News culture This irreplaceable, 154-year-old object, valued at $40,000, was torn to pieces during a shoot with Quentin Tarantino
A costly turning mistake. An irreplaceable item worth 45,000 dollars was destroyed for a Quentin Tarantino film.
Mistakes or unforeseen events in films are not the first time this has happened. Still, The consequences can sometimes be dramatic. Quentin Tarantino was able to pay the price during one of his film shoots. Due to a communication error A 154-year-old guitar was destroyed during the production of the feature film The Bastard Eight.
This film takes you a few years after the Civil War. The story begins with the story of bounty hunter John Ruth, known as “The Executioner.” This man is on his way to Red Rock to hang his prisoner Daisy Domergue. When the group crosses paths with Major Marquis Warren, a former soldier and bounty hunter, and Chris Mannix, the new sheriff of Red Rock, they are caught in a snowstorm that forces them to seek refuge. In the end they find refuge in a cabin where four other characters are: the Confederate, the Mexican, the cowboy and the short-legged man. When so many “bastards” are packed into a small space, things can easily get out of hand.
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Strictly speaking, the accidents didn’t just happen. The disaster struck during a scene between Kurt Russell (who plays John Ruth aka The Executioner) and Jennifer Jason Leigh (who plays Daisy Domergue). The prisoner is playing the guitar when Kurt takes the guitar out of her hand and then hits it violently against a wooden pillar. « We should get to this point, swap guitars and destroy the “liner”. Well, we don’t know why, but it wasn’t shared with Kurt. So if you see what’s on the screen, Jennifer’s reaction is real. » remembers Mark Ulano, sound director.
Mistake or intent?
This management anomaly has also been questioned. Several people on set wondered if this had been done on purpose to trigger more natural reactions. “ Kurt had just broken an antique and everyone was freaking out. Tarantino sat in the back of the room, grinning because he had managed to get something out of this performance » Mark Ulano then asked himself.
A legacy of music that is falling apart
Dick Boak, director of the Martin Guitar Museum based in Pennsylvania, was compensated but received compensation disgusted with how things turned out. « It’s not a question of money. It’s about preserving the history and legacy of American music » he explained in the columns of Hall. In fact, the six-string instrument dates back to the 1870s.
The context of the object’s breakage was more or less hidden from the museum. “ We were told it was an accident on set. We assumed that scaffolding or something had fallen on it. We knew nothing about the plot or the fact that Kurt Russell was not informed that it was a priceless and irreplaceable artifact from the Martin Museum » complained the museum director. Given this very bad experience, the museum has also vowed not to lend out any instruments from its collection..
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