It
ended up giving a tremendous visceral nature to the gun fight that you
don't usually see because the squibs are often slightly off and you
sense it. And I think it's actually the first time it's ever been done,
and it worked great.
Now
this was manipulative, because I did actually go and cut this back in
and I had originally not included it, but the audience always seems to
enjoy it.
Dailies
were structured in such a way that I think we were three days behind.
So it wasn't until three days into shooting that I  actually got to see
the first days dailies which these were. These were the first dailies
here. I was watching them and I remember there were tears in my eyes
because I thought they were beautiful, the balance between the black
leather and the liquid mercury of the mirror. I thought it was
just absolutely gorgeous. And as I was sitting there watching it, it
hit me for the first time, I am making a real movie at last after
fifteen years.
My
co-producer, Sue Baden-Powell, did an incredible job in stretching our
$20 million dollar budget into making it look like, what I think, is
signifigantly more. And Jan was the perfect producer; he was there when
I needed him and a ghost when I didn't.
This
was a municipal building in Berlin. It was perfect for me, except for
the floor, we had to cover it with black mats which was a big deal on
our budget, and even worse these black mats they had to be moped, they
picked up footprints like you wouldn't believe. The same for the black
floor in DuPont's office, and it had to be moped between every set-up
of every scene, and every shot I should say and it was an incredible
time-eater, so keep that in mind first-time directors: Black floor,
reflective black floors, they look great, but man, they can kill you.
Christian fights underhanded here, he always fights underhanded, that
of course is a style of Zatoichi. The blind swordsman.
The
old nut sac tap. That's always good for a laugh.
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