Hollow Man: Americans Miss The Point Yet Again

     It is no secret that Paul Verhoeven is my favourite director, and I make no secret of the fact that the only film I have ever been guilty of looking forward to more than Hollow Man was 1999's The Phantom Menace. Hollow Man was released in Australia on August 24 (I caught the first session at my local theatre) to what can be described as lukewarm critical reception, much like most other films Verhoeven has directed. Before the Australian theatrical release, the comments from some American critics could be considered to be downright pathetic, often amounting to little more than "Hollow Man is a crap film because Paul Verhoeven directed Showgirls". Of course, what these critics seem to forget is that the 1995 disaster that purported to be about the dark underbelly of Las Vegas entertainment was more the fault of writer Joe Eszterhas, a fact reflected by Verhoeven's refusal to work with him on another film. This, friends and neighbours, is one critically important point that critics seem all too eager to forget when dissing Hollow Man: Paul Verhoeven works best with a good writer. While Gary Scott Thompson and Andrew W. Marlowe certainly aren't as bad at writing a film as Eszterhas, they are nowhere near as great as Verhoeven's regular collaborator, Edward Neumeier (Robocop, Starship Troopers). However, the worst, and most inept, comment I have read about this film to date was one I found by Tim Pegler on the Village Cinema site: "Ultimately, for all the impressive effects you can't beat a strong story and on this count Hollow Man has an empty ring." Nothing could be further from the truth when you have your eyes and ears open, but I will get to what Hollow Man holds for those who view it this way in a second. Granted, Hollow Man is not without its flaws: the ending is a confused Hollywood-friendly mess, and the film spends too much time focusing on voyeurism instead of the more extravagant, indulgent things one would expect an amoral man to do when invisible. However, the second of these flaws is also partly what elevates this film above the rest of the films that attempt to tell a story about an invisible man: no cheesy comedy, no attempts to be an invisible philosopher, just a sad story about what happens when a man with shaky morals loses the accountability that keeps him in his place, as high and powerful as that place may be to begin with.

    That is exactly what Hollow Man has been turned into by Verhoeven's direction: a dissection of what happens when an amoral society gets hold of a technology that removes such pseudo-moral safeguards as the fear of being seen. To understand what I mean by that, it is necessary to delve into what passes for values and morals in the mind of the average American, so please consider yourself advised if such a topic may offend you. It is no secret that a large section of the American populace believes that the Christian Bible is true, word for word, and considers it a document upon which to base a system of morals. Despite what these people will tell you to the contrary, this results in amorality. After all, how can you have morals when you're basing every moral decision you make upon ravings contained in a book that basically says "do this and don't do that or some angry, scary, omniscient monster will torment you for centuries"? Not that belief in the Bible is required to be without morals, but Hollow Man cleverly sidesteps this issue by presenting an anti-hero with what appears, during the film's opening sequences, to be a minor god complex. Because Sebastian Caine (Kevin Bacon) is able to get from A to D without needing to go through the B and C of the equation, he believes that he cannot break the law because he is the law. A similar attitude is not only found in the Bible, but it was also the attitude that caused America's industrial downfall (a favourite subject of Neumeier's, in fact), among many other things. This attitude is compounded when he suddenly finds himself invisible, and begins to explore the things he can do that others cannot because of the mere fact that they will be seen doing it. It is very important to understand that those with stronger morals would not indulge in the activities which Caine seemingly revels in, although the changes in genetic structure necessary to make a human being invisible obviously will take their toll on one's emotional health eventually. The end result is an interesting work of fiction based upon what a man without morals will do when he is given seemingly unlimited power, and what he will do to those who threaten to take it away. This is the point which many critics have missed, American critics in particular because of their inability to cope with such a well-structured critique of the society they live in.

     This brings me to the point I would like to make in addressing Columbia Tristar Home Video about this classic film that I am sure will be vindicated by time, and it is one that could really impress me if it is caught by the distributor. Previous Paul Verhoeven films that have made their way to Region 4 DVD have been given garishly bad treatment, to put it nicely. Starship Troopers is the worst of the lot, with one of the most amusing and informative commentary tracks of all time being omitted, and the film broken in half at what would have to qualify as the worst possible point in the film. The fact that the film is distributed in Australia by Touchstone Pictures is entirely irrelevant because it was made on TriStar Picture's nickel - were this a film I paid for the production of, I would have dumped Touchstone as a distributor and taken my business elsewhere, just as Metro Goldwyn-Mayer have done with Warner Home Video. Robocop, which qualifies as one of the best Christ themes ever committed to film, second only to the likes of Star Wars, is not even available in Region 4 yet, in spite of there being two different versions available in Region 1. Total Recall has fared the best out of Paul Verhoeven's films as far as Region 4 distribution is concerned, being widely available in its original uncut theatrical version. This is faint praise, however, as the DVD version still lacks any good supplements of any kind, especially a commentary track, and it suffers from a disturbing audio glitch during one of its most photogenic moments. This is to say nothing of the fact that, like Robocop, Verhoeven's collaborations with the misogynistic Joe Eszterhas, namely Basic Instinct and Showgirls, are completely unavailable in Australia. In the interests of continually improving their image in my eyes, however, the following is a suggested list of extras for Columbia Tristar Home Video to include on the Region 4 DVD version of Hollow Man:

