The first film by Sylvester Stallone, “Rebel”, obtains a rehabilitation 50 years later
In 1971, the 21-year-old independent filmmaker Robert Schnitzer financed his first micro-budget feature film like Robert Townsend, Kevin Smith and other Maverick directors would do it decades later: by putting all this on his credit card. He could not afford SAG actors and saw more than 500 new arrivals for the main role of Jerry Savage, an anti-war activist who plots to bomb a kitchen utensils that makes “tiger cages” used to drown, torture and imprison people in Vietnam.
After two months of auditions, Schnitzer had a clear choice for the role: a 24 -year -old unknown named Sylvester Stallone. “He was completely unique,” said Schnitzer in Indiewire, adding that his partners on the film did not share his enthusiasm. “They said,” Don’t hire him. You cannot understand the way he speaks! “” Schnitzer fought for Stallone, who, according to him, was a real original, and his colleagues finally gave in to his wishes.
The result was “no place to hide”, a film which, given the vicissitudes of independent cinema, has not been published sporadically over the next 50 years and has never been correctly examined by one of the main commercial or newspaper publications. Retired “Rebel” and reissued after “Rocky” made Stallone in 1976, the film went around the video and television, but never drew the attention it deserved as a richly detailed portrait of one of the worst moments in American history and its impact on the people who are fighting for what they believed.
After having spent decades “rebellious” in various territories and auxiliary markets, Schnitzer in the 2000s decided to let all his transactions expire without renewing them so that global rights come back to him. Once they have done so, he remained “Rebel” in 4K, remixed the sound and made many subtle adjustments to solve the problems that had always disturbed him.
The result, “Rebel: Director’s Cut”, is starting to make its way through the country via arthouses and repertoire cinemas from June 6. (First judgment: Brain Dead Studios in Los Angeles, where Schnitzer will participate in Stallone in his first round of your first round, but to discover a new independent film. Shooting, political urgency and sophisticated moral investigation.
According to Schnitzer, shooting in New York without a license was not the problem he could be today. “At the time, it was not so serious,” he said. “You could simply set up a tripod in the middle of the street. There were not too many problems with anything, except paying the bills. We had an excellent team and a large cast.”
Schnitzer said he immediately recognized that Stallone was a major talent. “He was torn between staying in New York or going out in Hollywood, and I said:” Sly, pack your bags. You have to go out in Hollywood. “”
This cast could have had another future star if Schnitzer made his way. “For the role of Ray, the black co-conspirator, we saw an actor who said:” Listen, I’m really an actor. Can I audition by doing a little of my stand-up? “He made a five -minute routine, which was hilarious, and I said to my team:” I want this actor to play Ray “. They said:” You don’t want a actor, it’s a dramatic film “and I was tired of fighting them, even if he was my first choice.
While the shooting of “Rebel” – then titled “Enter the time!” And based on a script by Schnitzer and the future novelist “Wag the Dog” Larry Beinhart – went well, problems arose at the end of production and that post -production began. “We had enough money to shoot the film, but we did not have enough money to develop the negative and make a work footprint,” said Schnitzer. “For six months, I had a hundred car canopies in my refrigerator until I can collect funds to pay the laboratory to develop it.”
During this period, Schnitzer hoped desperately to have captured what he intended, because he was months before he could see the images. The situation has also not helped his social life. “When I gave up an appointment to my apartment, she went to the kitchen and said:” What’s going on with your refrigerator? There is no food in there, there is nothing to drink. They are all car cans. “We can laugh now, but during these six months, I was filled with anxiety about the release of the film, because there was no way to go back and remedy anything.”
As Schnitzer finished the film and found a small distributor, it was in 1973 and “Getting the time!” has become “no place to hide”. He was created at the Atlanta Film Festival and started his life on local television stations before finding a wider audience abroad, on video and on more national television markets after his post-“Rocky” reissue as “rebel”. Schnitzer believes that his intention for the film – to create a convincing thriller which would also serve as plea for world peace – is as relevant now as when he did.
“Two or three years ago, I saw that there are wars preparing everywhere,” said Schnitzer. “I said to myself, we have this anti-war film just seated in the trunk that said, Schnitzer noted that going back and restoring a film that he had made as a beginner had his challenges.” Honestly, it was a little painful to relive it and to focus on each frame. ”
While Schnitzer prefers to focus on the present and the future – among other projects, he is preparing a limited series and sitting for the board of directors of a new studio complex built in Jackson, Mississippi – revisiting his first feature made him do how much work is, but said that Schnitzer. “And when I watched the film and what it shows about surveillance and the FBI and the CIA … This is exactly where we are today. The more things change, the more they stay the same.”
In the end, Schnitzer’s greatest hope for the release of “Rebel: Director’s Cut” is that he will encourage viewers to contemplate what he has to say about war and peace and the role of the state in both. “I think the time has come to look at geopolitics with new eyes and see how trends are continuing through generations,” he said. “Maybe this film can open people’s minds a little.”
“Rebel: Director’s Cut” will be published by Giant Pictures on June 6.
