The Onion Field (1979)

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Joseph Wambaugh Interview

"BRC: You've written four other nonfiction works and eleven works of fiction. Do you enjoy writing one more than the other?

JW: I enjoy doing the research of nonfiction; that gives me some pleasure being a detective again and doing investigation. When all is said and done, though, I'm not sure. When I look back I think maybe the novels contain more of my DNA, I carried them like a mother carries a child. I delivered them. The nonfiction story belongs to other people and doesn't carry much of my DNA. They're like foster children.

Except for THE ONION FIELD. That one got pretty close to me because I was a cop when it happened. I saw some of the indifference that my police department showed to the surviving officer. I was just a young cop when he was fired from the department as a thief and a crook. I found out he was shoplifting and I started asking questions back then. People described his shoplifting. I wasn't a writer then --- or maybe I was a writer but didn't know it --- but I said, wait a minute, this sorta sounds like guilt crying out for punishment. Something is going on here. I felt like a part of that one. It felt more like a novel to me than nonfiction.

BRC: Without question, THE ONION FIELD has become a literary classic. Was that book the pivotal moment when you knew you had to make a choice between writing and police work?

JW: I wrote two fiction novels before I wrote THE ONION FIELD, but I was still a cop. When I wrote THE ONION FIELD, I realized that my first two novels were just practice. THE ONION FIELD made me a real writer. And then I knew it was over, I couldn't be a cop anymore."

Update

June 13, 2005 'The Onion Field' Killer Busted for Heroin
Jimmy Lee Smith, who served 19 years in prison for the kidnapping of two Los Angeles police officers and the murder of one of them in "The Onion Field" case of 1963, may be headed back to prison for possession of heroin while on parole.
LINK

Studios target older, richer DVD buyers

What happens when the theatrical model moves away from the the DVD model -- what happens when the movies that score in the theater, bomb on DVD -- will this change the mix of studio movies? They've been making movies for 14 year olds for so long, could this change the culture? Probably not.

Studios target older, richer DVD buyers - Yahoo! News: "...two of his studio's biggest overperformers for the year, 'Ray' and 'Friday Night Lights,' generated staggering DVD sales numbers in large part because of high demand from older consumers. 'Ray' earned nearly $150 million from DVD sales and rentals, twice its box office, while 'Friday Night Lights' took in $100 million against a theatrical gross of just $60 million.

'Look at how this works when you hit them with the right product,' Kornblau said. 'You're seeing it over and over again -- the biggest overperformers are titles that hit the older demographic.'"

Testament of Dr. Mabuse, The (1933)

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'You have no existence except as my tool. The individual has no being except insofar as he is part of a machine. The individual is nothing; the machine is everything.'
— Dr. Mabuse, The Crimes of Dr. Mabuse

Fritz Lang Interview: How did you come to leave Germany at the height of your career and seek refuge outside the country?

I had made two Mabuse films and the theatre had asked me if I could make another one because they made so much money. So I made one which was called The Last Will of Dr Mabuse (1932).

I have to admit that up to two or three years before the Nazis came I was very apolitical; I was not very much interested and then I became very much interested. I think the London Times wrote about the fact that I used this film as a political weapon against the Nazis - I put Nazi slogans into the mouth of the criminal.

I remember very clearly one day, I was in the office and some SA men came in and talked very haughtily that they would confiscate the picture. I said if you think they could confiscate a picture of Fritz Lang in Germany then do it, and they did. I was ordered to go and see Goebbels, and they were not very sympathetic to me, but I had to go, maybe to get the picture freed, so I went.

I will never forget it - Goebbels was a very clever man, he was indescribably charming when I entered the room, he never spoke at the beginning of the picture. He told me a lot of things, among other things that the 'Fuhrer' had seen Metropolis (1926)and another film that I had made - Die Niebelungen (1924) - and the 'Fuhrer' had said 'this is the man who will give us THE Nazi film.' I was perspiring very much at this moment, I could see a clock through the window and the hands were moving, and at the moment I heard that I was expected to make the Nazi movie I was wet all over and my only thought was 'how do I get out of here!'. I had my money in the bank and I was immediately thinking 'how do I get it out?' But Goebbels talked and talked and finally it was too late for me to get my money out! I left and told him that I was very honoured and whatever you can say. I then went home and decided the same evening that I would leave Berlin that I loved very much.

The Permanent Magic of Fritz Lang: Fritz Lang was born in Vienna in 1890 and died in California in 1976. His life took in service in the First World War, spectacular fame in Germany in the 1920s, escape from the Nazis, and an often difficult period of reinvention in Hollywood. Famous for his autocracy and brutal treatment of actors, he was even dogged with the rumour that he had murdered his first wife. Others, of course, delighted in his company. Either way by the time of his death he was a legend.

His career coincided almost exactly with Alfred Hitchcock's, and the comparison between the two directors is often made. Both thrived in silent film, but easily adjusted to sound. Both moved from Europe to America and recreated their genius in a new culture. Yet while Hitchcock is instantly recognisable and his films are easily seen, Lang's work and reputation are much more obscure. Though no critic would question Lang's stature there's no consensus about which of his films are masterpieces. And substantial scholarly work on Lang is astonishingly scarce. David Thomson, in his Biographical Dictionary of Film, even says that 'Lang's adult stories are too concentrated for today's standards'. But this is too much of a simplification.

Lang was an extraordinarily varied and resourceful director. He was able as much as any other director to turn his hand to virtually all genres. In the 20s he made large-scale, expansive films, which often tested the limits of the silent cinema. Big-budget, epic, aimed at the mass audience, with the best special effects available at the time, Lang's world in the pre-sound era was peopled by spies, dragons, legendary heroes, dictators, master criminals and futuristic demagogues.

Bigger doesn't mean safer

SUV occupants more likely to be killed:

"In a two-vehicle crash with a smaller car, the occupants of the SUV are more likely to be killed than are the people in the car, according to the IIHS report, which is based on a study of U.S. highway traffic fatalities during years 2002 and 2003 involving vehicles made from 1999 through 2002."