Tuesday August 11, 2009
Ramis rises again
By S. INDRAMALAR
Ghostbusters director Harold Ramis’s latest effort features a heady brew of thought-provoking religious philosophy and today’s hottest comedic talents.
IN Harold Ramis’ latest comedy Year One, the two leads, Zed (Jack Black) and Oh (Michael Cera), debate the existence of God and the role fate plays in one’s life. Serious stuff. But with Zed, a bungling hunter in a primitive tribe of hunter-gatherers and Oh, a shy and slightly girlish gatherer, the debate takes place amidst poop and pee jokes.
Zed believes that God exists and is responsible for everything that happens in life. He is convinced God has a grand plan for man and that everything happens according to that plan. Oh, on the other hand, isn’t too sure and feels that life is random and accidental and therefore terrifying because you never know what’s going to happen next.
The conflict between the two characters is central to Ramis’ biblical buddy comedy in which the director deliberately juxtaposes contemporary consciousness in a prehistorical setting to get audiences thinking about the meaning of life and the role of religion, or God, in our lives amidst uproarious laughter.
‘I am going back to the ideas and concerns of religion,’ says Harold Ramis. These were questions Ramis had been asking himself a lot, especially following the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001, and his solution was not to make fun of religion but to make a funny movie about how religion is interpreted.
“I have always been interested in history but then I started looking at the history of religion and got interested in the rise of fundamentalism and orthodoxy. Why do we believe so strongly in these things that we go to war and divide our national interests over them? I thought it was worth looking at and that it could be funny.
“I wouldn’t say I got religious; I got interested in religion. You know the cliché ... that as we get older we suddenly go back to the religion of our families? Everyone goes to Sunday School or to the Madrasah when they’re kids but then you kinda go away from it all for most of your adult life. I mean when you’re 20, you’re living your life and not thinking about any existential dilemma. But when you’re in your 50s, you have time to think about what it all means. I’m not going back to church or the synagogue or anything but I am going back to the ideas and concerns of religion,” explains Ramis in New York recently.
And thus Year One was born.
The movie – which sadly will not be screened here because film distributors Buena Vista Columbia Tristar have deemed it unsuitable for the local market – revolves around Zed and Oh who are as inept in love as they are at their jobs.
Zed is in love with the beautiful Maya (June Diane Raphael) but he has stiff competition in the (big) form of Marlak (Matthew J. Willig), a thuggish brute who is also the leader of the hunters; and Oh is smitten with the flirty blonde Eema (Juno Temple).
When Zed violates tribal rules and eats from the tree of knowledge, he is banished from the tribe; he and Oh set off on a voyage to the end of the Earth. Thus begins their journey through the Book of Genesis (the first book of the Old Testament, and the first of five books of the Jewish Torah — which begins with the creation of the world) where they bump into various characters from Genesis including Cain (David Cross) and Abel (Paul Rudd), and Abraham (Hank Azaria).
Their journey ends in Sodom, the sin city of yonder days, where they learn that Maya and Eema are being held as slaves. In their quest to rescue the girls, Zed and Oh land themselves in trouble and even come close to being stoned to death. Of course, the ending is a happy one.
“By the end of the movie, you realise that it does not matter what you believe in. You still have the responsibiility to take action and do what’s right,” says Ramis.
He continues, “The Dalai Lama (whom Ramis has met) said that even if there were no God, no Buddha, no Allah, no Jesus, no Moses, we would all still do the right thing because it made sense. If you take the God out of religion, it would still make sense. People will go to war over religion but if you really look at it, what’s said in the gospel or the Quran or the Torah ... it would all make sense even if it wasn’t the asserted word of a living God.”
And as his mouthpiece, he chose ... Jack Black?
“I absolutely chose Jack Black to do it. Maybe we ARE chosen. Jack’s a lovable guy and if he can end up seeing the light we know we all can,” jokes Ramis.
