By: debbie lynn elias
For years, Renny Harlin, has been a name synonymous with action, adventure, thrills, exhilaration. American audiences were first introduced to Harlin back in 1988 with PRISON, and a further installment in the highly successful NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET franchise, the fourth, with THE DREAMMASTER. But it was two years later that Harlin catapulted into the stratosphere when he helmed DIE HARD 2 with Bruce Willis. His follow-up, CLIFFHANGER, a vehicle for another huge box office draw, Sylvester Stallone, was both a critical and commercial success. But then things started to slip for Harlin, starting with CUTTHROAT ISLAND. Starring his then wife, Geena Davis, this swashbuckling adventure is still considered to be one of the biggest box office – and critical – failures in history. Undeterred by this blip on the screen, Harlin then delivered one of my favorite guilty pleasures (and that of many others, given its success on VHS/DVD/tv/cable) and one which delivers the unforgettable character of the flambouyant and reluctant private eye, Mitch Hennesey. Played by Samuel L. Jackson, to this day, Hennesey remains Jackson’s all time favorite character, something that he and I have frequently discussed and of which he always reminds Harlin, “That’s what he keeps telling me!”
But then something happened and the passion and humanity, the “everyman” appeal of his earlier films, seemed to wan. Undeterred, Harlin forged ahead with films like DEEP BLUE SEA, EXORCIST: THE BEGINNING, DRIVEN, MINDHUNTERS and THE COVENANT. Despite decent response to some and not so acceptable response to others, none achieved the success of Harlin’s earlier works.
Hopefully, all that will now change as the Renny Harlin of old returns with 5 DAYS OF WAR. A film fueled with a renewed energetic passion, filled with action adventure and a history lesson on the Russo-Georgian War, and characters that embody the traits that make John McClane, Gabe Walker and Mitch Hennessey so beloved – a sense of humanity and being “that man”. I had a chance to sit down with Renny Harlin for a 1:1 interview, something we haven’t done since CLIFFHANGER. Not only was it a trip down memory lane, but exciting to see, hear and feel Harlin’s enthusiasm and reinvigorated sense of purpose thanks to 5 DAYS OF WAR.
5 DAYS OF WAR just blew me away. I love it. This is the Renny Harlin that I know and love! The Russo-Georgian War itself pretty much fell under the radar. How did it get back on the radar and this project and come into your hands?
It was less than a year after the war. A bunch of Georgian producers literally came to Hollywood seeking somebody to tell their story. They crossed paths with an American producer who then had a meeting with my agent and told about this project. My agent geniously said, “this is perfect for Renny.” They said, “Oh, Renny wouldn’t do something like this. This is too serious or it’s not big enough or whatever.” But he insisted on them meeting with me. I met with them and we immediately hit it off. They didn’t have a screenplay at that point. They had a blueprint for the movie. I dove into research. I saw photos and videos of the war and read stories and then went to Georgia. I just became really passionate about this and really felt, like you said, I felt like I could really be the Renny Harlin that I can be if I tell this story. I can take what I’ve learned before, what I’ve done before and really make a movie that has something to say. And I got my friend Mikko Alanne involved as a writer and together, based on our research, we decided to tell the story the way we did.
This is an amazing portrayal of the war. I knew bits and pieces about it thanks to my father, an ARRL ham radio operator who was getting first hand information during the war itself, but I wondered then why is this not plastered all over the news. To now see this story and the events that actually transpired, which I think a lot of people aren’t going to believe, but now told through the eyes of fictionalized composite journalists, it’s all very authentic.
Yes. For example, I showed it to a bunch of CNN producers and journalists who had been in this situation and all they said was that it’s so authentic, it’s exactly what they’ve experienced and what they’ve seen. The whole angle of the journalist was based on my research there. I spoke to a lot of refugees, a lot of soldiers, a lot of politicians. I spoke also to a lot of international journalists who were in Geogia during the war. And their stories and their frustration with not only risking their lives and trying to get the story, but then not being able to get the story out into the world because it doesn’t serve certain news corporations policy or whatever they want to tell. It’s flabbergasting. I must say, I was so naive that I thought that news was happening and we see it. But it goes through a lot of filters before it gets into our news channels.
