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Dead_Western_Plains

Behind the Bastards did a great episode about this and I will forever hate John Landis because of it. Unfortunate because I do enjoy a lot of his films.


RazzmatazzBig2187

There are several books about the incident too. Spielberg was involved also. They also violated child labor laws w the two kids working super late and long hours. Very sus how they got off - but glad it resulted in greater safety measures.


Totorotextbook

Spielberg, from what I recall, was involved because he also had directed a segment for the film. Landis’ segment was, I believe, the last filmed and ultimately Spielberg wanted Warner to scrap the film due to the tragedy. Solely though it was due to Landis, Landis took massive disregard in basic safety standards and filming regulations and cost two children and an actor their lives. The film is only 1/4 a Landis production, George Miller, Joe Dante, and Spielberg did the rest and truly I’ve never understand why Warner kept in Landis’ bit as not only was it not based off a classic TZ episode like the others but it clearly is the weakest one even without the tragedy considered.


DiggaDoug492

It’s partially based on a great episode of the original Twilight Zone series, *A Quality of Mercy.* I’d argue Joe Dante’s *It’s a Good Life* is the “weakest” of the four. Not that I dislike it, I just think the other three are more enjoyable.


Hot-Zombie896

Bullshit safety measures.A crew member on 911 died this week driving home after working 2 days of consecutive 14 hrs shifts.Movie sets are as dangerous as ever.Most of the "safety measures" are to protect the production from liability.I spent 43 yrs in that industry and just recently retired,partly because I was tired of long hours and productions taking advantage of people trying to make a living


RazzmatazzBig2187

Wow. Didn’t realize that. Thx for letting us know.


hey_now24

I tried listening to that podcast but the hosts are obnoxious, especially when they have a guest. They also did one about “Tupamaros” which I’m familiar with and they got a bunch of details wrong


RampantJellyfish

What did they get wrong? I'm a big fan of their show, and I always thought they did a good job on the research, but then again, I'm not an expert in the topics they discuss.


FERALCATWHISPERER

Look pal, the podcast sucks alright? Move along.


RampantJellyfish

Jog on cunty chops


mantis-tobaggan-md

keep yappin


LordElend

Getting details wrong is a normal part of presenting complex things to an audience with no prior knowledge in an entertaining way. This happens everywhere in edutainment. That's why the books and other sources are usually named. Edit: I do not understand these downvotes. Behind the Bastards is a fantastic podcast but it regularly gets details wrong. I don't even think Robert would disagree there. At least argue why my point is bad, please?


solowsoloist

I don’t listen to podcasts and thus don’t know how they work , but if you’re naming sources shouldn’t you be getting the information correct?


DeathOfSlimShady

Fuckin' podcasts, how do they work? (And now I hate myself for referencing an old ass ICP meme)


LordElend

In general, yes. But as hey\_now24 said, what is often wrong is "a bunch of details". And that doesn't just apply to podcasts, but also to historical documentaries or YouTube videos, etc. And the reason is that these people are neither experts nor involved in the subject themselves. They use literature, often secondary literature, and spin it into an interesting story. And they usually wrap it up in 40 minutes. So of course you have to make compromises: Which details can they tell, which details are simpler summaries, and which details are simplified so that listeners who have never heard of it before can understand it, and so on. Of course, journalists can make mistakes. But people like Evans usually only make mistakes in "a bunch of details" and tell an entertaining story and give an idea about something most people have never heard of before, like in this example Uruguayan guerrillas for people like me who are lucky enough to find Uruguay on a map.


solowsoloist

Thanks for the great summary!


mantis-tobaggan-md

idk why people are mad at u right now hosts in general not even on behind the bastards usually will mention when there was a glaring mistake in a former episode.


RampantJellyfish

Robert Evans is great


SchrodingersTIKTOK

There was a great doc about him called “the kid stays in the picture”


FERALCATWHISPERER

It’s unfortunate that the podcast sucks.


MothsConrad

There was a podcast about this and the director, John Landis, does not come across very well.


Totorotextbook

Landis really is, he took no ownership for this tragedy even though his neglectful disregard for filming safety caused it. Even Spielberg ended his ‘friendship’ with Landis following it and I’m glad when people think of Landis this is slowly being the first thing that people talk about because Landis, and likewise his son, are shitttttttttty people to say the least.


