CREATOR CHAT

Vern

We chat with Vern about all things Seagalogy, including his inspiration for writing the book and what he considers to be the best and worst Steven Seagal movie.

I was writing about his DTV movies as they were coming out, and I started to notice all these motifs connecting the movies and I called the study of those motifs Seagalogy. When the idea of a comprehensive book on the subject occurred to me it just seemed too stupid not to do. I just wanted that book to exist. I knew people would expect a book with that title to be wacky and making fun of Seagal which was not what I wanted to do. But I figured just the existence of a serious and sincere book about Seagal as an auteur would be funny in itself. Also I knew it would be a good excuse to watch every one of his movies in chronological order.

Well, it works on many levels. The qualities that made him famous are that he's an imposingly tall guy with squinty eyes and a somewhat exotic fashion sense who can quickly move his hands in a such a way that anyone in their path breaks a bone or flies through a window. But I think one of the reasons for his enduring appeal is the way he puts little pieces of his personality and obsessions into all of his movies.

Not really. I saw some of them back in the day and I enjoyed them but it really wasn't until I saw ON DEADLY GROUND on video that I noticed there was something weirder and more interesting than I had realized going on there.

I generally consider OUT FOR JUSTICE the best because it is really well directed and just so full of brutality, and it has such a simple plot - an old acquaintance killed his friend, he has to find that guy and kill him. There's not even a villainous scheme - the guy is just smoking crack and going on a rampage that he knows will get him killed.

My least favorite is probably SUBMERGED, which was shot as a movie about mutants on a submarine and released as a movie about mind control experiments with one scene on a sub. I know some people who like that one, though. FLIGHT OF FURY (a recent one where he's a pilot, remade from the Michael Dudikoff movie BLACK THUNDER) is another contender. And there's TICKER which is a no-budget Albert Pyun movie where Seagal plays a supporting role for Tom Sizemore.

There's alot of good ones to choose from. UNDER SIEGE has the best one-two punch of villains because they have Academy Award winner Tommy Lee Jones and Academy Award nominee Gary Busey. I also love Eric Bogosian in UNDER SIEGE 2 - he's such a smarmy prick. William Forsythe is great in OUT FOR JUSTICE and Michael Caine is funny in ON DEADLY GROUND, Henry Silva is scary as always in ABOVE THE LAW.

Well, I like both of those guys. People always write Stallone off as an oaf, but he's a smart guy. He's an Oscar winning screenwriter and a pretty decent director too. I like when he really gets into a character, playing a goofy old man in ROCKY BALBOA or the scene where he breaks down and blubbers in FIRST BLOOD. So I respect him. Schwarzenegger is not a great actor but he has that larger than life presence and charisma that makes him such an icon. And when he chooses right he makes great movies - I think THE TERMINATOR, T2, COMMANDO, PREDATOR, CONAN THE BARBARIAN and TOTAL RECALL are all classics.

But both of those guys are for the most part actors who get hired to play different roles and try different things. They've tried family movies and comedies and tried to stretch and do different things. What Seagal does that's unusual is he does nothing but variations on Steven Seagal Movies. He puts his personality and his formula into every movie he ever does. I believe he's less an actor for hire and more an auteur trying to express himself. Those other guys, if they couldn't do big movies anymore they would just retire. Seagal has some kind of drive so he just keeps going, making these movies no matter what.

I don't see him returning to the big screen in the same way he used to do. I could be wrong but I expect if he ever does that it would be a major re-invention, if some smart director could convince him to do a different kind of role, like when Charles Bronson showed up as the father in Sean Penn's THE INDIAN RUNNER. It's hard for me to imagine though because it goes against my whole theory. The directors on his movies aren't usually as important as he is. But if somebody really good like a Tarantino or somebody decided they wanted to make a Seagal movie, that might be the only way to win over the younger and more mainstream crowds you need for theatrical release.

Or maybe my book will do the trick.

I'm not sure I have a favorite but the one I refer to the most is the fight with Screwface's twin at the end of MARKED FOR DEATH. Seagal pokes out his eyes, slams him through a wall, breaks his spine and throws him down an elevator shaft where he gets impaled.

I like in ON DEADLY GROUND when he beats up Mike Starr to the point of vomiting and crying but then instead of some one-liner he asks him "What does it take to change the essence of a man?" As far as one-liners though I like "I'll take you to the bank, Senator Trent. To the blood bank."

I think Seagal just prefers to be the hero. The only supporting roles he's done besides playing himself are EXECUTIVE DECISION, TICKER and a Korean movie called CLEMENTINE. Even his very first movie, ABOVE THE LAW, was a starring vehicle for him. He's always variations on that same hero, but as time goes on his past gets darker and his idea of morality gets more clouded. So maybe he is headed in that direction.

If it happened obviously it would be an exciting novelty. Many of his adversaries are the flip side of his coin, like in UNDER SIEGE he and Tommy Lee Jones have the same kind of background but are on different sides. So that would be cool, but he will always be better as the scary dude who likes to help people.

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