A film like 5 DAYS OF WAR is important because it shows the public just how much goes under the radar that shouldn’t be going under the radar. Now as to your authenticity. Not only did you get cooperation from the Georgian government in terms of equipment, artillery, uniforms, but then you get one of the greatest conflict cameramen of our time, Checco Varese, as your Director of Photography. That’s a gold mine to have him with his vast news experience.
Yes. I really wanted to find a DP who would have that experience and when I met with him I had seen his credits all the way from South America to Rwanda and Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq and all these places. Immediately when we met, we just hit it off. We shared a passion for films and stories. Having him there not only advising me but advising the actors and everybody about what they do in this situation, how they act and how they deal with just day-to-day situations of being in a war zone, was really invaluable.
Your casting is impeccable. Andy Garcia blew me away as the Georgian President. Then you bring in Rupert Friend, Richard Coyle and then a real ace in the hole with Val Kilmer and Johnathon Schaech, which was such a surprise. How did you go about selecting this group?
Thank you. But, let me ask you about one actor that a lot of people actually react to, especially women, which is real shocking. The tattooed Russian mercenary. How did you feel about him? The shaved head, tattooed mercenary. A lot of women actually like him. And he’s like this savage killer.
For me? He’s ‘eh’. I’m not phased by him. Out of the whole group, I love Johnathon’s [Schaech] character. His character is the best of all worlds thrown into one man.
He sure makes a Georgian soldier look good.
He makes humanity look good.
Oh, that’s great!. Great. Thank you! With the casting of this and some other movies I’ve made, I wanted to surprise the audience and keep them guessing a little so sometimes you hire somebody really well known to do a smaller part and sometimes somebody like Rupert who is a solid actor, but not a megastar, in a lead role, sort of misleads the audience a little bit. It doesn’t give them that security blanket that is like, “Oh, that’s a superstar so nothing bad can happen to him.” I want to keep the audience a little bit off balance. I feel that that way they are more invested and more involved and pay more attention. Then with actors like Val [Kilmer], I love him because he has this reputation of being a little bit troubled sometimes and whatever, but for me, what somebody like him brings is not just an actor whose going to come in and say the lines. But he brings his whole bag of tricks and he’ll offer you suggestions. He’s a collaborator. And you always get more than you expect. As an example, we have the first scene with him which was written to take place at a desk in a hotel room. The morning of shooting he comes to me and says, “you know, I was thinking that maybe I should do this scene in a bubble bath.” And I look at him. You always have to think “Is this a genius idea or crazy idea?” But mostly they are genius. So I said, “Yep, let’s do it.” Somehow we found bubble bath in the middle of Georgia and did the scene. And all of a sudden you have a scene that is brief and that introduces the character but you immediately fall in love with him. He’s funny and he’s likeable and eccentric. For me it’;s so important to find these people who can bring something extra into their roles that have the right characteristic. Like you mentioned, Jonathan, that he has this humanity that he brings into this character. This kind of a silent humanity.
And Andy Garcia, a great actor. Happens to look just like the President. I actually asked the President, “Who’s your favorite actor?” and he said, “Andy Garcia.” I said, “Well, I’m gonna try to get him to play you because he looks like you.” He comes in and just does a great job. I love working with a fabric of actors like that, just great actors, some of them are bigger stars, some of them are more character actors, but they all bring some extra color into the story.
That’s one thing that you do very well. Your casting. You always have a very mixed palette. But when you put all the colors together, this beautiful picture emerges.
I’ve had luck in several movies of bringing…like my very first American movie, PRISON, was one of the first roles that Viggo Mortenson ever did.
And look at him now!
Yeah! And then a lot of movies like THE COVENANT, I had a lot of first-timers like Chase Crawford. He had never acted before when I cast him in THE COVENANT and now he’s the star of “Gossip Girl.” I had also in THE COVENANT, Taylor Kitsch, who had done SNAKES ON A PLANE before THE COVENANT. Now, he’s a star on “Friday Night Lights” and he’s a star in the $200 million Disney movie JOHN CARTER and BATTLESHIP. And there are just a lot of actors like that. I’m not saying I’m a [casting] genius, but I will say that I work really hard and sometimes meet 100 actors for one role just to find the type that I feel is right.
