Americana (film)
Encyclopedia
Americana is a 1983 American drama film starring, produced, edited and directed by David Carradine
. The screenplay and story, written by Richard Carr, was based on a portion of the 1947 novel, The Perfect Round, by Henry Morton Robinson
. The novel's setting was originally post-World War II
, but the screenplay involved the post-war experiences of a Vietnam War
veteran, obsessed with restoring an abandoned carousel
.
In 1981, the film, won The People's Choice Award at the Director's Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival
. Financing the movie himself, Carradine shot most of the footage for the film, which was co-produced by Skip Sherwood, in 1973 with a band of 26 people, mostly his family and friends, over the course of 18 days. Problems with financing and distribution kept the film from being released until 1983. The film was well received by audiences, but met with primarily negative criticism.
that he decides to restore. "The symbolism of a man wanting to build something joyful after being part of the carnage and destruction of war," surmised film critic, Charles Champlin. The people of the town have mixed reactions: some support his efforts while others hinder them. Among his supporters are two local business men: a hardware store owner, played by Barbara Hershey's father, Arnold Herzstein, and Mike, a gas station proprietor played by Michael Greene, who had guest-starred on two episodes of Carradine's television series, Kung Fu. Both men supply employment to the veteran as well as parts and tools for his endeavor.
Another helpful character is a young local girl, who watches the reconstruction efforts from afar, and scampers off when she is seen. The girl, played by Carradine's real life domestic partner, Barbara Hershey
, provides a tool box and some food. Detractors of the veteran's efforts include a band of local teenagers, one of whom is played by John Blyth Barrymore
, a personal friend of Carradine's and a frequent guest star on Kung Fu. The protagonist is also harassed by the town's sheriff, played by Carradine's brother, Bruce.
When the town's ruffians vandalize the half-restored carousel, the captain redoubles his efforts. By this time he has found, to his displeasure, that Mike's favorite past-time is to officiate the weekly cock fights, and the two have a falling out. Mike refuses to make good on a promise of a much needed part for the carousel, unless the soldier agrees to fight a dog. The veteran reluctantly agrees to the fight during which he kills the dog. After installing the last piece that completes the carousel's restoration, he lays the dog's body inside it, starts it up and walks away, while the townspeople look on.
, who starred in the television series, The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams. He provided the fighting dog, played the role of the dog's trainer and worked on the set design and the actual restoration of the carousel.
Robert Carradine
, David Carradine's younger half-brother, assisted with the camera work. Greg Walker, former Kung Fu stunt coordinator, served as stunt coordinator and played one of the town's ruffians. Fran Ryan
, whom Carradine met while they both worked on The Long Riders
(1980), played a colonel in a scene that was shot several years after the main body of footage. Claire Townsend, a United Artists
(UA) executive who had helped finance the film, played a lieutenant. Rick Van Ness, who had scouted the location, had a role as a Grateful Dead
fan who gives the hero a ride. He also served as production manager.
Calista Carradine, David's daughter, sang the theme song, "Around", during the opening credits. The haunting tune, which was written by David Carradine, was reprised at the end of the movie, with Carradine himself singing. Several members of the Drury, Kansas community appear in the film as themselves. Carradine's own dog, Buffalo, is credited in the film playing a stray dog.
(1969). The movie's writer, Richard Carr, had occasion to tell the couple what he referred to as a "bedtime story". Carradine remembered it as "the merry-go-round" story. A few years later, after Carradine had experienced financial success with Kung Fu, he decided to he wanted to make the story into a movie. He contacted Carr, who secured the rights to the Henry Morton Robinson novel, and began writing the screenplay. He told Carradine that the book contained a much more complicated story than the one he had told him. Carradine responded, "I want to make the bedtime story."
