As you may have already read in my esteemed colleagues Jon Partridge and Malachi Constant’s write up of the event, The Alamo Drafthouse recently hosted a rolling roadshow to screen their own Drafthouse Films’ recent acquisition I Declare War. The film opens in theaters August 30th and I highly recommend seeking it out. It was my favorite film at Fantastic Fest last year and I actually worked for ActionFest when the work print of the film played there to an incredible reception. I address this briefly at the beginning of my interview below. The point of all this is just to say that as part of the Rolling Roadshow event, I had the opportunity to sit down with the co-directors of the film, Jason Lapeyre and Robert Wilson (Lapeyre is also the writer) and the film’s young star Gage Munroe.
I had about 15 minutes with these guys, so I wanted to make them count. I went straight for an in-depth conversation about the characters and implications of the film. I wanted to talk themes, intentions, character arcs and inspirations. In short, I went pretty heavy on the spoilers because I think the film just has SO much going on under the hood to think about and debate.
I’m going to drop a few thoughts about the movie, then I’ll offer some non-spoiler highlights from my interview. This will be a safe read if you haven’t seen the film yet, until I warn you. Then I highly encourage fans of the film to read on, and everyone else to go watch the movie and then come back to finish this post! They have some great stuff to say, so check it out!
Again, I Declare War blew me away at Fantastic Fest last year. First and foremost, I had a blast. The movie is just out and out fun. Kids in the woods, playing war, and talking like real kids do. If you just wanted to be entertained by a fun, all-child action movie featuring kids blowing each other away with imaginary guns, you could fall in love with I Declare War. But if you want to read into the film and dissect it, you’ll also find a pretty powerful war allegory and an exploration of the loss of innocence. It is truly the rare film that succeeds on both of those levels. This isn’t really a review so much as a quick introduction to what kind of animal I Declare War is, and why I will gladly champion this film whenever and wherever I can. Come for the swearing kids with guns, stay for the engaging war narrative and the layered character arcs.
Left To Right: Tim League (Drafthouse Films), Gage Munroe (Star), Jason Lapeyre (Writer/Director), and Robert Wilson (Director)
Okay, let’s hear a couple of brief spoiler-free thoughts from the folks who made the film:
Ed Travis: Now I worked at ActionFest where I Declare War won a couple of awards, correct?
Jason Lapeyre (Writer/Director): Best Film and Best Screenplay.
Robert Wilson (Director): Which was a surprise given that we literally hopped in a car and went down to see it for the first time with an American audience. It was a work in progress.
ET: Was there a lot of change from what showed at ActionFest to what ended up at Fantastic Fest?
JL: When your movie wins best film and best screenplay, you don’t immediately start thinking of ways to change it.
[Laughs]
RW: Well there was still work to be done, some polish, but yeah… once that happens you kind of go “Oh, I guess it’s working.”
ET: And so after ActionFest’s work in progress screening the film played TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) and then Fantastic Fest right?
JL: Correct.
[Now I’ll jump ahead to their final thoughts on censorship and being “PC” before you go, those who haven’t seen the film.]
ET: You guys kind of don’t give a crap about being “PC” in the movies you make do you?
RW: Are you going to have kids?
ET: We’ll see.
RW: Are you going to censor what they watch?
ET: Censor is a strong word. I’ll probably manage what they watch based on their age.
RW: So you are going to engage in censorship.
ET: Probably on some level.
RW: You are going to govern the experience of life for them.
ET: Sure.
RW: That didn’t happen to us growing up. Television was television. You popped on at 2 in the morning and saw a scene from Blade Runner and that stuck with you. They tell you infants explore their environment and they call that the “developmental stage”. We aren’t unaware of “PC” but we want to explore our environment. And even as a parent you want your child to do that.
JL: There was definitely a conscious decision made between us that we weren’t going to limit the imagery we put on screen because we were concerned about some sense of “offending”.
RW: Which was dumb on our part. And maybe irresponsible from the perspective of a producer because how are you going to sell this movie with adolescents, machine guns, and 47 F-bombs?
JL: Totally. We just weren’t thinking that way and that is what made the film so strong.
RW: It isn’t hard to create a producer mindset. But everyone was already onboard this train and it had already left the station!
ET: But it sold! And I’m excited to see how it does!
JL: So are we!
RW: Right, Drafthouse Films might have bought it because they loved it before figuring out how to jump over that “PC” hurdle. But that is the best partner you can have, one that has also jumped on the train with you.
Alright folks, there you have some incentive to go and check out this film which throws caution to the wind for the sake of a totally unique and entertaining film. From here on out, I’m going to delve pretty deeply into specific characters and what a viewer might be able to draw from their arcs and stories. SPOILER ALERT!
ET: I want to jump right into some of the stuff that I just really want to talk about, and a lot of that has less to do with the production and more to do with what the film had to say.
JL/RW: Good!
ET: So I’ve seen the film twice now, and the first time I saw it at Fantastic Fest I had more of a sense that the film was about Gage’s character P.K. Or at least the fight between the two warring generals [PK and Skinner] as a “heavy is the head that wears the crown” kind of story. This second time I picked up on more of an ensemble vibe and what the other characters had going on. So I wanted to talk about a lot of the different characters and their arcs and all that is going on with them. But first I wanted to ask, in you guys’ minds… does anyone really come out “winning” in this film at all?
JL: We don’t want to pose a meaning on the film or speculate on what happens after the game. That is entirely for the audience to do. But we can say that…
Gage Munroe (Star): Caleb! Caleb is in the best position at the end to “win”.
RW: I think Alter Boy wins. [All Laugh] But I’m serious! I think he is the one who is the most full circle.