One of the great things, I think, is with the timing of this film coming out now in the US. We’ve seen THE HURT LOCKER. We’ve seen THE BANG BANG CLUB. In many respects, 5 DAYS OF WAR is like a combination of the two. And especially with Val’s character, The Dutchman, we have a sense in light of Tim Hetherington’s death and Sebastian Junger’s book, we really have a better sensibility of the international war journalist. What you give us is very believable. People now have reference points.
And we now have all these stories from Libya, Egypt. These very shocking stories. So I think, hopefully, it’s a little bit more in people’s minds. The challenges, as I’m sure you agree with this, is that when you have a movie that deals with war and even the title has the word “war” in it, that’s the challenge; to get people over that hump of saying, “This is not evening news. This is actually a dramatic story, a fictional story, based on real events. But it is still entertainment and there is still a history lesson and that’s reason for people to go see it.”
What was the most challenging aspect of making this film, Renny?
Physically challenging, most challenging was that we were using the real hardware and creating battle scenes that were really done for real and not digitally. And we were in a country that didn’t have a major film culture and we had to bring a lot of technical equipment and crew from other countries. So that was challenging to put together. Emotionally the most challenging thing was that we’re telling a story of these real people who had just come through this less than a year before and we have the responsibility to tell their stories and responsibility to be honest and at the same time remember that we are not making a documentary so we are mixing fiction and real events. And just feeling their eyes on you when we’re doing crowd scenes and we have thousands of people and the tears in their eyes are real. They are reliving what just happened to them. So many of them, tens of thousands of them, lost their homes and so many lost their lives. It was a privilege but it was a challenge emotionally.
How receptive were the Georgians to have you come in and do this film, knowing it’s a film that’s going to recreate this horrific event which just happened in their lives?
They were extremely receptive. They felt so frustrated that the world didn’t really know much at all about this war and they felt really honestly, so misportrayed by the international media that they felt this was an incredible chance for them to really have a Hollywood movie come to their little country, tell their story and hopefully after this movie, at least a few more people know where Georgia is located at and know what a beautiful country it is.
That’s one of the things that I took note of at the beginning when you open the film in Georgia with Anders and Ganz flying over it, depicting this beautiful, quaint, old European town and it’s just gorgeous. Then we see this beauty being destroyed.
That was really my goal because when I did my research and travelled around the country, it really struck me. You think of an ex-Soviet republic and you think of it’s going to be all dark and depressing. But in this case, we’re talking about a Mediterranean country with vineyards and people growing fruits and living in these very picturesque towns and cities. The culture, the architecture that is thousands of years old, and all the churches. It was so beautiful. That was my first goal was, “I have to get across to people what a beautiful place this is.”
What did you personally take away from this film?
For me, it was a chance to rediscover myself and feel this sense of rejuvenation. I had been doing a lot of Hollywood films and enjoyed it very much but was really kind of seeking something new, something more challenging, something more satisfying. To be able to tell this story, be in this real place and real locations, and wake up in the morning not just on my way to create “a scene” but to create a scene that can have an impact on the people that it’s telling a story about, and also people that are going to watch this, it just gave me a huge sense of satisfaction and new purpose. It added a lot of passion in my arsenal of tricks. Hopefully, it will elevate the work that I’m going to be doing in the future.
Do you have anything on your plate upcoming?
I’ve actually written a couple of things. I feel like that’s one thing that Georgia also did for me. I feel like instead of waiting for somebody to offer me something, I’ve created my own stories; some of them reality based. One story is particularly interesting. It’s a book that I’ve optioned called “Master of War.” War, war again! “Master of War” is by Suzanne Simons who is an executive producers at CNN. She wrote a book about Eric Prince who was the founder of Blackwater. It’s reality based but spectacular and intriguing and unbelievable story about somebody who just decided to start their own army and now has created the biggest private army in the world; and how that effects everything that is going on in this world. Itfs pretty breathtaking.
I am so thrilled to see the old Renny Harlin back on screen. 5 DAYS OF WAR is one of my top picks of the year. There’s so much humanity and it’s so well done.
That’s just wonderful. Thank you so much. Thank you for your kind words. You’ve made my day.
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