Boxoffice-March.1988

Milagro
WW Str (continued from p 12)
Beanfield
Then, a few humble residents of Chimayo
decided to go toe-to-toe with the
mighty Robert Redford and his traveling
road show. In an instance that echoes
the premise of the film in many ways,
five elders of the small village decided
that they didn't want the calm and tradition
of their town disturbed by a mob
of Holljovood-types. Despite the fact
that most of the residents were thrilled
by the prospect, and the fact that the
presence of the film crew would bring
enormous income to the village, the elders
held their ground and Redford was
forced to look elsewhere.
Filming finally began in earnest in
nearby Tnichas, but the long ordeal was
far from over. For one thing, Redford
was still in the thick of casting major
characters in the film as he shot around
the still-unfilled roles. Then came a law
suit, claiming that the fictional story of
"The Milagro Beanfield War" was in
fact the true-life story of land-grant
activist Reies Tijerina, and that the producers
of a film about Tijerina's life
were none-too-pleased with Redford's
project (to this day the legal papers in
the suit have never actually been filed,
and Redford and company chose to disregard
the threat).
Finally, the weather added a final set
of headaches by snowng the production
company out of New Mexico. According
to Esparza, it was this last problem and
the necessity of returning to the shooting
site to complete photography that
caused the cancellation of first an early
Fall, 1987, release and then a Christmas
release.
Toward the end of 1986, a lengthy
report in the L.A. Times revolved
around the two words that spell trouble
for any film in production: "behind" and
"over," as in behind schedule and overbudget.
Universal continued to promote
the film as a Christmas '87 release but
as that deadline came and went, the
industry had its first concrete evidence
that all of the problems that had hampered
the project — not the least of
which being the sheer complexity of the
story — had caught up with Redford.
True, films are routinely pulled and
rescheduled because of technical problems,
but it had only been one year earlier
that another highly-touted Christmas
movie had been cancelled abruptly
and pushed back to a Spring release.
They called it "Ishtar."
So here, now, is
"The MOagro Beanfield
War." Redford's absolute insistence
on perfection and secrecy has
kept the film one of the most intriguing
projects in Hollywood of late, with even
simple promotional stills being impossi-
Red Vines
Mobile poster available
Size: 15%" X K'/k"
Contact:
American Licorice Co.
Box 826
Union City, CA 94587
Ask your concessionaire supplier for RED VINES .
Or call collect (415] 487-5500.
Response No 23
14 BOXOFFICE