Re: RARA-AVIS: Payback director's cut

From: Stephen Burridge ( stephen.burridge@gmail.com)
Date: 23 Jul 2007


Sounds interesting, particularly item 3. I really hated the "jokier tone."

Stephen Burridge

On 7/23/07, Channing < filmtroll@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>
> I recently saw Payback the director's cut. It was an improvement on the
> studio approved
> edit, but it still wasn't a wholly successful film. In a short but
> excellent interview with
> Donald Westlake on the DVD, Westlake gave his blessing to any of the
> changes Brian
> Helgland needed to make to tell the story better. Westlake says that
> Helgland's script was
> too reverential to his book and in order to make a better movie he could
> change whatever
> he needed to. Westlake also tells an anecdote where he wishes he named
> Parker anything
> but "Parker" because he kept having to think up original ways of writing
> "Parker parked the
> car."
>
> The three most obvious improvements:
>
> 1. No studio mandated Voice Over that explains exactly what's going on.
> Yay!
> 2. They ditched the blue tinted cinematography for more natural looking
> lighting.
> 3. They toned down the jokier tone to make it more serious and more
> Parker-esque.
>
> That being said the movie is still flawed, but worth a DVD rental, and
> also for the director's
> commentary on the studio changes and for the Westlake interview.
>
> I think the closest film version to the Parker of the books is Robert
> Duvall in The Outfit--
> A no nonsense professional thief with the gravitas and acting chops of
> Duvall.
>
> Best wishes,
> Channing
>
>
>

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