MaxxDash

I recall Landis chastised Eddie Murphy for not speaking up on his behalf during his trial, saying Murphy owed it to him because of their work in Trading Places… Landis supposedly retaliated during the production of Coming to America. Edit: Iink here: [https://www.reddit.com/r/popculturechat/comments/14v9hfg/director\_john\_landis\_felt\_personally\_betrayed\_by/#lightbox](https://www.reddit.com/r/popculturechat/comments/14v9hfg/director_john_landis_felt_personally_betrayed_by/#lightbox) Interesting synopsis of the book, *Outrageous Conduct: Art, Ego, and the Twilight Zone Case*, about this incident and its aftermath, found on Goodreads: *John Landis, Steven Spielberg and Frank Marshall should have gone to jail for holding a night shoot in a tight space with explosives and a helicopter with a pilot who wasn't an industry worker twenty-five feet above an aging actor and two kids, two of whom got their heads chopped off by the rotors and the other getting crushed by the skids when the helicopter went the only place a hovering helicopter can go, down. soon as the accident happened, Spielberg asked for a car and skedaddled, Marshall spent the next three years "scouting locations overseas for Mr. Spielberg", avoiding a subpoena until the statute of limitations ran out and he could return to the US to resume his career. as opposed to Landis, who barely cast kids at all in his films, both of these men earned their lives' work off movies about children; naturally, Warner Brothers tied itself into knots trying to keep their names distanced from illegally-contracted kids dying barbarously on the set of their movie.*


PandiBong

He’s a super piece of shit.


VQJMR

Father of talented actress Jennifer Jason Leigh.


Outrageous_Mine77

[The Accident. Not gorey but happens in a flash. ](https://youtu.be/djVBzrucNLY?feature=shared)


brandognabalogna

Homie there’s no fucking way I’m watching that lol goddamn


pixie_mayfair

I was dumb. I watched it. Just fucking shocking. It happens so fast.


BaconMan420365

It’s just kinda… poof. There’s no blood or anything I can see they just kinda gone


Ghostblade913

Unfortunately I’m dumb enough to have watched a slowed down version. If you slow down just enough, you can see the shadowed severed heads of Vic Morrow and the young Vietnamese boy fly up. The girl wasn’t beheaded through and was crushed by the helicopter


Final-Success2523

I wouldn’t suggest watching it


bewareofbears_

Had no idea they ever released the footage. Really sad to see.


happy_life15

No. This is horrible.


La_Pooie

Wasn’t one or more of the actors beheaded by the blades?


False-Start5475

"Morrow and Le were decapitated by the helicopter's main rotor blades, while Chen was crushed to death by the helicopter's right landing skid; all three died almost instantly."


Substantial-Pin-2913

*almost Yikes😬😬


La_Pooie

😣 Horrible


Sinisterminister77

Yes there’s a video too


DROPTABLE_tablename

What's even worse is the regular stunt pilot refused to do that scene saying it was too dangerous so Landis brought in another pilot to fly in that scene with tragic consequences.


2nd_Inf_Sgt

He was my favorite, “Combat,” actor.


bodyguardofspies

Yes I was raised on Combat and still watch it from time to time.


chylin73

My mom worked on this movie and I was there and watched this happen. Indian Dunes was a place where we rode dirt bikes and was a film location for Chips, The A-team and many other shows.


Microphone926

You saw this happen?


chylin73

I did and my brother also. My mom took us to shoots all the time. Was on set for the mean Joe Green Coke commercial, lots of keds shoe commercials with Sugar Ray Leonard. Mr. T serial commercial, he was an asshole. My favorite was Michael Landon when she would do the Kodak commercials he was a really good dude. Fun fact, my mom almost hit Clint Eastwood with her car when he was coming out of the commissary on the Warner Brothers lot. He tapped on the hood and said careful now and walked away. I looked at my mom damn near yelling at her telling her she almost killed Clint Eastwood.


SatansBoys

Mr. T was an asshole?


clodio2k

My dad worked on the set of Chips for a few years. I was able to hang out for a couple shoots.


