The Man Who Sued God [DVD]

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She always was ready for the things I would do in a scene and that is terribly impressive. I like her very much as a person - I like talking to her about life. I don’t speak to actors, directors or producers about drama. I want to know where they come from, who their parents are, how they met their husbands … I like to work at that human level, not on a technical level.” Mrs Brown showed Billy Connolly in an entirely different light, showing that he could play a character. Immediately he seemed the ideal person. Steve (Billy Connolly) sees his boat blown up by lightening and the insurance company won't pay up, citing the Act Of God defense against the claim. THE MAN WHO SUED GOD is a film about the universal experience of hypocrisy and injustice fought by an ordinary person who takes on the corporate sharks. Bridie wrote the lyrics about a lost boat in the sea, and his father translated them into French. After the main title, the music segues into their “third attempt at the opening music cue”, a piano oboe guitar driven piece).

For the 28’05” headland scene between Davis and Connolly, Bridie says they called the cue “Aphex Twin” because the rhythm layers underneath it sounded a bit like the Sheffield band. He used a piano, accordion, valve mikes and layers of programming underneath to get an organic feel, a technique he used for quite a few of the film’s cues. I loved the title of the film and the basic premise, but I did feel there were bits about the script that were too cutesy pie for me - a bit too nice guy and comfy. I had a meeting with Mark in Lose Angeles, who was delighted that I was interested, and brought Judy with him. I don’t think she said anything to me at all, but I was deeply impressed because I’ve loved her work for a long time and she was such a star,” he explains.When around the 78 minute mark, Connolly’s character gets upset at his treatment by the media, he does so in a location which was near the Rivendell courtroom set. as became the practice at the time, the stars and shooting star were added later by CGI. The dog looked up to the heavens because he knew that Connolly had a treat for him.

When events happen that are not within predictable range, and there seems nothing for it but accept it as an act of god, many people accept it as inevitable. That's well and good for little things, but not when the event is ruinous, destructive or major. And especially when it's an event that causes a loss' where that loss was covered by insurance. In dealing with corporations in the modern life you spend a lot of time on the phone listening to recorded music and pressing buttons - it is one of the great sources of tension. Our hero, Steve Myers, is an antidote to that. The film is about the faceless world we live in and, I guess, taking on God who is the most faceless of all. Newscaster Cameo: Chris Bath (one of the better-known Seven Network News Journalists) appears as a newsreader. Credits begin rolling up over the aerial wide shot of the bay, and the beach, the boat now in the far distance as it heads out to sea) According to Joffe, he and the cast spent two weeks in rehearsals, working up the script and ironing out any issues.Some may claim Billy has himself become an establishment figure, and other reviewers here have been harsh on his failure to "ram home" the assault on the churches. I think we all know Billy's opinion on the Catholic church in which he was raised, but he chooses in this film to leave a little bit there for those who like to still hold on to the mysteries. However, he does lampoon the religious fanatics who consider that they and they alone have a hot-line to God and they are the sole custodians of absolute truth. Firstly, I did enjoy 'The man who sued God'. Billy Connolly is excellent, his wit and charm is on display throughout the film and it is very, very, funny, most of the time. A lot of the humour is visual – a dog flung above a jetty, Judy Davis as Anna falling into the sea, Anna and Steve's first meeting in a restaurant. Then there's Connolly who has an nicely mad, every man, quality exuding from him that manages to grab humour out of even a hideously pierced foot. Now no doubt there are good legal reasons why the above couldn't happen although it's usual that whenever theology gets bantered about the arguments never seem to make much real sense. From an early stage the stars, Billy Connolly and Judy Davis, contributed greatly to the final product. They were both involved in developing their characters and tweaking dialogue. According to Joffe, he and Gannon were single-minded in their pursuit of Connolly once they had latched on to the idea of him. “I thought he was perfect for the part; irreverent, a smart actor. We needed someone that had lived a bit of a life, not a commercially viable 28-year-old. What is gratifying is that a lot of people think the part was written for him.”

The producers licensed the right to remake the film in Hindi for release in India. OMG – Oh My God!, based on the original premise of The Man Who Sued God, with an Indian story and a quite different plotline and altered climax, was released in 2012. OMG was a box office hit in India, and was critically acclaimed. [9] For the record, we do not believe that God ‘sends’ earthquakes, diseases and floods. God, the source of all love, does not send evil things. In the DVD commentary, director Mark Joffe notes that one of the earlier drafts of the script had Billy Connolly’s character nearly drowning in the opening storm sequence, and to save himself from drowning, chopping off his toe. He jokes that to be truthful, the reason they didn’t do it had nothing to do with the concept; it was expediency - they couldn’t afford to go underwater, and do all that, but he doesn’t think it affected the film. Writer Don Watson agrees, though he thinks the drowning scenes were terrific. Joffe adds that the budget for the special effects etc, were astronomical. John Clarke was the writer before Don Watson took up the task, and it was rumoured that Clarke was slated to play the lead role, later played by Billy Connolly. Clarke was notoriously skittish and for some reason it didn’t work out. At one time, director Joffe intended to relocate the story to the United States. Joffe says he found the end song for the film, accompanying the doubles in the boat, a song made popular by the Staples singers.in, the bed gag was done by props people positioned below slamming the bed up towards Billy Connolly, the special effects people not being able to rig it to get the joke to work. Again, because of Davis’s tendency to deliver early in her takes, Joffe recalls that her talk of her memories was done in close up, and take one was the one that made it into the cut. Joffe was all the more impressed because of the difficulty of doing an expository story-telling piece, which began with the line “when I was about ten …” The only spoiler for me was the attempted Scottish accent from Colin Friels. And I couldn't quite figure out the plot twist that had two Scots sons following their father into the old established family law business but happening to be doing so in Sydney??? The domestic special edition DVD release had good sound and image, and for once for an Australian film, subtitles for the hearing impaired. The film is also available in certain territories on streaming services. Steve (scoffing, Anna laughing): “Huh! (then talking to his dog resting on the bow) Hey Arthur, how do you like the sound of that? Hanoi?”