Carradine formed an acting company that he called Kansas Flyer', a metaphor for a check that bounces." He acquired a broken-down carousel in a junk yard in Los Angeles, and some broken horses in Kansas City. He and his entourage then headed for Drury, Kansas. The original working title of the film was Around. While exploring film title design
s for the picture, Carradine came across a style called Americana. "I was trying to figure out what it would look like if it said Around. Suddenly, I said to myself, 'Why am I doing this, anyway? It's right here in front of me.' I called up the title designer and told him I was changing the title to Americana."
Carradine provided most of the financing for the project, which cost under 1 million dollars. He stated that the purpose of his other acting jobs was to pay for his independent projects, over which he would have artistic control. Carradine said he even sold his Kung Fu residuals
to raise money for his own projects, and consequently gone into debt. He also sought advice from directors he had worked with, including Martin Scorsese
and Ingmar Bergman
. "The wonderful thing about working with good directors, Carradine admitted, is it gives me the opportunity to pick their brains for my own films." Using his spare time to edit the film, in 1981, Carradine finally had a finished project to take to film festivals.
There were setbacks with distribution, however. United Artists, which had ownership of the movie, changed hands and the new owners had no interest in the movie. Carradine bought the movie back from U.A., and set out to find a distributor. The picture was picked up by Crown International
, which specialized in teen exploitation films. Just two weeks before the opening was scheduled, Carradine was still shooting some additional scenes.
Another problem arose when a representative from the Motion Picture Association of America
set the pictures rating at "R" (restricted), explaining that the sound of the fighting dog's spine being broken was too loud. Carradine said that he would change it. A few weeks later he submitted it again and received the "PG" (parental guidance suggested) rating he wanted, without having changed a thing.
film critic, Charles Champlin, explained that the Director's Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival "came into being as one of the consequences of the political turmoil that aborted the festival in 1968. It is designed to make the festival a less than totally establishment affair and it offers Third World, independent and frequently angry films on social themes." He further explained that Carradine's Americana was "an ideal selection for the fortnight." In fact, the film won the People's Choice Award there in 1981. Film columnist Christopher Hicks stated that Americana was also warmly received at the 1981 United States Film and Video Festival in Park City, Utah
. This was the third of such events which would later become known as the Sundance Film Festival
. Carradine said of the audience's reaction to the film, "Well, they laughed in all the right places, and they applauded at the end, so I guess it went alright." He also said, "Americana swept the festival and I came very close to making a distribution deal with Warner Brothers." But, the Associated Press
described Americana' s reception in Utah as "quiet".
The moment of truth for the film came when it opened in New York City on October 21, 1983. Carradine had discussed Americana with film critic Kirk Honeycutt. Upon hearing of Carradine's death in 2009, Honeycutt recalled the discussion, remembering that he was "most impressed." He explained, "I got an assignment from The New York Times to do a profile on Carradine the filmmaker". Honeycutt's profile was planned to coincide with the film's opening at the Embassy 72d Street theater and the East Side Cinema, in New York City. Carradine commented that when he arrvied at the premiere to promote the film, he noticed that the poster and advertisement that he had made for the occasion had been replaced with "inferior ones". He also said that the film received standing ovations at both venues.
However, negative reviews, like the one from New York Times film critic, Janet Maslin, killed the publication of Honeycutt's piece. Maslin said of the final scene of the movie, "Anything this moment reveals about Vietnam and about America, not to mention about dogs and merry-go-rounds, has been said better elsewhere." Critic Richard Freeman found Barbara Hershey's character "moronic", and referred to the film as "twaddle." Freeman said it was "fraught with symbolism. Or maybe it is just fraught". He further said of the film, "Actually, it's about David Carradine, of whom the less said the better". The Kokomo Tribune called the story "pointless". When Carradine read the reviews, he went back to the hotel bathroom and threw up. It wasn't just that the critics didn't like the picture; they were angry at me for making it,' Carradine said. 'I'll never figure that out.
