Oliver Harper runs a YouTube page where he talks about classic action movies and now he is putting together the definitive look at the golden age of the genre with his upcoming documentary In Search of the Last Action Heroes. which will feature interviews with some legends of the era including Bill Duke, Michael Biehn, Richard Donner and many more. Obviously we had to speak with Oliver about his venture as it’s right up our alley so enjoy our chat below.
How did you come up with the idea for In Search for the Last Action Heroes Documentary?
Well a couple of months ago I’d met up with the producer Robin Block who had been following my work on YouTube for a while and is a patron of mine. He was very impressed with a documentary I made late last year called Superman IV: The Man of Steel and Glass which was about 30 minutes long and was about the shooting locations of Superman IV; so in the film they used Milton Keynes as Metropolis and I paid a visit to Elstree Studios so it was an original production that didn’t just rely on clips and people talking about the film which I do on my YouTube channel. Robin said this was of good quality and he wanted to challenge me to make a feature length documentary and he would support me on it and help with crowdfunding. We came up with some ideas and some were quite niche so we needed something that was in my wheelhouse but would also be marketable and there would be a fanbase for it. One for the 80’s action genre seems quite fitting as a lot of the reviews on my channel focus on 80’s action so I thought let’s just try and discover what made these movies so special and look at when the action star rose how you’ve got that iconic look of the action movie. When you think of one it’s usually the musclebound hero who is usually European (laughs) with ginormous guns and endless ammo firing at drug dealers or Soviet troops. So we wanted to look at what started that style of action movie and try and detail its evolution and its eventual downfall come sort of the 90’s. That’s where it stemmed from; it wasn’t just based on one idea. It was more that we wanted to see what we could do with this and see how we could develop it over the coming months.
The Kickstarter has been incredibly successful; how have you found crowdfunding and do you see it as the future of independent cinema?
I definitely see it as the future of independent movies where you can get really specific tailored content for people which you would rarely see on TV and if you did it would likely be discussed briefly during a very short space of time. Dealing with Kickstarter was something I’d never done before and if I had done it by myself it would have been so overwhelming and I probably would have failed. It’s something that I wasn’t all that familiar with; you need someone who is very business minded and can deal with social media and present it in the right way. So I had Robin come on board at an early stage to help me develop this even though he hadn’t done crowdfunding before but he had researched it and had experience in the industry for a number of years, so he kind of knew how to get things moving.
Before it launched I was filled with anxiety and depression thinking it wasn’t going to work but once it launched and the reaction it got lifted a huge pressure off my shoulders and it’s been exciting watching it develop over the past couple of weeks. It’s done extremely well and I’d like to say a big thank you to everyone who has pledged to it and shared it with everyone else on the internet.
When I first heard about this I though this is like it was made specifically for me; I MUST support it!
(laughs) You’d be a fool not to!
You’ve got some great stars lined up for the documentary; who are you most excited about chatting with?
Once Richard Donner said he would do it, I was floored and shocked. I was a massive fanboy because Superman: The Movie is my favourite film so talking to him about Lethal Weapon and his input on the action genre over the 80’s and 90’s is going to be great to discuss with him. I need to try and avoid fanboy-ing out and talking about Superman as that’s not the discussion when I go to see him (laughs). I’ll maybe try and sneak in a few questions.
We’ve got some other great ones like Bill Duke, William Sadler, Mark Goldblatt and Steve E. D’Souza who are all legends of the action genre. It’s great that they’re going to dedicate their time to let me speak to them. More names have also been announced like Ronny Cox (RoboCop/Total Recall) so that’s one of the greatest villains of that time; he terrified me as a kid seeing him in Total Recall. He’s evil in RoboCop but he’s up to 11 in Total Recall. He’s such a super nice and polite guy in real life; the complete opposite of his villainous personas. So speaking to him is going to be a joy but there are some people that we asked that didn’t want to contribute because they don’t want to talk about certain movies anymore. We have more coming too who will let us know farther down the line so stay tuned over the coming months as we announce various talents via social media.
Actually is there a particular movie from that era that you would like to see covered by this documentary?
