Spielberg's alien tale is 'Taken' to cable

cleveland.com ^ | 12/02/02 | Clint O'Connor

[vikingchick]

If you were assigned to make a fantastical 20-hour, 10-part series about alien encounters, you'd think you'd concoct the freakiest, funkiest extraterrestrials ever conceived.

Not so.

Not if you're making "Taken," the alien-abduction saga that premieres at 9 tonight on cable's Sci Fi Channel.

"Steven said we had to respect the lore," says Jim Lima, the project's visual-effects supervisor. "We had to be faithful to what was said the most by people who had encounters."

Steven is Steven Spielberg. He is not only one of the most powerful people in entertainment, but also the man who gave the world "E.T." and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." The man who can green-light so many projects gave birth to this one four years ago. It's on cable because no network could commit such a massive chunk of its prime-time schedule.

Because of Spielberg's decree, the aliens in "Taken" are rather standard issue: gray, about 4 feet tall, long fingers, skinny bodies, oversized heads with huge black, almond-shaped eyes. Spielberg scored with the acclaimed World War II miniseries "Band of Brothers" on HBO, and now he's out to see if an audience will stay with 10 two-hour, movielike episodes over two weeks.

The series follows three American families - the Clarkes, Keys and Crawfords - over four generations, from 1945 to the present day and slightly beyond.

It pays homage to major alien encounters reported in America's postwar history, including the most pivotal event: the supposed crash of a spaceship near Roswell, N.M., in July 1947.

"It's the coolest thing that I've ever seen," says Tobe Hooper of the series. Hooper directed the pivotal first episode (each episode has its own director). Hooper knows about "cool," not to mention strange, having directed "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" and "Poltergeist" (co-written by Spielberg).

Although it was up to Hooper to integrate "the grays" into the story, it was the Earth-bound humans who received most of his attention. The director said he was hooked because the story was so character-driven.

"I liked that it wasn't sci-fi-y," he says on the phone from his home in Southern California. "It was like the real thing."

The real thing begins in the skies over Germany during World War II. Capt. Russell Keys (Steve Burton) is leading an Allied bombing mission. His bomber gets hit and is headed down in flames but is saved by some mysterious blasts of blue light. He and his crew are mysteriously healed and wake up in a field in France. But who really saved them and what was done to them after they were "taken"?

Keys returns home to a sepia-toned America to reunite with his parents and his best girl, something out of "The Best Years of Our Lives."

"I tried to give the characters that subtext, to give it that Norman Rockwell feel," says Hooper.

Hooper said no expense was spared.

"We had 60 locations and more than 60 actors. I had every lens, every cinematic toy," he says. And he had Lima.

The visual-effects guru, who had worked previously with Spielberg in television on "SeaQuest DSV" and "The Others," also had created outer dimensions for films such as "Space Jam" (he also designed the Green Goblin for "Spider-Man.")

"It was like doing 10 movies," says Lima on the phone from his home in Pacific Palisades, Calif. "We had 16 months of production. In my earliest discussions with Steven, he explained that science fiction is 'Minority Report.' Science mythology is UFO sightings, close encounters of the first kind." (Close encounters of the second kind are defined as physical evidence; close encounters of the third kind are alien sightings.)

Lima used a cavalcade of computer-generated digital tricks; there are no puppets or animatronics. But there is a human element. He took a digital photograph of his wife's eye, enlarged it, stretched it out, colored it and used that for the aliens' eyes.

"The iris is still in there," says Lima. "I wanted to show thought, to have these digital characters show emotion."

The grays also can take human form and read minds.

If "Taken" is groundbreaking for its length and visual effects, it also must set some sort of record for script-writing. Les Bohem wrote the entire 20 hours. A former member of the band Sparks, Bohem ("Dante's Peak") emphasizes the human relationships and family interplay.

