The_Film_That_Changed_My_Life

70 John Dahl
Dahl: It’s interesting. I’ve actually never done a movie from a novel. I’ve
done The Great Raid from books of history, and that was very complicated
because you’re trying to balance history with filmmaking. That’s really difficult.
I chose to honor the history and the people involved because they’re
still alive. I didn’t feel that I could shortchange their experience for a more
gratifying movie. I didn’t feel like I had the license to do that.
The films that I’ve directed from other people’s material—I’ve always had
a good relationship with those authors. For the most part—and you’d have
to ask them—I think they’ve been pleased with the movies. To me, I think
that’s the thing that’s most challenging. You’ve probably heard this expression,
but you make a movie three times: once when you write it, once when
you shoot it, and once when you edit it. The reason why it’s so important
to take that approach is that you have to do your best job to get it right on
paper, and at some point it goes from being on paper to being all these different
personalities, and that’s the job of the director: to manage all these
different personalities.
When you’re shooting, it is a completely different thing. Then, you invariably
have to leave that experience, take it into an editing room, and completely
change it all over again. You have to be willing to basically throw the script out
and to throw out all that experience—all the hardships you’ve just endured.
All of a sudden it just becomes this pliable material that you push around until
you can find the best way to make it work. I think that some people get into
this trap: “Well, it worked in the script like this. If we just put it in like that it
will be fine.” You have to be willing to let the material take you there as long as
you’re not getting off track.
What did you make of the title when you first saw it?
Dahl: I had no idea what it meant. I still don’t know what it means. It’s
almost like nonsense.
Do you want to know the author’s take?
Dahl: Sure.
It was based on Burgess’s obsession with a Cockney phrase for something
as barmy or stupid as “a clockwork orange.” It was, basically, a