David Carradine
David Carradine was an American actor and martial artist, best known for his role as a warrior monk, Kwai Chang Caine, in the 1970s television series, Kung Fu, which later had a 1990s sequel series, Kung Fu: The Legend Continues...
. The screenplay and story, written by Richard Carr, was based on a portion of the 1947 novel, The Perfect Round, by Henry Morton Robinson
Henry Morton Robinson
Henry Morton Robinson was an American novelist, best known for A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake written with Joseph Campbell and his 1950 novel The Cardinal, which Time magazine reported was "The year's most popular book, fiction or nonfiction."-Biography:Robinson was born in Boston and graduated...
. The novel's setting was originally post-World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, but the screenplay involved the post-war experiences of a Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
veteran, obsessed with restoring an abandoned carousel
Carousel
A carousel , or merry-go-round, is an amusement ride consisting of a rotating circular platform with seats for riders...
.
In 1981, the film, won The People's Choice Award at the Director's Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
. Financing the movie himself, Carradine shot most of the footage for the film, which was co-produced by Skip Sherwood, in 1973 with a band of 26 people, mostly his family and friends, over the course of 18 days. Problems with financing and distribution kept the film from being released until 1983. The film was well received by audiences, but met with primarily negative criticism.
Plot
A down on his luck, former Green Beret captain (Carradine), freshly discharged from the Vietnam War, drifts into Drury, Kansas. There he finds a derelict merry-go-roundCarousel
A carousel , or merry-go-round, is an amusement ride consisting of a rotating circular platform with seats for riders...
that he decides to restore. "The symbolism of a man wanting to build something joyful after being part of the carnage and destruction of war," surmised film critic, Charles Champlin. The people of the town have mixed reactions: some support his efforts while others hinder them. Among his supporters are two local business men: a hardware store owner, played by Barbara Hershey's father, Arnold Herzstein, and Mike, a gas station proprietor played by Michael Greene, who had guest-starred on two episodes of Carradine's television series, Kung Fu. Both men supply employment to the veteran as well as parts and tools for his endeavor.
Another helpful character is a young local girl, who watches the reconstruction efforts from afar, and scampers off when she is seen. The girl, played by Carradine's real life domestic partner, Barbara Hershey
Barbara Hershey
Barbara Hershey , also known as Barbara Seagull, is an American actress. In a career spanning nearly 50 years, she has played a variety of roles on television and in cinema, in several genres including westerns and comedies...
, provides a tool box and some food. Detractors of the veteran's efforts include a band of local teenagers, one of whom is played by John Blyth Barrymore
John Blyth Barrymore
John Blyth Barrymore III is a former American film and television actor.Known for his role as Zeke in the 1970s television series, Kung Fu, he is a member of the Barrymore family, notable for success in acting. His parents are John Drew Barrymore and Cara Williams. Actress Drew Barrymore is his...
, a personal friend of Carradine's and a frequent guest star on Kung Fu. The protagonist is also harassed by the town's sheriff, played by Carradine's brother, Bruce.
When the town's ruffians vandalize the half-restored carousel, the captain redoubles his efforts. By this time he has found, to his displeasure, that Mike's favorite past-time is to officiate the weekly cock fights, and the two have a falling out. Mike refuses to make good on a promise of a much needed part for the carousel, unless the soldier agrees to fight a dog. The veteran reluctantly agrees to the fight during which he kills the dog. After installing the last piece that completes the carousel's restoration, he lays the dog's body inside it, starts it up and walks away, while the townspeople look on.
Cast and crew
In addition to those previously mentioned, the film also featured Dan HaggertyDan Haggerty
Dan Haggerty is an American actor, best known for the title role in The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams....
, who starred in the television series, The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams. He provided the fighting dog, played the role of the dog's trainer and worked on the set design and the actual restoration of the carousel.
