Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel Page #5

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so Roger turns to me

and he says,

"you run in there, be a townie."

So I run in,

and within seconds,

the angels were beating

the sh*t out of me.

All I did was go right down

to the ground

and just prayed for "cut!"

Dem:
When work was over,

you never saw Roger.

He didn't go to dinner.

He didn't-- you didn't know what he did.

As close as we were to him

on that picture,

and we were literally

his only friends--

I mean, not that nobody

liked him,

but he was just-- didn't reach out

toward friendship.

And he remained mysterious.

But tell me,

just what is it

that you want to do?

Well, we want to be free.

We want to be free

to do what we want to do.

We want to be free to ride.

We want to be free

to ride our machines

without being hassled

by the man.

And we want to get loaded.

- Crowd:
Yeah!

- Man:
I second the motion.

Dern:

I remember asking him,

oh, about the third or fourth day

of the "wild angels"--

I said, "how many of these things

have you done?"

He said, "this is my 100th."

This is 42 years ago,

and this was his 100th movie

he directed.

Oh, my god.

The film was really

an incredible success.

It was the biggest-grossing

independent film

ever made at that time.

Bogdanovich:
"The wild angels"

was a tremendous success.

It was a huge hit.

It galvanized the whole

underground culture.

Dern:
And that changed

his persona

and changed the perception

of Peter Fonda.

I thought,

"this is wonderful.

This is saving me from becoming

the next Dean Jones for Disney,"

which is what my agents thought--

that I should be that.

Roger felt that

i had helped him

and contributed

something to it.

And he called me

and he said,

"would you like to direct

your own picture?"

And I said, "yes."

He said, "all right.

We have a Russian

science fiction picture.

And aip will buy it,

but they won't buy it

unless I put some women in it.

There's no women in it.

It's all men walking around Venus."

"But what am I supposed

to do, Roger?"

He said, "look at the picture and

just decide where to put the women."

"Okay, sure."

"We've got mamie Van doren

and she'll be one of the women.

Get a couple of other women

and just put them in the picture.

And no sound.

Don't write any dialogue.

I don't want to pay

for sound."

And I had to explain to mamie

that there would be no dialogue.

She said,

"then what do we do?"

I said, "you look meaningfully

at one of the other girls.

And then the other girl

will immediately react.

So you look at her

and the other girl goes...

And goes."

"Telepathy, mamie--

it's telepathy."

We cut this thing together,

screened it for Jim Nicholson

and he said,

"what the f*** is this about?

What are they doing?

They keep looking and then the other--"

"lt's telepathy, Jim."

"Lt's bullshit."

He says, "i don't know what--"

Roger says,

"you have to put voices in."

Meriama, wearie...

Bogdanovich:

"Go get the shells." "Yes."

Ptera is a false god.

Roger is the kind of person

who says--

"do you know how to swim?"

"No-ii

and throws you in the water.

And if you learn to swim

because you don't want

to drown, you're fine.

And if you drown,

that's the end of that.

Doel:

I think he was alert

that this was a time when things

were beginning to change.

Certainly there weren't

movies being made

reflecting the changes

in the thinking of young people.

And I think that Roger

was alert to that.

What was going on

really was revolutionary.

I smoked pot at work.

- Doel:
Sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll.

- It was blowing up.

Doel:
Vietnam.

Platt:
I thought it was

the end of America.

Dern:
I looked at this guy

in a cardigan sweater

talking about mayhem

in the streets.

I was probably

the straightest guy

in a fairly wild movement.

Doel:
His political views

were becoming increasingly left,

as he said at the time,

"almost communist,"

which always

makes me laugh,

because of course

i don't buy that for a minute,

but I understand what he means.

For someone who seems

so square on the outside,

he was actually a very interesting,

cool, hip director.

I may have felt

at the beginning of the '60s

that I was an underdog,

but as we got into the '60s,

I thought, "hey,

I'm with the new movement."

Nicholson:
By now

Roger and I are in sync.

Hey, the man's supporting

my whole life.

How could I not be

in sync with him?

He asked me to write

"the wild angels,"

'cause I was writing by then.

I said, "Roger, you know,

we're pals in this.

Can't you just pay me

a little more than scale?"

If he'd just said,

"all right, scale plus $5,"

I would have relaxed.

No. And I didn't write it.

To write "the trip," though,

he finally said, "all right."

Cut. It's good here.

How was it for second camera?

- Man:
Fine here.

- Okay, print it.

Corman:
When I decided

to make "the trip" about LSD,

I felt as a director

i cannot make a film about LSD

without trying LSD.

Initially the idea was that

I would take notes

on Roger's trip.

I think he believed

that he would be able

to coherently dictate

notes to me.

How high are you, man?

Can you tell that?

Listen, I think--

I'm afraid.

There's nothing

to be afraid of, man.

I had had a wonderful trip,

a spectacular trip.

I felt, to be fair, I had to have

some experiences

of people who'd had bad trips.

Luckily, Jack Nicholson

was a very good writer

and he knew LSD.

'Cause I was special talent.

Only he and I had actually

taken LSD at the point.

I never did it for fun--

too strong.

I mean, a lot of my friends did,

but, baby, I mean,

what, you want to confront

the face of god literally for fun?

Come on.

I'm Peter Fonda.

We've just finished

making a movie

dealing with the most talked-about

subject of the day-- LSD.

I honestly believe

that it will be

today's most talked-about

motion picture.

Nicholson:
Roger's

a serious moviemaker.

He wanted to make

a serious film about LSD,

which had just changed

the culture forever, really.

That's what the movie

is about.

Scorsese:
The artistry of the films

really developed.

By the time he did "the trip,"

he really had a sense

of pushing the power

of the image.

What he hit upon in that picture

was interesting,

particularly if you see it

in the full aspect ratio

because it just cuts through

time and space.

It becomes really a beautiful

kind of cinematic montage

and achieves a kind of poetry.

Aip were really concerned

that this was a pro-drug movie

and they would lose money

because of that.

It's easy now.

Wait till tomorrow.

Yeah, well,

I'll think about that tomorrow.

Arkoff and Nicholson

changed the ending

on the picture

without telling Roger.

They froze frame

and did an optical

of broken glass on that.

What is power?

You understand?

He created these guys.

This set me up,

because in "easy rider,"

the first thing we do

is we buy junk in Mexico,

smuggle it across the border,

get a lot of money,

put it in the tank, off we go.

Corman:
"Easy rider"

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