The ensemble cast includes Catherine Dent, Joel Gretsch, Eric Close, Ryan Hurst, Matt Frewer and Michael Moriarty as the stern colonel who covers up the initial Roswell crash in tonight's episode. Some characters span several nights. Eight-year-old Dakota Fanning (the daughter in "I Am Sam") narrates all 10 episodes and appears in the final four.

Her voice is at once innocent and filled with wisdom.

"It's very much 'To Kill A Mockingbird,' " says Hooper. "It has that sensitivity, that kind of elegance."

As for the phenomenon itself - the long lists of people who claim to have been abducted, poked and prodded by aliens and returned to Earth - Hooper says he has studied it more than half his life. He finds it valid.

"I'm definitely a believer," says Hooper. "There's something out there."

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

coconnor@plaind.com, 216-999-4456

[vikingchick]

Well, that's that.

[spectre]

"Well, that's that"... was just about the kindest critique you could have made of this bombshell of a mini-series.

Thank God it's over...I can't believe I watched the whole thing...shame, shame on me. And shame, shame on Steven Spielberg.

Reading back over the thread, the members of this forum could have written a better script, had fresh ideas, and certainly wouldn't have had it end the same way...transported up in a beam of light. "She'll be back, I know she will", says her mom.

Duhhhhh...and can we expect a sequel "The Return"? Please, Lord...nooooo!

sw

[jjhunsecker]

Well after 22 hours of story telling by Spielberg & others we ended the show with a "Thud" and the series ended up being a "Dud".
With all the time alloted for such an ambitious project I expected a great deal more. It didn't have to be special effects driven to work it needed to tell a better story and also have some better actors.
What could have been a marvelous, fascinating story turned out to be at best a muddling soap opera.
There were times that some aspects were explored okay and some that took us up to a point then left us there without any explanation as to what happened. Case in point was Mrs. Clark, they took us up to where her son left her and then we never saw her again till her death scene.
Some periods of time were largely skipped over and we never knew what happened to some of the characters.
And those two scenes where Mary Crawford (a) had her Father killed, then (b) where she shot and killed her lover and confidant, were either of those really neccessary?
The bottom line is that Spielberg squandered a great opportunity to tell a truly great story starting where he did and what he gave us was basically a Third Rate 22 hour slow moving soap opera.

[eddie willers]

The tape of this saga should be about half of the air-time, considering the commercials are legion!

I copied the series on my Dish PVR.

That's a "TiVo" type hard drive satellite receiver which gives instantaneous access and "skip" forward buttons.

Taking out the commercials and recaps, each episode took about 74 minutes to watch.

[Momma Lou]

Don't know if this was covered........In episode #3, the military advisor was absent or asleep. When Col. Crawford's aide came to pick up the Col's wife for her trip to the hospital, he was wearing major insignia, but the col referred to himas "captain" I watch flags. The flag hanging in the office of the Montana police (where the 2 officers were taken after being picked up) was a 48 star flag. The time frame for that incident was 1992.

[Cvengr]

Another loose end or maybe a false lead,...when the Col was a Captian in the beginning and the scene where his one time girl showa up with the piece of alien scrap metal in a paper bag,....the Captain remarked in surprise, "and you brought this to me!"

The remark wasn't characteristic of their relatioship/lack of one, but instead implied a hidden knowledge by the Captain that he had ulterior motive to hold possession of the artifact or recognized it initially instead of an enigma. This angle was never followed very well.

[Cvengr]

The title IMHO is a double entendre in regards to the number of commercials interwoven into the series, whereby any cable subscriber was indeed doubly 'Taken' to pay for watching 'endorsements'.

[Johnny Shear]

I finially stumbled accross this thread...Only because it happened to be at the top on most most recent visit to Free Republic. For some reason, the word "Taken" doesn't show this post when searching...

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

On my desk I have a premade model of a P-38 Lightning aircraft from the Matchbox Collectable series. I saw the same one displayed during one of the scenes in "Taken" ( Crawford's office? ). The model was made in 2000 and sold at Wal Mart.