As much as I loved Arnie and Sly I was always the biggest fan of Jean-Claude Van Damme so movies like Hard Target, Universal Soldier, Bloodsport and Sudden Death are real favourites as my dad would always take me to see them in the cinema. If you had them that would be awesome!
I was a big fan of JCVD as well although some of those movies were out of my reach as I was only 12 years old when Timecop came out but his movies like Nowhere to Run and Death Warrant were great but yeah, Sudden Death is probably one of my favourite Van Damme movies too. It’s one where he’s not doing loads of martial arts but it’s one of his best performances.
Powers Boothe was amazing in it and frankly a total bastard…
YES! He really chews up the dialogue too. The score by John Debney is amazing; he should be doing more action scores because even if I was making a movie now I would say “just do that!”
Speaking of Composers; any plans to chat with any for the doc?
I would love to talk to Alan Silvestri and Brad Fiedel; would love to try and get some of the people who worked on movies like Bloodsport and the singers too.
Stan Bush!
Yeah! He’s one of the guys I need to hunt down. Sadly some of the composer who did those movies have since passed away like Jerry Goldsmith and James Horner. Goldsmith is one of the greats, even if he was working on schlocky Cannon films he would always provide a great score. Sometimes you watch a bad movie just because it has great music. I definitely want to get some composers on board to see how it was to work on action movies during that era.
I find with so many movies today they rarely have a memorable theme tune; they tend to just be an industrial noise…
Some people call it the “Hans Zimmer Effect” where Hans Zimmer comes on and does his own score but then people will try and mimic that and you get a lot of repetition with a lot of similar sounding scores. Then it just becomes background music and doesn’t really stand out. You can say to someone “do you remember the music to that films?” and they say “No…” and that’s also the problem with the Marvel movies where they lack a great big theme tune aside from maybe Alan Silvestri’s Captain America: The First Avenger and then The Avengers theme.
Who was your favourite action star from that era and any movies in particular?
I think Van Damme for sure but I have to say that Big Trouble in Little China is one of my personal favourites. In terms of how it fits in the 80’s action genre mold it could be a slight sidestep because of the fantasy elements. Commando is really the archetype of the genre; 1985 had so many and was when the genre just went bonkers. We had Missing in Action 2, Gymkata, Death Wish III and Rambo: First Blood Part II. All these films went completely over the top but in terms of my absolute favourite I’d have to say Predator is way up there. If you look at Commando it’s a little ragged around the edges but Predator was far more polished despite its problematic production. So Predator, The Terminator and RoboCop; it’s always difficult to decide but those three are the strong contenders for the 80’s. The 90’s kind of deviated from the formula; I always go back to Timecop. I love how ludicrous it is where it’s set in the very futuristic 2004 where the cars look like dishwashers (laughs). Van Damme and his mullet though are amazing.
It’s funny how in the past he has short hair but in the future he has a mullet…
Like in the future nobody has any taste and drives dishwashers (laughs).
So when can we expect to see the finished product for Search for the Last Action Heroes?
The date we’ve set is April of next year. So we’re hoping to get most of the interviews Stateside around November; there will be more interviews along the way. We want to speak to authors and other film critics to discuss the genre itself so there are more opinion pieces. If some directors are available late this year or early next year then that might be the best time to squeeze them in. I’ll probably work on a rough cut in January/February and maybe hire a second editor to go through everything and speed up the process because if it’s must me… it’s going to take a lot longer (laughs). I’m a pretty efficient editor but getting someone who isn’t emotionally connected to it may improve the edit.
What’s been the fan reaction so far?
It’s crazy! Every time we announce another actor or writer/director involved everyone just gets so excited which is amazing. I think one of the biggest reactions we got was definitely Richard Donner but also Bill Duke and Michael Biehn got everyone excited. I mean he’s got Tombstone, The Terminator, Planet Terror and quite a lot of other great movies. Once he was announced everyone got really excited so it shows that even if some of these actors aren’t in these big movies anymore they are still so important to these fans. It shows you how dedicated people are to these films and how passionately they care. Nostalgia is a powerful thing.
All the very best with it and I can’t wait to see the finished product!