ET: Okay, I have some questions about the Alter Boy character, but [to Gage] I’m with you that I think Caleb maybe came out on top the most at the end. Again, this is stuff I didn’t pick up on at all in my first viewing so I do think your film is a good one to re-experience. But Alter Boy, I get the sense that he is stripped of his religion in the film. He starts out with having prayed over his tests and then deciding he doesn’t need to do that anymore. And then in the end saying “I forgive you” to the Joker character but then setting him up for revenge.
RW: How do you then argue that Alter Boy begins not being able to imagine any weapons, but then ends up being able to imagine the biggest weapon of them all, and even then deciding that he doesn’t have to use it at the moment when he might have needed it most. How is he able to do that if he is stripped of his religion?
ET: Okay, I like that! The way I read it was more that his “thing” is that he is a coward. But then upon reflection I realized he didn’t simply forget to hand Joker his weapon, he let it happen. And then he smiles when Joker finally bites it. So he becomes someone who is willing to lie and cheat.
RW: So you are tagging on a third take. He becomes able to imagine this, and then this, and then this, and then he becomes able to not pull the trigger. So is he stripped of his religion or does he come to a new understanding?
ET: Okay!
RW: Fun character! He’s a fun character. You want to talk about sub-plot? Alter Boy’s got that.
ET: And again, you could read it, as I did, that he is just a coward. But there isn’t that easy of a read for the character.
RW: But there is a moment where he has to sit on a staircase and hear his friend being killed and not be able to pull the trigger. This is a war movie. That is there.
ET: And I also initially read Alter Boy’s willingness to let the girl take the flag as cowardice, but…
JL: There’s a lot more going on there.
RW: At that point in my life if I was Alter Boy what would it have been like to talk to a Girl? A girl?!
ET: Right! So, with the P.K. character, you are kind of the central character and a bit of an alpha character. In most movies, especially action films, I feel like most other characters in the film like or look up to the alpha character. But in you guys’ movie, it seems like no one likes P.K. very much. Maybe his best friend. But everyone else constantly rebuffs you. How did you feel about playing this character that may not be very well liked?
GM: He is a very competitive person. But I think all of the characters in the movie are in some way flawed. Which I think is a good aspect to the film. And he doesn’t play his cards right in terms of his friends, and by the end of it, you see how inexperienced he is at keeping friends. All he cares about is winning.
RW: You know that cute girl that always likes the asshole? And she is CERTAIN, that he is not being an asshole to her, like she has a different inside track that no one else has? I think those are the kinds of relationships that P.K. has and I think he’s going to have a great adolescence and 20s because he is that guy.
ET: Well, you say that he doesn’t “play his cards right” which is interesting because you get the sense that is how he sees his friends. Okay, I can use this friend, and this friend, and so on. Do you feel like P.K. learns anything by the end? If so, what is it? And if not, what is it that keeps him from learning?
GM: Yeah, he’s a stubborn character. He puts friends in difficult positions to win. And I think he comes out of it thinking he can’t be that intent to win. But we don’t know, maybe later on he could continue to have that aggressive streak in him.
ET: It is sort of his defining trait, but do the events of the film teach him anything, you know? Now, with the Skinner character. I felt empathy for him by the end. But my wife disagreed. “No way, he is a crazy psycho.”
RW: Which is to say she wouldn’t want him hanging around your kids.
ET: Hah, maybe so. I felt Skinner won some audience empathy by the end, but as a human walking home at the end of the game, he wins NOTHING! He is still the loser. But since I only have a few more minutes, I wanted to talk about Caleb. It does seem to me that he came out on top just a little. The film obviously has a lot of insight into the psychology of what it is like to be 12. Does Caleb being a silent character and a loyal character have some kind of pre-pubescent insight that allows him to have a positive outcome?
JL: That is a question for the audience more than the filmmakers. You and your wife had totally different reactions to the Skinner character and neither of you is wrong.
RW: [To JL] So you’ll never be able to be “the audience” for this film?
JL: No! Hell, no. Or at least the very WORST audience. [Laughs] Yeah… wait, what’s the question?
ET: I just wanted to know if you wrote any kind of special insight into Caleb’s character that allowed him to come out “ahead of the game” through his silence or his loyalty or what have you?
RW: Jason’s original vision for Caleb on paper was that he was the kid in the neighborhood most likely to serial kill. [All laugh] Jason, tell us how that vision changed from the original Caleb you wanted and the one who ended up in the movie?
JL: Caleb, more than any of the other characters in the film, was someone that we had fun with as an archetype from both coming of age movies and war movies. Like, for instance, he is Billy from Predator. He is the silent guy in the back who is super tough. He’s Snake Eyes…
ET: This is literally my next question: How directly is he inspired by Snake Eyes?
JL: But at the same time I always knew kids that spoke a little less, maybe stuck to themselves a little more. Serial Killer is too strong…
RW: But that’s what you said!
JL: Okay, that is exactly what I said. But what I meant was that he is an eccentric.
RW: Do you think it was important to Snake Eyes that he won? Was that essential to the character or what he ultimately wants? Did he have a need to win?
[Pause for thought].
JL: No, it is like Wolverine. He isn’t anti-social he’s a-social.
RW: If the X-Men and GI Joe got wiped out and these two guys met each other at a bar, would they be upset that they didn’t win?
JL: Okay, so yes. These characters have a different sense of priority than maybe some of the other characters have. Does that work?
ET: Yes!
So there you have it! These guys were totally game to think hard about their film, toss questions back at me, and they clearly crafted a film that allows for debate and discussion and offers some open ended thoughts for the viewer. I can’t wait to see what these guys have in store for us in future films and hope that I Declare War accumulates a significant following, because it is truly a unique accomplishment.
And I’m Out.