As with most things in life, the fault rests with Brian Salisbury. I’ve had Don Coscarelli‘s The Beastmaster on the brain since late January when Salisbury and Robert Cargill covered the movie on their Junkfood Cinema podcast, and the recent announcement of a beautiful new 4k restoration of Coscarelli’s most famous film, Phantasm, sealed the deal. It was time to re-watch some Coscarelli.
My favorite of his films is also his most recent, John Dies at the End, but I decided to go back to the one I thoroughly enjoyed as a pre-teen thanks to its PG-rated sword, sorcery, and topless bathing action. Coscarelli is always a fun listen — we’ve previously covered his commentaries for Phantasm and Phantasm II — and he’s joined here by his frequent collaborator, Paul Pepperman.
Keep reading to see what I heard on The Beastmaster commentary.
The Beastmaster (1982)
Commentator: Don Coscarelli (director, co-writer), Paul Pepperman (co-writer)
1. The commentary was recorded in 2002 for Anchor Bay’s DVD release, the same year Coscarelli released his Elvis vs the mummy epic, Bubba Ho-Tep.
2. This was their fourth collaboration after Jim the World’s Greatest, Kenny & Company, and “a little horror picture called Phantasm.” It was the first to have a budget over a million dollars though.
3. The two share a laugh when Rip Torn appears, and Pepperman asks Coscarelli to describe their early meetings with him. “He came to the film with his own peculiar ideas about how the character was going to be played,” says the director. “He came to me and said ‘I want to play this role like a turkey vulture.'” Torn decided on his own to wear a prosthetic nose.
4. Janet Jones (American Anthem) plays one of the three barely-clad witches with the disfigured faces.
5. The blue pearl necklace used to magically hold the royal couple in place is actually just the liquid from those glow in the dark emergency lights.
6. They had considered filming in Spain and Mexico, but both locations proved too expensive so they ended up shooting the film in Southern California. Some of the impressive exteriors were shot outside Las Vegas.
7. The first scene featuring Dar as a child was one of the first shot, and it was done with an anamorphic lens. It was new to everyone involved and encountered some focus issues, but after the first couple of days one of the “money men” insisted they drop the anamorphic. They weren’t allowed to re-shoot any of the scenes so they had to be squeezed into frame resulting in noticeably cramped shots.
8. Both men were removed from the creative process in regard to the optical effects. “It was very frustrating,” says Coscarelli. “The upshot of that is that there’s some really ridiculous stuff in here.” The shot they’re referring to is the dust cloud created by the horde on its way to destroy Dar’s (Marc Singer) village.
9. The first fully visible breasts in the film — the woman running topless from the horse — belong to “David Carradine’s ex-wife.”
10. They had intended on filming the collapse of a stilted hut, but the structure crumbled of its own accord before they were fully setup. The cameraman was able to whip his camera around to catch most of the descent though.
11. They got the dog to lick Dar’s face by rubbing a hot dog on Singer’s cheek.
12. The animals were another area that fell outside of these guys’ control, and instead of getting the fully trained creatures they needed they instead got bargain-basement animal actors. “Every time a new animal would arrive on the set we’d find out they couldn’t do anything basically,” says Coscarelli, “and I think the most egregious of them was this bird which really wouldn’t even fly.” They had to send the bird up in a closed basket attached to a helium balloon, open the lid via radio control once it hit 300 feet or so, and then film the bird flying back to earth. The Golden Eagle they used was borrowed from a wild animal park owned by the San Diego Zoo.
13. The circle with the line through it glimpsed on the front gate of Dar’s village is the symbol of his people. “It’s my belief that nobody knows that,” says Coscarelli.
14. Pepperman’s hands were used for most of the inserts of Dar’s hands.
15. Dar’s sword was created for the film, and while everyone joked about who would get to keep it none of them ultimately did. It was stolen during post-production. They say they still want it and are offering a “pretty good-sized reward.”
16. The river that Dar runs through swinging his sword around like an excited little boy was struck by tragedy a few months later. It’s the same location where Vic Morrow and the two children died while filming John Landis’ segment of Twilight Zone: The Movie.
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