[Momma Lou]

correction...the time frame for episode #3 was 1962, not 1992, as I noted in post #305.

[missmanhattan]

Taken will be nominated for an Emmy.

[spectre]

Oh, thanks alot, eddie! (I DO appreciate the info tho). My husband has been wanting to get that TiVo unit and I've ignored him..You probably put the icing on the cake, and he will buy it now. I barely learned how to use the Go Video! Uggghh.

Miss...it probably will be nominated. It was JMHO that the show wasn't all that good.

sw

[Momma Lou]

correction...the time frame for episode #3 was 1962, not 1992, as I noted in post #305.

[Quix]

I wonder if 'Taken' might have worked with the ' & '.

Or Spielberg or Spielberg's.

Thanks for the info.

[Johnny Shear]

My comments about "Taken" from another thread...

I liked "Taken". I watched it all the way through and it was very entertaining.

One thing that REALLY pissed-me-off was the General's comment in the 9th episode...He was supposedly on the phone with President Bush and when he hung-up, he bashed him.

The General's character was simply unbelievable overall...He even had nice things to say about Crawford's grand daughter AFTER she had shot her boyfriend/the doctor in the BACK!!!???? He would have been court-marshalled after the way he ran his military operation. He told Crawford's crand daughter and the other scientist to just "Keep in touch" after they lost the little girl??? He didn't try to find her himself????? He just GAVE UP??? Please...

And Crawford's grand daughter was just HORRIBLE! That was the chick from "The Blair Witch Project". I liked her in that film but in this one, she was a HORRID actress. No wonder this is the best part she's gotten since then. She should be black-balled after this. She's WORTHLESS!!!

As for the Aliens...I don't know if the came-off as good guys or not. Remember the original surviving alien...The one who got the whole ball rolling? He got pretty nasty with his kid's half-siblings when they found that comic book with the picture of him on the cover.

And they way the loyal listeners of that Art Bell like guy were the ONLY ones to show-up at the farm was just IDIOTIC! He broadcast their intentions ALL OVER THE WORLD!!! The military wasn't monitoring that show? Please...

The confrontation between all the radio listeners and the military was horrible too. The listeners went and grabed guns but when they clashed not a single shot was fired???

The military's roll over the last few nights was just PATHETIC. VERY, VERY bad...They were all a bunch of CLOWNS! Breaches of security ALL OVER THE PLACE!! It could have ruined the entire mini-series but I guess I just didn't allow it too. Although they provided most of the "Eye Rolling" moments...Too many to list here.

The little girl got bashed in the reviews but I think she was head and sholders the best actor in the entire thing...And her character was the best too. A close second goes to the scientist...That guy who played Max Headroom.

Overall, I give it a 4 out of 5 stars. The JOKE of a military through the whole thing could have EASILY brought it down to a 2 out of 5 (ESPECIALLY the later-day military and all their security breaches) but the little girl saved it. I thought she was tremndous all around.

By the way...Can anyone find the Taken thread that's on Free Republic? I looked for it all last night and came up with nothing. Free Republic is great but the search feature sucks.

[eddie willers]

For some reason, the word "Taken" doesn't show this post when searching...

I had seen this thread and wanted to come back to it after viewing the series. The search didn't work until I put TAKEN into the FR edit box then changed the drop down to KEYWORD.

That brought it back up.

[scoopscandal]

I am embarassed that I ever even attempted to defend this movie. Well, no one can ever accuse me of being closed-minded.

The ending totally blew.

Best Regards,

[BikerNYC]

And those two scenes where Mary Crawford (a) had her Father killed, then (b) where she shot and killed her lover and confidant, were either of those really neccessary?

They were two of the most interesting scenes. Unfortunately, the series did little with them and the ending was a let down.

[Republic of Texas]

The original Crawford, the Captain/Major/Col. was the best actor. However, playing the badguy always steals the show.

[scoopscandal]

Nominated for an Emmy?

They need to bury this flick and never talk about it again.

It was just horrible.

Best Regards,