Rowing on the Big Screen
Sculler 00
Streep (spelling?) and Kevin Bacon there is a beautiful rowing segment.
The movie opens with Merryl rowing a King racing single on the Charles
river. I wonder who the body double was? Apparently Graeme gave her the
option of rowing a Kingfisher instead, but she went with the racing shell.
Anyway, it's a great movie and I recommend you go see it. There's some
crazy whitewater (5+/6) in the movie, too. Enjoy!
Ransom Weaver
I haven't seen the movie, (I'm in Egypt right now) but on my fridge
back in phillyis a photo clipped from the Inquirer or Streep in a van dusen
single. It's definitely her in the picture. perhaps she gave up on learning,
but I suspect it's actually her in the single in the Movie
Ransom
Reliability Ratings
>In the recently released movie entitled "The River Wild" starring Merryl
>Streep (spelling?) and Kevin Bacon there is a beautiful rowing segment.
>The movie opens with Merryl rowing a King racing single on the Charles
>river. I wonder who the body double was? [snip]
She was Liz O'Leary, head coach of Radcliffe Crew (and BRC lightweight
men). Haven't seen the movie yet, but I hear it's a great scene showing
just about the whole river from Watertown down to the Museum of Science.
I actually was out on the water the morning (late summer a few years ago)
that they were filming the scene. I remember rowing by Liz and saying to
my pair partner "look, there's Liz out in her single", and going a few
strokes further to where there was a huge launch with a camera filming
someone dressed just like Liz, and saying "look, there's someone dressed
just like Liz" and not finding out until a few days later that it was
Meryl Streep. :-)
Greg Klingsporn
BRC Lightweight Men
Liz Bradley
> Streep (spelling?) and Kevin Bacon there is a beautiful rowing segment.
> The movie opens with Merryl rowing a King racing single on the Charles
> river. I wonder who the body double was?
Liz O'Leary (late 70s/early 80s era Olympian and current Radcliffe
head coach) is apparently listed in the credits for that movie...maybe
it was her? She's tall and blonde.
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S N Travis
>scul...@aol.com (Sculler 00) writes:
[stuff re Meryl Streep deleted]
If any of you get the chance, check out that wonderful '30s film "A Yank
at Oxford". I'll never forget the scene when in the Boat Race
(for some inexplicable reason held *after* the Mays :-), the American
stroke (and hero) turns round to his crew and says:
"OK lets take it up to 42, boys." Classic...
For the anoraks among you, did anyone spot in the recent film about Tom
Cruise being a lawyer to the mob (can't remember the name), supposedly
set in Boston in the early eighties. ie a few years before the main
action when the hero is still qualifying, that the opening scene showing
a crew rowing long has that crew with Big Blades. Ha! Found Out!
Steve (Masquerading as an anorak)
Geoffrey S Knauth
Boat Club dock last year, taking a few strokes in one of the club
singles, almost all of which are Kings. So my guess is that Merryl
did her own rowing, and that Liz O'Leary coached her.
Geoffrey
li...@peradam.cs.colorado.edu (Liz Bradley) writes:
>> In the recently released movie entitled "The River Wild" starring Merryl
>> Streep (spelling?) and Kevin Bacon there is a beautiful rowing segment.
>> The movie opens with Merryl rowing a King racing single on the Charles
>> river. I wonder who the body double was?
>Liz O'Leary (late 70s/early 80s era Olympian and current Radcliffe
>head coach) is apparently listed in the credits for that movie...maybe
>it was her? She's tall and blonde.
--
Geoffrey S. Knauth, <g...@marble.com> CRASH-B, Cambridge BC
Marble Associates, Inc., (617) 487-0050
Geoffrey S Knauth
>For the anoraks among you, did anyone spot in the recent film about Tom
>Cruise being a lawyer to the mob (can't remember the name), supposedly
>set in Boston in the early eighties. ie a few years before the main
>action when the hero is still qualifying, that the opening scene showing
>a crew rowing long has that crew with Big Blades. Ha! Found Out!
One or two years ago an agent for Tom Cruise borrowed my Harvard
Crew jacket so that TC could wear it in a rowing scene in "The Firm."
This was after I was asked to cox the boat that was filmed, but
couldn't because I had to leave town for my firm. I still have only
seen excerpts of the movie on HBO at various hotels...
Geoffrey
Joe Dane
The film "Indochine" has nothing really to do with rowing, but has at least
two very long scenes centered on rowing. The film in set in early 20th
century Indochina (maybe Vietnam?) and has a race between natives, cox'd
by the father of the lead actress, and a European crew. The natives win it.
I've never seen more rowing in a film that wasn't a training film.
--
Joseph Dane "We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
UC Irvine Physics By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown
da...@nucleus.ps.uci.edu Til human voices wake us, and we drown."
(714)725-2606 T.S. Eliot
STEVEGANTZ
Knauth) writes:
>[M]y guess is that Merryl
>did her own rowing, and that Liz O'Leary coached her.
While Merryl Streep did in fact learn to row so accurate shots of her in a
boat rowing could be filmed, Liz O'Leary was also used as Streep's stunt
double, and I suspect that most of the non-close-up shots are footage of
Liz.
