‘The Blair Witch Project’ // a 1999 film retrospective
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09/27/19 • 55 min
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With this, their seventh episode in a series, J. McVay, Jacqueline Soller, and Charles Hinshaw continue to look back on movies released in 1999, discussing how they stand up 20 years on...
Directed by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez, ‘The Blair Witch Project’ presents itself as a documentary pieced together from video, 16mm film, and audio discovered in the woods near Burkittsville, Maryland, one year after three film students disappeared there while attempting to make a film about a local legend known as the Blair Witch, who supposedly haunts the area. The film, as presented, follows Heather, Josh and Mike as they first speak to citizens of the town about the legend, then trek into the woods to find evidence of the legend. Each night, they’re confronted with increasingly bizarre occurrences outside their campsite, while each day they become more and more unsure of their path forward. Eventually, this cycle leaves them both completely lost and at odds with each other.
The film premiered at Sundance in January of 1999 before being released commercially on July 14th, later that year. In advance of the opening, the filmmakers mounted a marketing campaign that called into question whether the events and circumstances depicted in the movie were actually real or contrived. This campaign, in conjunction with the film’s website, were largely credited for the cultural and financial success it earned at the time, resulting in a movie with a budget of only $60,000 ultimately earning more than $248 million at the box office.
The critical response was largely positive, though not unanimous, with most of the negative responses seeming to hinge largely on considering the premise of the film some version of gimmicky. In terms of awards, the film garnered what I would call a strange or interesting mix of nominations or wins from groups focused on either independent or popular films, which perhaps speaks to its crossover status. And, of course, the film is pretty generally considered to have popularized the concept of the “found footage” film, which has been done in various ways since then.
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Episode Credits:
Producer/Host: J. McVay
Guests: Jacqueline Soller, Charles Hinshaw
Music: Hansdale Hsu
Originally released as part of a previous podcast on 9/27/19
Now released and distributed by Stereoactive Media
With this, their seventh episode in a series, J. McVay, Jacqueline Soller, and Charles Hinshaw continue to look back on movies released in 1999, discussing how they stand up 20 years on...
Directed by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez, ‘The Blair Witch Project’ presents itself as a documentary pieced together from video, 16mm film, and audio discovered in the woods near Burkittsville, Maryland, one year after three film students disappeared there while attempting to make a film about a local legend known as the Blair Witch, who supposedly haunts the area. The film, as presented, follows Heather, Josh and Mike as they first speak to citizens of the town about the legend, then trek into the woods to find evidence of the legend. Each night, they’re confronted with increasingly bizarre occurrences outside their campsite, while each day they become more and more unsure of their path forward. Eventually, this cycle leaves them both completely lost and at odds with each other.
The film premiered at Sundance in January of 1999 before being released commercially on July 14th, later that year. In advance of the opening, the filmmakers mounted a marketing campaign that called into question whether the events and circumstances depicted in the movie were actually real or contrived. This campaign, in conjunction with the film’s website, were largely credited for the cultural and financial success it earned at the time, resulting in a movie with a budget of only $60,000 ultimately earning more than $248 million at the box office.
The critical response was largely positive, though not unanimous, with most of the negative responses seeming to hinge largely on considering the premise of the film some version of gimmicky. In terms of awards, the film garnered what I would call a strange or interesting mix of nominations or wins from groups focused on either independent or popular films, which perhaps speaks to its crossover status. And, of course, the film is pretty generally considered to have popularized the concept of the “found footage” film, which has been done in various ways since then.
===
Episode Credits:
Producer/Host: J. McVay
Guests: Jacqueline Soller, Charles Hinshaw
Music: Hansdale Hsu
Originally released as part of a previous podcast on 9/27/19
Now released and distributed by Stereoactive Media
Previous Episode
‘Fight Club’ // a 1999 film retrospective
With this, their second episode in a series, J. McVay, Jacqueline Soller, and Charles Hinshaw continue to look back on movies released in 1999, discussing how they stand up 20 years on...
Based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk (“Paula-nick”) and directed by David Fincher, ‘Fight Club’ stars Edward Norton as a never named narrator who’s more or less fed up with his life and suffering from severe insomnia as he travels from place to place examining auto-accidents. He begins to find cathartic solace through attending support groups for people suffering from various ailments and conditions, before his routine is interrupted by a woman named Marla Singer (Helena Boham Carter), who is also attending these groups for less-than-honest purposes. Eventually, Norton’s character meets Tyler Durden on one of his flights. Played by Brad Pitt, Durden seems to be as free of conformist societal pressures as the Narrator is bound by them. Immediately after this seemingly chance encounter, the Narrator’s high rise condo is destroyed by an explosion, leaving him with nowhere to turn but his new acquaintance. After an evening of bonding and trading personal philosophies, the two decide to have a fist fight free of animus just to see what it feels like. High on the resultant feeling, they end up founding a club of men looking for the same experience. This balloons first into a secret underground network of similar clubs that extends to an unknown size, then to the beginning of Project Mayhem in which men dedicate their entire lives to following Durden’s call to upset the materialist, corporate nature of the society around them.
The movie premiered at the Venice Film Festival on September 10th, 1999. It drew both praise and criticism, with many referencing ‘A Clockwork Orange’ as a precedent case of a film that both portrays violence and, it was worried, could also inspire violence. It opened commercially in the US on October 15th and came in first in box office rankings with just over $11 million. Despite this, the film was considered a bit of a financial disappointment by its studio, Fox. However, it was such a popular DVD release that it went on to become one of the studio’s top selling home media items and eventually turned a profit.
===
Episode Credits:
Producer/Host: J. McVay
Guests: Jacqueline Soller, Charles Hinshaw
Music: Hansdale Hsu
Originally released as part of a previous podcast on 7/19/19
Now released and distributed by Stereoactive Media
Next Episode
‘Mank’ // a movie discussion
Mank tells the story of the writer behind arguably the best movie in cinematic history, Citizen Kane. Famous for his wit, Herman Mankiewicz was one of the highest paid screenwriters of the era. His charisma earned him invites to newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst’s extravagant dinner parties, which gained him firsthand experience that he could draw upon when writing Hearts’s thinly veiled facsimile, Charles Foster Kane. Mankiewicz was a complex man with unrespectable habits and honorable values. Although he was an alcoholic and a gambler, he helped Jewish refugees escape Nazi persecution and was seemingly the only one at MGM to stand against the company's deceitful propaganda that influenced California's 1934 gubernatorial race. Although Mank is more than the making of Citizen Kane, it parallels the film in its non-linear portrayal of a tortured man who stood by his values till the end. It reveals the corruption within Golden Age Hollywood and acknowledges the still present abuse of power by the highly influential through the eyes of a man whose only capacity to fight was, in his words.
J. McVay and Jacqueline Soller discuss Mank, a film directed by David Fincher and distributed by Netflix.
Mank stars Gary Oldman, Amanda Seyfried, and Lily Collins.
===
Episode Credits:
Producer/Host: J. McVay
Guests: Jacqueline Soller
Music: Hansdale Hsu
Originally released as part of a previous podcast on 12/11/20
Now released and distributed by Stereoactive Media
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