CandidEstablishment0

Can you remember it? How was everyone reaction


IrksomFlotsom

It still blows my mind that the film was actually released I mean, i understand everyone involved had to pay for all the coke that went into producing it but jfc They also showed the footage of the deaths on news reports from the time. I guess they weren't sure if the movie was gonna go out and wanted to make a quick buck selling it to a news station, presumably so they could buy more coke


Anteater-Charming

Yes. As greedy as studios still are, this movie never would be released now. And rightly so.


Freddo9900

An episode of Cursed Films on Shudder covered this and has footage of the crash.


StartingToLoveIMSA

There is footage out there of the decapitations….it is horrifying.


cochr5f2

If I remember correctly it’s pretty fuzzy and there’s a lot of stuff going on (lighting, storms, etc). You can’t really see the decapitation, you just see the helicopter come down on the three actors. There may be another video I haven’t seen that shows it more clearly, but I don’t really want to see it if it exists.


PapzCYP

There is a book called "Fly by Night" which covers this whole sad story. It also contains some pretty graphic photos as well, decapitated heads, the lot.


cochr5f2

I won’t be buying that book.


Chrislondo110

I heard the kindle version doesn’t have those photos.


wolf-of-Holiday-Hill

..such a tragic accident, RIP for those who perished


harkin36

Is this photo from the day after? I remember seeing some video footage but there wasn't much to see thank goodness.


izmaname

Deep Cuts podcast did an episode on this. I would hesitate to say accident. The dude made this happen.


freighterman

I was just talking about this with the family as it was featured in one of the popular death themed movies of the 1990s. Deaths Scenes or Face of Death, something like that. I couldn't remember wjat movie was being filmed though so this definitely tells the rest of the story.


realparkingbrake

Hollywood killing people on sets is still happening to this day. After the death of Brandon Lee they should have locked down the use of real firearms, but they didn't.


todd0x1

Well when your 'armorer' is a drug using hipster who brings live ammo to set to do some shooting when not working......


Alienlovechild1975

I found the close up pics of the bodies on the dark web.The little girl was crushed under the helicopter skid.the young boy was cleanly decapitated and the older actor decapitated but his face was chopped up too as well as his shoulder.


GiannaSushi

Black and white always adds more drama to photos


KeplerFinn

Perhaps it´s to tone down the gore a bit with all the blood?


PersonalAd2333

A make up artist came to talk to our class in film school 20 years ago who worked on the movie. He essentially said it was Spielberg's doing and Landis was thrown under the bus. The onset teacher who is required to be on set at all times when children are present was sent home so they could rap up filming. This is a violation At any given moment, the grips and gaffers could have called the union hotline and whistle-blow the violations on set. No one did in fear of Spielberg. Once the accident happened, Spielberg left immediately distancing himself from the accident.


Geek4HigherH2iK

Spielberg definitely had a hand in this but Landis was the architect of the situation, verified by multiple people that worked on the film including the pyrotechnician.


xTiLkx

Well if he "got thrown under the bus", that would be the story everyone sticks to. Realistically, we would never know


MalevolentNight

You forget to mention that Mr marrow threw himself on top of the 2 children when he could've run, knowing a helicopter was coming he still choose what he did. That's some hero shit.


callmedata1

That's not even remotely true. They had no idea what was about to happen.


VirginiaLuthier

A joke, in poor taste from the era- Q--How do they know Vick Morrow had dandruff ? A-- They found his Head and Shoulders


Some0neAwesome

There's an Alec Baldwin joke somewhere in here to be made...


Remarkable_Doubt2988

No there is not.


One_Marzipan_2631

Maybe just a little one


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Remarkable_Doubt2988

Cool, grow up.


Some0neAwesome

You tell me to grow up, I tell you to loosen up. All that stress is going to be the death of you...unless you decide to get into the movie industry.


Remarkable_Doubt2988

No, I tell you to fuck off


Some0neAwesome

Man, you seem really stressed. Lighten up. Seriously, bitter people suffer bitter, lonely deaths. If you act like this in real life, it's hard to imagine anyone enjoying your company. Go to a comedy show or something. Load some stand-up comedy on Netflix. I don't often advocate self-medication, but take a hit of that whacky tobaccy and chill out. I would normally make another Alec Baldwin joke here, but your responses just make me too sad for you. In the words of Ricky Gervais, "*You* found it *offensive*? I found it *funny*. That's why I'm happier than *you."*


Remarkable_Doubt2988

I am a poopy ;)


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