Sculler 00
ron...@andromeda.rutgers.edu (Ronald K. Chen) writes:
>A friend of mine (actually a member of the USRowing Board of
>Directors) says he saw the film and swears that Meryl is using
>Dartmouth oars. Any truth to that rumor?
>
>Ron Chen
>Dartmouth '80
If Dartmouth oars are all green with a white triangle at the end of
the blade then your friend is correct. Forgive me for not recognizing the
Dartmouth blade if that is it; I'm still rowing at the high school level
and as of yet, haven't learned any collegic blades. While we're on the
subject, maybe you know my coach, Joe Holland. He was at Dartmouth in the
early eighties I believe. Ring a bell?
Wells P. Wilson
"Sculler 00"
N L Cemm
basically a love story between a French naval officer and a local girl in French
Indo-China.
Anyway,two eights are shown in a straight knockout race between the French and a
group of locals coached by a French (?) landowner.As far as I could tell,the main
characters do actually row,and the excitement and dynamics of side-by-side racing
were captured quite well.
If you want to see the scene yourself,the producer has done us a favour and put
it right at the beginning of the film.The scene lasts for about 3-4 mins.
---
Nigel.
Leeds.
----------------------------------------------------
| Experience varies directly with equipment ruined |
| -Horner's Five Thumb Postulate. |
----------------------------------------------------
Ronald K. Chen
Directors) says he saw the film and swears that Meryl is using
Ron Chen
Dartmouth '80
--
Ronald K. Chen ron...@andromeda.rutgers.edu
Ass't Professor of Law Rutgers Law School, 15 Washington St.
(201) 648-5160 Newark, NJ 07102
Shark
what the heck qualifies someone as an 'anorak'?!?!
please explain your terminology to a clueless 'yank'...
shark
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
S N Travis (hsp...@bath.ac.uk) wrote:
Rachel Quarrell
On the subject of dodgy cinematic rowing, there's the 1980's classic
"Oxford Blues", starring Rob Lowe, who is (naturally) a champion sculler,
and fights it out with The Baddie in an ancient wooden single over a
course which, from watching the bank scenery, starts south of Oxford going
downstream, doubles back 25 miles to north of Godstow going upstream, and
finishes outside the main boathouses to a roaring crowd, having switched
stations several times. All in less than 3 minutes, and it gets him a
place in the Blue Boat and hundreds of adoring groupy females. Who said
life over here was boring? It is so cut-and-paste that you can see most
of it was filmed with Lowe in a scull held firmly in place by the
camera-launch for the close-ups. If I prod around, maybe I'll be able to
find out who the body double was for the long shots - that is if they
admit to it.... I'm not sure this film has ever been watched outside the
confines of this fair city.
> Steve (Masquerading as an anorak)
which is silly, because everyone knows he's a duffle coat.
With a woggle.
Ha!
Rachel.
Oxford.
Jo Gough
> If I prod around, maybe I'll be able to
> find out who the body double was for the long shots - that is if they
> admit to it.... I'm not sure this film has ever been watched outside the
> confines of this fair city.
>
OUBC, lately seen causing wash in LRC coaching launches.
The director (obviously a perceptive chap) had allocated a mere
morning during which Rob Lowe could learn all he needed to
know about sculling.
Interesting to watch the doubles race closely as the composition of
the crew changes as often as the location. Boris Rankov is easy to
spot 'cos he's the one with the bald patch ! Anyone with a map or a
vague knowledge of geography can have a giggle at the route 'our
hero' takes to get to Oxford - but the best bit has got to be when
he stops to ask directions to Oriel College and is sent on a crazy
goosechase starting from ... Oriel Square !!!
Just how the guys training for the real boat race managed to row badly
enough to look like a dismal college eight is a bit of a puzzle -
perhaps it's because they're wallowing around in the wash from the
camera boat most of the time.
Moral - Never let reality get in the way of a good (?) yarn.
And how do I know all this? - See if you can spot me cheering (or
was it laughing hysterically) on the bank at the end of the race!
Jo Gough
Internet mail: go...@mondas.demon.co.uk
Phone: 44 932 828822
Fax: 44 932 828992
My name is Steven
In article <1994Oct13.1...@leeds.ac.uk>, een...@sun.leeds.ac.uk (N L Cemm) writes...
>Another piece of cinematic rowing is the opening scene from INDOCHINE.This is
>Indo-China.
>
> Anyway,two eights are shown in a straight knockout race between the French and a
>group of locals coached by a French (?) landowner.As far as I could tell,the main
>characters do actually row,and the excitement and dynamics of side-by-side racing
>were captured quite well.
>
> If you want to see the scene yourself,the producer has done us a favour and put
>it right at the beginning of the film.The scene lasts for about 3-4 mins.
>
>---
>Nigel.
>Leeds.
>
6 days of filming in a town in Malaysia. The boats were borrowed from Hong Kong and
all Viet and French rowers in the movie were people recruited in Hong Kong.
We enjoyed the filming very much because we had a chance to row in such a natural
environment and had so many people cheered for us in a 'race'. Moreover, I would
not forget those evenings in a local restaurant where we replenished with the
delicious Chinese crusine.
Anyway, the file got the Oscar Award for the Best Foreign Movie in 1992.
--
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