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The San Francisco Chronicle
DATEBOOK Big Sur Film Emerges From Mists of Time By Peter Stack Nostalgia isn't quite the word for 'Big Sur--the Way It Was,' a trippy documentary that is a surprise little hit among Bohemian types, literati and coastal culture buffs. It features Henry Miller and Big Sur in the turned-on 1960's. The film about one of the most famous of California's artists colonies was little known for 25 years. But it was recently rescued from obscurity and released in a home video version by Endorphin Productions, a small company in Carmel. When the 60 minute tape went on sale in October, copies were snapped up at Monterey Peninsula gift shops, drugstores and book and music retailers. What folks like about 'Big Sur--the Way It Was' is its unassuming, homespun flavor, which captures the style of time and the people, seemingly humbled and yet inspired by the imposing, craggy beauty of the area. The place had a history of independent folk--runaways from Monterey Bay ships, outlaws hiding in the canyons -- long before artists and writers arrived, invoking coastal muses and relishing personal freedom and cheap lodgings. Monterey County film maker Robert Blaisdell, whose documentaries have taken him all over the world, began shooting footage for the film in about 1962. He focused on the area's most notorious celebrity, Henry Miller, and got the late Doug McClure, then the handsome young star of television's 'The Virginian' series, to narrate. Blaisdell fancied that he would have a hot film to distribute on the documentary circuit, but it wasn't to be. Distributors didn't break down the door for a film about mostly unknown Bohemians. Blaisdell's cinematography commitments led to his putting the laid-back Big Sur project on the back burner. In essence, the movie, which Blaisdell edited to 60 minutes, was lost. Blaisdell and Endorphin Productions' Robert Franco, a Pacific Grove film maker, began to digitally remaster the film in 1994, after a long-misplaced good copy was tracked down (the master was 'pretty chewed up,' Blaisdell said). The documentary plays like an old home movie. Miller talks about how he was drawn to the area for 'its hearty life--but it kills off the weak. A lot of people can't take it. It's a wild coast and lonely.' For more information, email us at: bob@earthflix.com |