Robert Carradine
Robert Carradine
Robert Reed Carradine is an American actor. The youngest of the Carradine family of actors, he made his first appearances on television western series such as Bonanza and his older brother David's Kung Fu. Carradine's first film role was in the 1972 film The Cowboys opposite Roscoe Lee Browne and...
, David Carradine's younger half-brother, assisted with the camera work. Greg Walker, former Kung Fu stunt coordinator, served as stunt coordinator and played one of the town's ruffians. Fran Ryan
Fran Ryan
Fran Ryan was an American character actress featured in television and films. She was born in Los Angeles, California....
, whom Carradine met while they both worked on The Long Riders
The Long Riders
The Long Riders is a 1980 western film directed by Walter Hill. It was produced by James Keach, Stacy Keach and Tim Zinnemann and featured an original soundtrack by Ry Cooder. Cooder won the Best Music award in 1980 from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards for this soundtrack...
(1980), played a colonel in a scene that was shot several years after the main body of footage. Claire Townsend, a United Artists
United Artists
United Artists Corporation is an American film studio. The original studio of that name was founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks....
(UA) executive who had helped finance the film, played a lieutenant. Rick Van Ness, who had scouted the location, had a role as a Grateful Dead
Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The band was known for its unique and eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, reggae, country, improvisational jazz, psychedelia, and space rock, and for live performances of long...
fan who gives the hero a ride. He also served as production manager.
Calista Carradine, David's daughter, sang the theme song, "Around", during the opening credits. The haunting tune, which was written by David Carradine, was reprised at the end of the movie, with Carradine himself singing. Several members of the Drury, Kansas community appear in the film as themselves. Carradine's own dog, Buffalo, is credited in the film playing a stray dog.
Inspiration and production
In 1969, David Carradine and Barbara Hershey met, and began a romantic relationship, on the set of Heaven with a GunHeaven with a Gun
Heaven with a Gun is a 1969 western film starring Glenn Ford as Jim Killian, a preacher who arrives in a town divided between cattlemen and sheep herders. But Killian isn't just any preacher. He is a former fast gun who has set upon a different path...
(1969). The movie's writer, Richard Carr, had occasion to tell the couple what he referred to as a "bedtime story". Carradine remembered it as "the merry-go-round" story. A few years later, after Carradine had experienced financial success with Kung Fu, he decided to he wanted to make the story into a movie. He contacted Carr, who secured the rights to the Henry Morton Robinson novel, and began writing the screenplay. He told Carradine that the book contained a much more complicated story than the one he had told him. Carradine responded, "I want to make the bedtime story."
Carradine formed an acting company that he called Kansas Flyer', a metaphor for a check that bounces." He acquired a broken-down carousel in a junk yard in Los Angeles, and some broken horses in Kansas City. He and his entourage then headed for Drury, Kansas. The original working title of the film was Around. While exploring film title design
Film title design
Film Title Design is and always has been an essential part of any motion picture. Film Title Design was originally a motionless piece of artwork called Title Art....
s for the picture, Carradine came across a style called Americana. "I was trying to figure out what it would look like if it said Around. Suddenly, I said to myself, 'Why am I doing this, anyway? It's right here in front of me.' I called up the title designer and told him I was changing the title to Americana."
Carradine provided most of the financing for the project, which cost under 1 million dollars. He stated that the purpose of his other acting jobs was to pay for his independent projects, over which he would have artistic control. Carradine said he even sold his Kung Fu residuals
Residual (entertainment industry)
A residual is a payment made to the creator of performance art for subsequent showings or screenings of the work. A typical use is in the payment of residuals for television reruns. The word is often used in the plural form.-Radio and television:The residual system started in U.S. network radio...
to raise money for his own projects, and consequently gone into debt. He also sought advice from directors he had worked with, including Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
and Ingmar Bergman
Ingmar Bergman
Ernst Ingmar Bergman was a Swedish director, writer and producer for film, stage and television. Described by Woody Allen as "probably the greatest film artist, all things considered, since the invention of the motion picture camera", he is recognized as one of the most accomplished and...