Commentary track
I cannot stress enough how important a commentary is to the enjoyment of a Paul Verhoeven film. The commentary he provides with screenwriter Edward Neumeier and producer Jon Davison on the Region 1 Criterion Collection edition of Robocop is my first choice for the best of all time. It is that good because it offers an insight into the state of America at the time the film was made, on an industrial, artistic, and political level, as well as the sheer absurdity of MPAA guidelines at the time. For the Region 4 DVD release of Hollow Man, I want a commentary track by Paul Verhoeven, preferably with some involvement from Kevin Bacon, considering how much insight he would have to reveal about the difficulties of acting in more than half of a film while covered in blue paint.

Trailers - I want all of them
In case the above heading doesn't make it clear enough, I want all the trailers that were used in the film's publicity campaign, with the theatrical trailer taking top priority. The image of an invisible Kevin Bacon washing his face while commenting about how amazing it is what you can do when you don't have to look at yourself in the mirror anymore would have sold the film to me by itself if not for the fact that Paul Verhoeven directed it. The trailers that I am aware of so far are one theatrical trailer, and three television spots. I want all of them, as well as any others that I might have missed.

Isolated Music Score, preferably with some commentary or annotation by Jerry Goldsmith
When I reviewed Total Recall a while ago, I made no secret of the fact that I was less than impressed with Jerry Goldsmith's performance as a score composer. His performance on Hollow Man is different, because the film is more suited to his dramatic style. I would like to hear an isolated score music track, preferably with some kind of commentary or annotation as to the techniques and stylistic concerns he went into the project with.

Special effects featurette(s)
As George Lucas proved on The Phantom Menace, any idiot can use CGI to add textures and elements to a film. In Hollow Man, Paul Verhoeven and his crew proved that it takes real genius to use CGI to completely remove textures and elements from the film. Kevin Bacon apparently spent more than three quarters of the film's production schedule coated in blue make-up or paint so that he could be removed from the final image in post-production. I want to see how Bacon was removed from the finished image and replaced with images of his vascular, muscular, and skeletal systems. I want to know how much time he spent being made up, and how the infra-red shots were accomplished. Additionally, I would like to see how the effects in the pool scene were accomplished, as well as what was involved in designing the opening title sequence.

Cast And Crew Biographies
I want comprehensive biographies for the cast and crew, and this especially applies to director Paul Verhoeven. I want to see a biography that mentions where he was born, when he was born, all the films he made in Holland before coming to America in order to make Robocop, and which distributor I should complain to about their lack of availability. I would also like to see a biography of composer Jerry Goldsmith, complete with a listing of the other films that he has worked on.

Deleted Scenes - preferably with commentary
According to reliable sources, Hollow Man had no end of problems getting past the MPAA with an R rating, which only serves to further highlight the absurdity of the American system. I want to see exactly what scenes were taken out of the original cut, and why. I want to hear commentary as to why the scenes in question were deleted, and what the crew thought of the cuts. If it is at all possible, I would like to see these deleted scenes re-integrated with the film via seamless branching, so I can enjoy the film without having a mob of uptight Americans telling me what I can and can't see in a film that I paid good money for.

A Separate Extras Disc
The sell-through version of Fight Club that is available in Region 1 at the present time, and will hopefully be available here soon, contains enough extras to fill two DVDs. Rather than overcompressing the film to fit all of those extras, Fox have done the smart thing and placed all of the extras bar the commentary tracks on a separate DVD. Considering how much time and effort it would take to illustrate how all of the special effects shots were accomplished in this film, I would like to see any featurettes on this subject placed on a separate disc, even with Columbia Tristar's reputation for producing the most transparently compressed discs taken into account. Given how high the demands of the special effects sequences in this film are, especially in the final quarter of the film, I want the bitrate of the transfer to be as high as the size of the film and the soundtracks will allow.

© Dean McIntosh (my bio sucks... read it anyway)
August 27, 2000.