Here’s a podcast with Ann Louise Bardach, journalist for The New York Times, Newsweek, Slate, etc., and the screenwriter of Dennis Hopper’s Backtrack, the director’s cut of which I reviewed here. Now Backtrack was an incredibly troubled production, sitting on the shelf for two years before being dumped by its bankrupt distributor in a cut retitled Catchfire, shorn of 20 minutes that Hopper intended to be part of the film. It wasn’t until 1992 when Live Home Video put out a VHS of Hopper’s preferred cut that any of the footage was available. Unfortunately all of the DVD versions have been the cut version, still re-titled Catchfire.

In our interview, Ann Louise discusses some of the trouble Hopper found himself on the set, especially as the 1988 writer’s strike was in full swing in the midst of production. Hopper was also recently sober, which may have caused a lot of the tension that resulted in the cast and crew giving Hopper the silent treatment.  During this 15 minute interview (audio quality is fair as cell phone static is an occasional problem) you can also enjoy hearing about how Hopper’s unpredictable whims resulted in the more ridiculous scenes in the film. Download the podcast or stream it below. Or you can go to Itunes and subscribe to A Regrettable Moment of Sincerity.

Download the full interview.
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This entry was posted on Monday, October 3rd, 2011 at 7:55 pm and is filed under Documentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.