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A Glimpse of Filmmaking; Strong Script Brings Caan, Leonard to N.S. for TV Movie
by Andrea Namentz
Halifax Herald
December 21, 2000
ON APRIL 19, 1989 an explosion in gun turret two of the battleship USS Iowa in the waters off the coast of Puerto Rico killed 47 sailors.
The navy initially blamed Clayton Hartwig, one of the dead sailors, who was reputed to be gay. Hartwig was later exonerated.
Glimpse of Hell, a Fox television movie based on the true story of the explosion, began shooting on Nov. 20 at the naval dockyard in Dartmouth, continued lensing in Halifax and Cow Bay and is scheduled to wrap filming at Burnside soundstages Tour Tech East and Cinesite on Friday.
Glimpse is being helmed by Los Angeles-based producer Mitch Engel and director Mikael Salomon.
"If it was just a story that was made up I wouldn't have been as interested," says James Caan, who plays the USS Iowa's captain, Fred Moosally.
"We didn't talk to NIS (naval intelligence service), so we only heard one side of the story, but it appears to be a big embarrassment for the navy."
Caan, who was the formidable Sonny Corleone in the Godfather trilogy, smiles winningly as he offers a chilled reporter a cup of coffee during an interview in his trailer at the Naval Dockyard in Dartmouth, while waiting to be called to the wind-whipped set.
"I could portray Capt. Moosally as a mad captain, but really he is a navy guy," explains Caan.
"His whole life is the navy. His dream was to be an admiral and he was in line for rear-admiral, but after his testimony at the senate hearings his career was over.
"If it was an accident his ass would be in a sling, but if it was an act of vengeance by Hartwig, he would be vindicated. But he (Moosally) did the right thing.
"You have to remember that even 10 or 12 years ago if you were gay they would string you up. It made Clinton go to the don't ask, don't tell policy."
Also starring in Glimpse of Hell is Robert Sean Leonard (Last Days of Disco, Swing Kids) who plays Lt. Dan Meyers.
"My character is very new and eager to gain promotion," says Leonard, while waiting for his next scene on HMCS Provider, a 168-metre long Canadian naval operational support ship, where many of the interior scenes are being filmed.
"Pretty soon after his arrival there is a disaster on board. The navy has one version, he has another and he fights to get the truth out."
The tall, dark and handsome 31-year-old actor says he was attracted by the strong story and powerful script, a rarity in Hollywood. Leonard's dad, who was scheduled to arrive on set on Dec. 8, was in the navy for four years in the '50s, but Leonard had no personal military experience.
"It's a tough part to play as an actor because the person you're playing is acting as well. It's also in the unnatural atmosphere of the military where everyone is emotionally guarded," explains Leonard, noting shooting on the ship is difficult because of the narrow passageways and doorways.
And then there's the cold, which is physically draining on top of the emotional demands of the part. Still, says Leonard, the atmosphere on set has been relaxed, though the hours are long.
"We're on the set from 7 a.m. to 9 or 10 at night and when we're not here we're sleeping. I'm always amazed at people who have affairs on set. I don't know where they find the time."
Shooting a TV movie means a shorter schedule, and not as much waiting around on set as in a feature film.
"In 12 hours on a film set we shoot two pages of script, here we knock out five or six in a day," Leonard says noting he is using his time between takes to do research for his next project, a New York production of a Tom Stoppard play called the Invention of Love, by reading the works of poet A.E. Houseman.
Neither Caan nor Leonard have been to Halifax before, but both are impressed by the area.
New York-born Caan, who now lives in Park City, Utah, is particularly impressed by the fantastic seafood in Halifax and enjoyed dining at da Maurizio's.
Both actors clearly remember the 1989 incident on which the film is based and which is burned into Engel's memory.
"When I read the script, I said oh that's the two gay sailors who blew up the turret," says Engel, who became addicted to butter tarts early in the 26-day shoot.
"Then I read about what really happened. I was upset to learn I was never told the truth about what happened. It was a big lie put out by the navy corrected by a tiny whisper and I never heard the whisper.
"It is absolutely unforgivable what the government did covering it up, blaming a sailor who was dead, whose passion was the navy. This movie goes a long way to telling the story of the event a little more even-handedly."
Close to 200 cast and crew, including many Nova Scotians, are working on the film which has a bigger than average budget for a TV movie, though Engel won't reveal the exact figure. It will air on the FX Cable network in U.S. in March, but has not yet been sold to a Canadian distributor.
Among the local actors involved are Jeremiah Sparks, Jamie Sparks, Tara Doyle, John Dunsworth (who plays Hartwig's father), Andrew MacVicar, Jennifer Overton, Christopher Shore, Cherie Devanney and Hugh Thompson, who plays Lt. Cmdr. Gil, an amalgam of several executive officers.
"My function as executive officer is to be next in line to James' character," explains Thompson, an Antigonish native who was Buddy on CBC's Black Harbour. "So I get to spend a lot of time with him. Robert Sean Leonard's character is just below in the pecking order, so I've learned a lot from them by osmosis. They are major hitters as actors and are both very funny guys and very approachable.
"Mikael, the director, is a very accomplished director of photography (he was cinematographer on Backdraft and Always) and Mitch is always making faces at us to make us laugh.
Thompson, who bought a house in Nova Scotia in May, says the movie is not about the U.S. per se, but about human beings.
Local actors Gord Gammie and Val McDow are stand-ins for Caan and Leonard respectively.
Production designer Roy Smith of Marina del Rey, Calif., was recruited for the film by Engel with whom he worked on The Hunley, a movie about a submarine that was built in Charleston during the civil war.
Smith says the local construction crew have been outstanding - "as good as any one you'd find in Hollywood or New York".
"The exterior of the Provider looks nothing like a battleship, Canadian or American so we used it for interiors only, for crew quarters, the bridge and the wardroom, the captain's stateroom, the passageways and so on.
"We built a big piece of the battleship deck with 26-foot guns on the edge of a cliff at Cow Bay. It's all made out of wood and it's incredible.
"The interior of the turret, a seven-storey structure from top to bottom, crammed with men, is really the Glimpse of Hell, and was built at Tour Tech Studios.
"The last day of filming we'll have the explosion in the turret and we'll have to create the illusion without blowing up the structure."
Larry Seaquist, who was captain aboard the Iowa before the explosion and is on set as a technical advisor says he is impressed at the attention to detail on the production.
"They can't reproduce every piece exactly, but the audience will see a very realistic, accurate portrait not only of the ship and sailors, but of the event.
"The story is not about an antique ship, but about a very modern warship with a crew of the finest men in the U.S. navy and what happened when they ran into a disaster and the leaders didn't take care of them," says Seaquist, who has left the navy and has his own Washington, D.C.-based company called The Strategy Group, devoted to conflict prevention.
"There were 1,500 men and woman aboard the ship and hopefully the film will not only be very entertaining but will move the American government to apologize to the crew and the families of the 47 who died."
