Movies

5 Perfect Shots With Ben Wheatley

By  · Published on April 21st, 2017

With ‘Free Fire’ hitting theaters this weekend, we enlist director Ben Wheatley in the selection of a few of his favorite Shots.

We’ve been out there stanning for Ben Wheatley’s new movie Free Fire from the moment we laid eyes on the first trailer. In fact, we’d heard rumors and rumblings about it well before that – a cavalcade of reliable voices telling us that this was going to be our kind of movie. When our Victor Stiff reviewed the film at TIFF in 2016, he wasn’t shy with his praise.

This weekend it arrives in a number of theaters around the country and we’re happy that everyone can see it and discuss it. It’s a lot of fun. But in true form, we also like the idea of going deeper with a filmmaker like Ben Wheatley – and in true One Perfect Shot form, that means digging into some of the filmmaker’s favorite frames. Below you will find the result, as Mr. Wheatley was gracious enough to send us over a list of his 5 Perfect Shots with comments…

Apocalypse Now

“This is one of those great “fuck yeah” moments in cinema when he pops out of the water and you know he’s made a massive turning point to kick some ass, finally after sitting on the fence the whole movie. And it just looks beautiful.”

Blade Runner

“Apart from it all looking beautiful in the way that the lighting works, the great thing about this shot is that Harrison Ford looks so bored about being in the future, which subsequently makes it feel much more real than it otherwise would. He’s seeing something that for us is incredible, but for him it’s an everyday experience.”

Brazil

“This is one of the great uses of a wide angle lens ever. It overwhelmed me with the amazing set design and camera movement.”

The Road Warrior

“A brilliant movie and a great final shot. Every shot in Road Warrior is iconic, but this one is particularly fantastic. It’s hard to stand properly like that without looking like an idiot, to strike those heroic poses, but in the end he pulls it off.”

Seven Samurai

“This is a really powerful emotional moment. The performance is brilliant with Mifune’s character Kikuchiyo admitting to weakness in front of Kambei, the samurai leader. In a film about strength and honor, and hiding emotion, this a rare moment of Kikuchiyo breaking down and showing that he’s human, and also that he’s a fraud – that he’s not a samurai but a farmer.”

For more information about Mr. Wheatley’s new movie, check out freefire-movie.com.

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