. "The wonderful thing about working with good directors, Carradine admitted, is it gives me the opportunity to pick their brains for my own films." Using his spare time to edit the film, in 1981, Carradine finally had a finished project to take to film festivals.
There were setbacks with distribution, however. United Artists, which had ownership of the movie, changed hands and the new owners had no interest in the movie. Carradine bought the movie back from U.A., and set out to find a distributor. The picture was picked up by Crown International
Crown International Pictures
Crown International Pictures is an independent film studio formed in 1959 by Newton P. Jacobs Jacobs was a former branch head of RKO Pictures until 1947 when he formed his own company "Favorite Films"; a film releasing organisation. Jacobs became one of the first franchises for showing American...
, which specialized in teen exploitation films. Just two weeks before the opening was scheduled, Carradine was still shooting some additional scenes.
Another problem arose when a representative from the Motion Picture Association of America
Motion Picture Association of America
The Motion Picture Association of America, Inc. , originally the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America , was founded in 1922 and is designed to advance the business interests of its members...
set the pictures rating at "R" (restricted), explaining that the sound of the fighting dog's spine being broken was too loud. Carradine said that he would change it. A few weeks later he submitted it again and received the "PG" (parental guidance suggested) rating he wanted, without having changed a thing.
Reception and criticism
The Los Angeles TimesLos Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
film critic, Charles Champlin, explained that the Director's Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival "came into being as one of the consequences of the political turmoil that aborted the festival in 1968. It is designed to make the festival a less than totally establishment affair and it offers Third World, independent and frequently angry films on social themes." He further explained that Carradine's Americana was "an ideal selection for the fortnight." In fact, the film won the People's Choice Award there in 1981. Film columnist Christopher Hicks stated that Americana was also warmly received at the 1981 United States Film and Video Festival in Park City, Utah
Park City, Utah
Park City is a town in Summit and Wasatch counties in the U.S. state of Utah. It is considered to be part of the Wasatch Back. The city is southeast of downtown Salt Lake City and from Salt Lake City's east edge of Sugar House along Interstate 80. The population was 7,558 at the 2010 census...
. This was the third of such events which would later become known as the Sundance Film Festival
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...
. Carradine said of the audience's reaction to the film, "Well, they laughed in all the right places, and they applauded at the end, so I guess it went alright." He also said, "Americana swept the festival and I came very close to making a distribution deal with Warner Brothers." But, the Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
described Americana
The moment of truth for the film came when it opened in New York City on October 21, 1983. Carradine had discussed Americana with film critic Kirk Honeycutt. Upon hearing of Carradine's death in 2009, Honeycutt recalled the discussion, remembering that he was "most impressed." He explained, "I got an assignment from The New York Times to do a profile on Carradine the filmmaker". Honeycutt's profile was planned to coincide with the film's opening at the Embassy 72d Street theater and the East Side Cinema, in New York City. Carradine commented that when he arrvied at the premiere to promote the film, he noticed that the poster and advertisement that he had made for the occasion had been replaced with "inferior ones". He also said that the film received standing ovations at both venues.
However, negative reviews, like the one from New York Times film critic, Janet Maslin, killed the publication of Honeycutt's piece. Maslin said of the final scene of the movie, "Anything this moment reveals about Vietnam and about America, not to mention about dogs and merry-go-rounds, has been said better elsewhere." Critic Richard Freeman found Barbara Hershey's character "moronic", and referred to the film as "twaddle." Freeman said it was "fraught with symbolism. Or maybe it is just fraught". He further said of the film, "Actually, it's about David Carradine, of whom the less said the better". The Kokomo Tribune called the story "pointless". When Carradine read the reviews, he went back to the hotel bathroom and threw up. It wasn't just that the critics didn't like the picture; they were angry at me for making it,' Carradine said. 'I'll never figure that out.