Last week, news broke that James Dean will star in a new movie-64 years after his death. A production company called Magic City got the rights to Dean’s image from the late actor’s estate and plans to bring him to the silver screen again thanks to the wonder (or terror) of CGI. Now, Dean, or the digitally resurrected version of Dean or whatever, will play the second lead in a Vietnam War movie called Finding Jack, with a living actor standing in as his voice.
Unsurprisingly, the announcement inspired a wave of immediate backlash around Hollywood.
Chris Evans called it “awful” and “shameful,” and Elijah Wood said, simply, “NOPE.” But it turns out the intense reaction was surprising to at least one person: Magic City’s Anton Ernst, the Finding Jack director.
Ernst told the Hollywood Reporter in a new interview that he’s gotten “positive feedback” about the movie and that the Dean estate has been “supportive,” saying it will inspire “a whole new generation of filmgoers to be aware of James Dean.” He didn’t see the overwhelming negativity coming. Per the Reporter:
Ernst spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about the criticisms on social media, saying he was “saddened” and “confused” over the overwhelmingly negative comments. “We don’t really understand it. We never intended for this to be a marketing gimmick,” he said.
He also brought up Carrie Fisher’s appearance in the new Star Wars as an example of a way this posthumous CGI work can be done well, apparently missing the difference between honoring Fisher’s legacy in a role she was already scheduled to play and plopping James Dean in some random war movie half a century after his death.
When discussing whether resurrecting Dean digitally crosses a line with regards to posthumous casting, Ernst explained, “Anyone that is brought back to life – you have to respect them.” He noted Fisher’s posthumous appearances in the Star Wars franchise, saying that if the actress had expressed never wanting to be in a film after her death, or if her legacy or that of the franchise could be “tarnished” because of her casting, “then that should be a line.”
“I think the line should be … you must always honor the deceased’s wishes and try to act in a way that is honorable and full of dignity,” Ernst said.
The good news is that Condor’s Nest is an international revenge thriller, set in 1950s Latin America, featuring a WWII American airman Will Spalding (“Halloween Kills” Jacob Keohane) in search of a cruel SS Colonel (“G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra/a >”), follows a three act structure. Screenwriting gurus regard this paradigm as the Holy Grail for feature-length narrative filmmaking. Unfortunately, Phil Plattenburger is a writer and director who gets almost everything wrong. The genre of the film is also in question. The film’s seriousness or satire can be debated. It’s a low budget ” inglorious basterds“? The English with German accents are so ridiculous, they make Brad Pitt’s pretense of being a German officer seem like a masterful trick. Jacob Keohane portrays the former American Bomber Pilot as someone who could use a vacation, rather than one who is determined to get revenge. His goal is to eliminate a Nazi Colonel that killed his B-17 crew during the final days of World War II for refusing to reveal which German city they were bombing.
Flash forward a decade later. Pilot Spalding travels through Argentina as a Swiss banana plantation owner with a large plantation located in Brazil. The accent of a Swiss Banana farmer in Brazil is unfamiliar to me, but I’m not complaining.
Why does the first stop of Americans in Argentina? Who knows? There’s no way to explain how he managed to survive or get there. He doesn’t look like he has bothered to make himself presentable in the decade that has passed since the end of the War. Many Nazi fugitives are believed to be hiding in Argentina. There are also Nazi fugitives hiding in Bolivia and Paraguay. Brazil and Peru may be another option, but you’ve got to start somewhere. Perhaps he went alphabetically. The former pilot begins his quest for revenge by torturing two random Germans in a basement. He hopes to find out where the Colonel is hiding. Why two Germans, you ask? Who knows? Who knows? The hunt for the SS officer will likely be a long one, as the airman estimates that there are 40,000 Nazi fugitives out on the streets. This was before the Internet. If you spend a single day interrogating just two Germans, it would take 54 years to find all 40,000. And that’s not including coffee breaks or siestas.
But the American isn’t alone for very long. The Israeli agent, Corinne Britti (“Take Care of Emily”), is also on the hunt for a Nazi fugitive. But it is not that Nazi. It is Albert Vogel (Al Pagano “How to Live Your Best Death”) a physicist who is suspected of working with Russian agents to assist the Soviet Union in developing nuclear weapons. The reason why the physicist took a circuitous route to Russia is never explained. It’s not very logical or practical to go from Germany to Argentina and then to Russia. The Israeli agent has a lucky break. The American has unknowingly captured this Vogel character. Israel and the U.S. have close ties but this coincidence, which is both ridiculous and supernatural, is an example of that. The American and Israeli are still concerned about more than just an itinerary. The Germans are not convinced that the Swiss banana farmer was importing Brazilian bananas for Argentinian palates. They send in a hit team to eliminate him and (God forbid!) Israeli comrade. They’ve clearly failed at “Car Chase Shootout 101” and the Nazi hunters have escaped. Two things are possible. This allows both the Israeli and American to go about their daily business and for the film to have a third part.
The “Condor’s Nest” is revealed to be a Nazi hiding place from which the Third Reich plans a comeback. The nest is not inhabited by German buffoons, although it may appear that way. Heinrich Himmler is in charge (James Urbaniak from “Wonderstruck“) You thought he died in the war? You are so naive. He’s alive but not very well. Bruce Davison, a veteran actor (” Break“) who speaks in a passable German, is also a little blotchy. Just as Himmler is reassured by the Mossad Mamma, an American flyboy discovers the Condor’s Nest. A big shootout follows and it’s obvious who wins.
The film’s fatal flaw, despite its production values reminiscent of Ed Wood, is that it lacks a genre. It’s either that, or it is a film that promises to start a new genre. Condor’s Nest could have been better if the director’s vision was slapstick, rather than a chimera. (part “Saving Private Ryan,” part “Blazing Saddles”). Film teachers often recommend low-budget movies for educational purposes, as it is easier to learn about filmmaking by analyzing cinematic mistakes. This could make this film more enjoyable. The film is entertaining and has a beginning middle and end. It would take some research to understand how it achieved the latter. This reminds me a quote by Jean Cocteau the French author and filmmaker, “Art is essential.” “If I only knew why.”
