The Omen
Directed by John Moore
No movie marketer could resist the temptation to re-release The Omen on the ominous date of 06/06/06. Luckily, they entrusted the task to Irish director John Moore.
With it's more than credible cast (Liev Schrieber, Julia Stiles, Mia Farrow and others), Moore's Omen presents a plausible end-of-days scenario that's all the more terrifying because it connects the story's evil to today's world.
"Damian represents a collective failure to act against evil, and the story implies there's complicity for evil to succeed," says Moore. "On a less sophisticated level, there's a lot of bad stuff being done by a lot of people. It's an easy, effective leap to point to evil things now happening in the world. The film tries to make both points-to show you the bigger picture, then allow the metaphor to play out."
MERIN: The Omen's the first feature to use 9/11 World Trade Center towers footage in a story other than the story of 9/11. And, you've included images from Katrina and other disasters. Why?
MOORE: To contextualize the story. I want to make films that comment on what's going on in the world, but not be ugly, stupid and raw about it by making dumb-ass angry-young-man new genre of self-aware derivatives-like remakes of Hostel or some of Tarantino's oeuvre that's so tongue-in-cheek and disposable. It's dangerous.
The Omen offered the chance to finesse an idea and say something. It's a great story-almost Shakespearean. Doing the remake's a bit like asking an actor if he wants to do Macbeth or Death of a Salesman. Nobody in their right mind says no. Plus, there was the small but definite opportunity to contextualize as we do at the film's beginning.
Have you gotten flack for using 9/11 footage?
Well, some people said, "Geez, couldn't you have just put Rwanda?" But I included 9/11 footage because of the ongoing failure to interpret what happened that day as part of a larger picture. Continuing to believe it's a singular evil act is dangerous, I think, and has driven this great nation towards a dark precipice.
In Hollywood moviemaking, very few vehicles allow you to say something. Now there's a rash of scripts about Iraq, but most are bad because there's little contemplation behind the scripts. They're going to be vomited upon us.
The Omen's such a well-established, lean racehorse of a story. You know it works. The other side of that coin is that you get beat up for doing a remake.
Other than adding disaster footage, did you change the script?
Very little. When you break it down, The Omen's a series of set pieces about primal death-hanging, impaling, beheading, immolation-suggesting the eons-old nature of this guy spreading evil and using his tools of perceived coincidence to achieve his means. We chose to stick with that: no one gets shot, no one gets strangled with their iPod cord.
The Omen has violent moments, but it's not a violent film because the violence is succinct. Is that intentional?
Very much so. I work on the inflation theory: If there's too much, it loses value. You punctuate a movie like this with violent moments, but don't dwell on them. I didn't want to dwell on violence because the movie's implications are much more terrifying than the visuals.
Mia Farrow's Nanny is amazing. How'd you arrive at her characterization?
The whole Rosemary's Baby fun of it is really for film lovers. First, it's Mia's acting ability that makes it so wonderful. We decided the Nanny should look like she's been handed down by god to the Thorns. So, it's all about deception. Because when you think about it, if she was anything other than absolutely beguiling and nice to Katherine, Katherine would've fired her ass. Thirty years ago, a strict nanny was credible, but not now. So we decided to make her credible, constantly credible.
Is there a guiding principle to your shot framing or duration?
Framing an image and choosing to move or not move the camera is a potent weapon of visual storytelling. I imagine I bring a little more of that to the table than directors who let actors do what they want, then follow their moves. For me, blocking and framing are crucial. Framing's the antithesis of doing television.
I'm fascinated by what the audience sees versus what the character sees. It's wonderfully potent to shoot somebody with their back to another character, but their face to the audience; I deny an audience knowledge when I want to-or let them in on something a central character's feeling but not showing.
[For example,] Liev Schreiber's reaction shots. So much of the film is about his character trying to figure it out. The Omen's a warning. Your interpretation of his reactions is crucial.
[The audience is] deprived of Liev's confession, which would resolve everything. You think, "For God's sake, tell her what happened." But he doesn't. That's the Greek tragedy of The Omen.