Ramis feels that it is important to choose actors that aren’t just good at what they do but to whom audiences can relate.
“When Woody Allen was at the height of his career, some psychologists were doing a study on dreams. They asked people what they were dreaming about and one of the categories was public figures or celebrities.
“As it turned out, Woody Allen was the most dreamed about celebrity, clearly not because people saw him as a sex object or a power symbol but because he represented their own vulnerablility. I think that’s what touches us about certain actors – a sensibility, a vulnerability and a dignity that people respond to.
“I think Jack represents some Dionysian quality in all of us. That libertine, ‘give me more of that’ kinda sensibility,” observes Ramis.
Casting Black for the part was easy as Ramis had not only seen the actor’s work; he’d also worked with him before.
“Jack is fascinating to me. He was from the first time I met him on the set of High Fidelity. (“I’m actually in that film too, as John Cusack’s father, Ramis shares.”).
“I was really interested to see the (finished) film and when I saw Jack in it I thought, ‘who is this guy?’ I mean the character was so extreme and really funny but at the same time, it had this intense conviction and amazing diction ... the way he spoke, the way his mind worked, he was powerfully intelligent, very driven and very physical. I found him fascinating.
“Then I worked with him on Orange County and I saw he was a lovely man who was as sweet and as generous as can be but with this great capacity to play lazy slobs. All his character did (on Orange County) was lie around in his underwear, stealing drugs from everyone. But he had a heart of gold. Jack’s really interesting. School Of Rock, everyone loved that, you know? Jack’s got range. He could do Shakespeare and be convincing and he could be a complete baffoon and be convincing too,” says Ramis.
Ramis wasn’t as sure about Cera.
“I knew him only as a kid. I think he was cast on the (TV) show Arrested Development when he was 13 or something. He was like a baby, that’s what I thought when Judd (Apatow) suggested Michael for the role. He was one of the best adolescent actors I have seen in a long time. Completely natural, very convincing ... but he was a kid!
“Then he (Judd) took me to see Superbad ... it wasn’t ready yet but Judd took me into the editing room and I thought, ‘Yeah, he’s pretty good’. So we put them together for a table read and they instantly clicked. They didn’t really know each other although they certainly knew each others’ work but the studio loved them and we loved them,” says Ramis.
Teeming up with producer du jour Judd Apatow for Year One and casting young comics like Black and Cera are Ramis’ attempts to connect with the current generation of comedians/filmakers, especially since he’s remained pretty much under the radar the past decade or so.
“Judd was a juggernaut already when I started this project. He had become rightfully famous for television work that was really respected and he’d just started producing films. It kind of echoed something I’d experienced 20 years before. I don’t have any alliances like that any more. I don’t ‘hang out’ with Ivan Reitman and Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd any more. We don’t make many movies together, but Judd is now in the prime of that.
“I pretty much have lost touch with the current mainstream in comedy and I thought it would be really great to have an ally who is right there. We met and he professed admiration for what I’d done, he said he grew up on it and I liked what he was doing.
“Judd’s a one-man band ... he’s always got 10 projects going on at the same time. When we were filming Year One, he was doing post production on some other film and prepping for yet another. But, he was there for me every step of the way from the development of the script to the casting and editing. Whenever I needed something, Judd would make the call. He’s got enough clout to be able to do that,” says Ramis.
Whether or not Year One becomes a gargantuan hit like many of his past works (Groundhog Day, Animal House, Caddyshack and Ghostbusters are on the American Film Institute’s “100 Years, 100 Laughs” list), Ramis is happy with his biblical comedy and is preparing his acceptance speech.
“When I start any project, the first thing I do is I write my acceptance speech. You know, ‘I’d like to thank the Academy ... ’.
“We dare to dream these things. Everything starts with a dream, right? Sometimes our hopes and dreams turn out to be pathetic, sometimes they don’t measure up and no one responds to them and then at other times we’re right and things happen.
Ramis said: “I aim high, hope for the best and sometimes it works!”
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