Tigrero: A Film That Was Never Made
Picture: B- Sound: B- Extras: B+ Film: B-
Samuel Fuller remains as
one of my all-time favorite directors and holds that status based on the fact
that his films were so raw, powerful, poignant, honest, and he lived his
passion of making films that he wanted to make. There are very few filmmakers of this caliber anymore, which is
just the thing that Hollywood needs right now.
Often times a persons
success can be just as interesting as their failures and cinema is plagued with
instances where films were abandoned, destroyed, cut, or never fully
realized. Tigrero! was supposed to be an adventure tale starring John Wayne
and Ava Gardner, which the locations would be in the remote regions of the
Amazon. In 1954, 20th
Century Fox sent Fuller to those locations with a camera in hand, but when he
returned to Hollywood the film was never made.
During his trip he captured the way of life of the Indians that lived
there and took part of their ceremonies as he lived with them, and some of that
footage is inserted here in our documentary that is mostly director Jim
Jarmusch and Sam Fuller as they return to the same location he was in back in
1954. Jarmusch did not direct this
documentary though; instead it was directed by Mika Kaurismaki, who also
appears on the audio commentary track along with Jarmusch, if you are down for
that.
My suspicion is that
depending on how you feel about documentaries in general, making-of films, or
Jarmusch and Fuller your experience with Tigrero:
A Film That Was Never Made is up in the air. For me, it was an easy film to like simply because I admire the
work of both Jarmusch and of course Fuller, so seeing them converse over little
film bits is fascinating, regardless of where they are or what they are talking
about in general. Most people might
find their meandering a bit tiresome or boring, but the entire program is only
75-minutes, so it will be over quick if you feel that way.
This documentary offers a
different insight than per se something like Heart of Darkness, which explored the making of process behind Apocalypse Now, or even the more recent
Lost in La Mancha about the unmaking
of Terry Gilliam's much awaited film about Don Quixote, the latter reviewed in
detail elsewhere on this site. What we
find here is that Fuller is astonished at the changes that have happened in the
40 years since his first visit and it becomes evident that he truly had a good
experience being there. Fuller is a
person who absorbs all that is around him and Jarmusch adds the right
ingredient of someone who understands the filmmakers mind enough to prod him in
the right direction to further narrate our story.
Fuller is one of few
directors who managed to work in CinemaScope on quite a few occasions including
The Command (1954), Hell and High Water (1954), House of Bamboo (1955), Forty Guns (1957), and China Gate (1957), plus Merrill’s Marauders in 1962, which
featured both CinemaScope and Technirama formats. He also forged some of the best war films as well such as Steel Helmet (1951) or Fixed Bayonets (1951), and worked into
some pulp filmmaking in the 60’s and helmed two extraordinary films like Shock Corridor and The Naked Kiss also in that era.
A few years ago a book entitled A
Third Face was also released about the life of Samuel Fuller and is a
must-read! If you watch this
documentary you will certainly want to read the book and if you have read the
book you will want to see this documentary as well. What a life this man had!
The DVD issued for Tigrero: A Film That Was Never Made is
released from Fantoma, who despite being a smaller company has done some really
exquisite work with this one indeed.
First we have a 1.78 X 1 anamorphically enhanced transfer that looks
really good, especially considering we are inserting various footage from
Fuller’s 16mm CinemaScope from 1954, which does not appear to be treated. More of that footage is also included in the
supplements. The audio is a basic Dolby
Digital 2.0 Stereo mix, which works just fine for its intended purposes
here. The film was issued theatrically
in Dolby A-type analog. Along with
those extras already mentioned there is a commentary track from Fuller and
Jarmusch and 20-minutes of outtakes, which most of them are very poorly lit and
hard to figure out what the context is, but at least they are added for those
that care. There is a quick gallery of
some pictures Jarmusch took as well as excerpts from the screenplay for the
intended Tigrero! film.
Image Entertainment issued
this DVD briefly, but Fantoma gets my seal of approval on this one, especially
for giving something like this such a great treatment for its unveiling on DVD
and taking the time to do things right!
Fantoma now has this one exclusively.
- Nate Goss
