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A Look Back with Writer/Director Rik Wambaugh:
The movie "Drag" was originally meant to be an experiment in abstract
scriptwriting and deadpan humor. However, due to the vengeful wrath of the
film-making gods and other higher powers, it was instead transformed into
an experiment in surviving freak extremes of weather and climate. Being as it
was a Ved Bok production, there were, of course, setbacks of every nature
and mishaps of all kinds, but through all the relentless windstorms, the
freezing temperatures and the unending beating that the lens of the camera
took from that cosmic abomination that hangs over our heads, the sun, there
was one thing that helped us stay on task and get the project done. That
invaluable item was a sense of fun.
No matter how hard that bitch, mother nature, tried to foil our frequent
filming attempts, we always faced the situation with a smile and a laugh
(this was, of course, sometimes indirectly due to the resemblance that Ben
and I bore to 70's porn stars). Had we been a group of serious-minded
intellectuals, bent on creating a visual masterpiece, our spirits and our
interpersonal bonds would have surely been fractured by the onslaught of
failures. But seeing as how we were only serious-minded intellectuals bent
on creating a film that might make someone laugh, we were able to persevere
and come out stronger as well as wiser.
Jack Cameron, a friend of mine who portrayed Dr. Mica, summed up the
frustration and difficulty we all felt during shooting when he said, "Why
couldn't we just do Shakespeare? At least it would be indoors." Now, had
we actually done a Shakespeare production at that period of time, it
certainly would have been something to laugh at, but not in a good way.
No, despite the problems that came along with shooting outdoors and directing a
movie that I was acting in, I had no intention of re-hashing something
that's been as overdone as a steak at Lucifer's fourth of July barbecue. I
was interested only in originality and humor. The viewer will notice that
there is very little social commentary, hardly any dramatic irony, and
absolutely no on-screen action; many of the things that conventional movies
are loaded with. All of this was intentional, not only because of a
shoestring budget, but also due to a conscious limitation of distractions.
Distraction from the real core of the movie, the very thing that makes it
interesting and unique: It's characters.
Drag's characters are at once loveable miscreants and pictures of pure
fantasy. They demand the viewer's attention, if for only seconds at a
time, simply to make him wonder what's going to be said next. The reason that
the characters grab the audience's attention so easily is simple; because they
remind us of ourselves. They illustrate all the extremes of both the
plutonic and sexual relationship; cooperation, communication and love, on
the one hand. And anger, bitterness and lust on the other, all the
components that lay dormant inside every human being until they're needed,
like the Army Reserves, sitting on their asses, waiting to be called upon.
This common link between ourselves and the oddballs on-screen allows us to
suspend our disbelief of the unusual situations exhibited in the film, and
lets us be drawn into the upside-down world of the film's two mislead,
nicotine-craving protagonists. It lets us keep our pants down,
so-to-speak, so that we may all receive the deep and enlightening fingering that is the
message behind Drag's flimsy surface, and it's a message we can all relate
to at one time or another: Love really fucks things up.
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