Last Tuesday at Loews Boston Common, a jam-packed theater of college kids got a small inkling of what being in the movie biz must be like. In a snazzy event set up by Think! Films and Allied Advertising, students had the privilege of viewing a highly touted movie two months before its release date.
They also got to lean back in their plush seats, while the film's star, Sean Penn, writer/director Niels Mueller, and producer, Alfonso Cuar??n (who, incidentally, directed "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban"), were on call to answer their every last burning question in a panel that followed the screening.
Steffen Pierce, an associate curator of the Harvard Film Archive, served as the panel moderator.
As Richard Nixon watched over 500 films in the White House's private screening room during his tenure as America's 37th President, it's probably apropos that someone finally made a film about him.
That someone was Tufts alums Niels Mueller (LA '83) who makes his directorial debut with "The Assassination of Richard Nixon."
Based on the true story of Samuel Bicke (Penn), "The Assassination of Richard Nixon" details one man's growing madness and isolation from society culminating in his 1974 plot to kill the President.
While the film does not open nationwide until January, college students only had to flash their IDs to get a chance to see Penn as well as fellow co-stars Naomi Watts (as Bicke's ex-wife), Don Cheadle (as Bicke's best friend Bonny) and Jack Thompson (Bicke's boss) light up the screen.
The event really got cooking after the screening, when a rather manic man burst forth from the audience jeering at Penn, asking if he had a toupee and what it was like to know Madonna in the Biblical sense. Rude and uncouth, he was quickly escorted out of the theater, but he left the crowd abuzz with excitement as students quickly ruminated how best to piece their thoughts together.
As the film was written pre-Sept. 11, one student asked if Mueller had considered rewriting it afterwards as well as how he tried to make it not seem
outdated.
"Overall, I'm progressive in thinking. I think you progress over time and sometimes you take a step backwards in that process. This was written during the Clinton years. It has a social aspect to it, more so than if it had been made directly after the incident. The film then, of course, became frighteningly more relevant since 9-11."
Another student asked how Mueller could accurately portray someone who has since died. Mueller explained how he "tried to portray the character as true as possible" based on how close he could get to the character. He noted that transcripts of Bicke, who actually sent lengthy voice recordings to Leonard Bernstein, were instrumental in his creation.
He also stressed how "important it was to protect the privacy of everyone involved. It's based on a true story, but we fictionalized things to make a movie. Most of Bicke's inner dialogue was verbatim, and if not it was inspired by what we read. For example, there was a line 'Bonny's son gave me a hug last night. A few more like that and this all wouldn't be necessary.' We made a scene off that."
One student from Emerson asked Penn how he'd advise a 19-year-old theater student to reach Penn's level of fame.
"Make it about acting," Penn replied. He then quoted Bob Dylan, saying, "the worse part about fame is people constantly reminding you who you are . . . You can count on this: if you get famous you'll get bored really quick and return to your art."
Penn didn't explicitly say that he hadn't capitalized on that fame. Likely, that is because he hasn't hesitated, in many instances, to use his fame to promote his liberally-infused passions and anti-Bush stance. In early October, he posted an angry memo to Hollywood apathetics Matt Stone and Trey Parker who told voters they should, "feel no shame in not voting if you don't know what you're talking about," on Matt Drudge's well known, politically charged The Drudge Report.
Penn also encouraged the audience to vote for Kerry this tomorrow.
An ex-Marine now attending college asked Penn to clarify his position on soldiers fighting in Iraq, if he considers them heroes.
Penn responded that, "the circumstances of war do not dictate heroism. Vietnam heroes are no less heroes than World War II or Gulf War heroes."
As the panel wrapped up, a final question was addressed to Mueller regarding how he went from student at Tufts to Hollywood success story.
Mueller recommended that the student "take cameras out of TUTV" and to invest in a digital camera as they're less expensive than traditional film. But Mueller's main nugget of advice, perhaps a result of his friendships with his successful Tufts classmates Hank Azaria and Gary Winick, was to "take note of your fellow students. The most valuable people to you are the people you're in school with who you're unaware of."
