A Texas Tale of Treason

Much better than the rank indicated here.

It tells all about how Alex Cox, director of Repo Man, screwed over indie producer Stuart Kinkaid. Touching, poignant stuff. If you're a Repo Man fan, it will really upset you.

Stuart admits the documentary is better than Waldo's Hawaiian Holiday would have been, so it all worked out, I guess.

Backstabbing Hollywood stuff, aside, I really hope that 'Repo Chick' doesn't really suck, or a lot of aging punks will come after Alex...

It's also a great handbook for producing a film with zero budget, but a lot of heart and soul. Stu is a great producer/director.

I found this to be an entertaining account of the challenges an independent film maker might encounter (something I never even thought about). The film managed to keep my interest the entire time and I actually laughed out loud more than once! I'm not a film maker so I know nothing about the technology but I though it was well edited and flowed smoothly telling the story. As a disclaimer, I contributed to this effort after the fact providing music for the soundtrack but I was not involved in the creation of this film and I could not tell you a thing about Repo Man except that I remembered seeing it way back when (I'm not really a sci-fi fiend). I enjoyed the comparisons the film made of punk rock file making to punk rock music. My wife went with me to see the film and she did not know a thing about it before hand and we had a great time.

watch this movie. it's truly a good ride through the difficulties of making a indie movie, and what happens when it blows up in the film maker's face. there's a lot of stuff about punk rock, and the philosophy behind that movement and it's relationship to this project. so if you're into old punk, American punk, you'll dig it.... but, beware, there's a ton of bad acting bits from the failed project that are incorporated... yet they do come off funny at times. and, actually, some of the best parts are listening to people who have never been involved in movie making pontificate and what they went through in the three year period that it took to put this together. so anyone out there that's about to make a film, especially if you haven't been to film school or worked in the field, you should watch this and learn from the film maker's mistakes.

Like most of the posts here, I'm a bit biased as I'm involved in the soundtrack. BUT! I've never met Stuart, just some emails, so I feel like you can trust me! ToTT can be best summed up by my tag-line - "Why You Should Never Work With Your Heroes". It's clear that the Alex Cox that we all envision is not some kind of punk cinema touchstone of integrity, but a rather a jerk, just like the rest of us. Unfortunately, Stuart has his own set of issues and put together with Cox's and it's actually amazing the project got as far as it did.

The film in question is "Waldo's Hawaiian Holiday", the sequel to Cox's 1984 scifi / hardcore punk comedy masterpiece 'RepoMan'. 'A Tale of Texas Treason' contains plenty of raw 'Waldo' footage, and makes the film sting even more: it looks fantastic and hilarious.

I give props to Stuart Kincaid for allowing as honest a representation of the situation to be seen. Even though Cox declined participation in 'Treason', you can get a feel for why he may have got indignant. Stuart has a temper. No, we're not talking about a Hollywood life threatening temper, but one that can flare up out of nowhere and ruin your day for sure. For instance, the film tells it's story with dense commentary with the actors, crew and friends. At one point, apparently disgusted with a complaint by actor Ted West during one of these interviews, Stuart breaks with the set narrative style to scold West, his angry voice coming from somewhere off camera. It's one of my favorite scenes because it shows Stuarts warts: this is not a 100% 'up with Stuie' project. In fact, with the Katrina & Rita hurricanes being recent events at the time of the shooting, I was surprised by the overall view of the survivors by Stuart, like they're just bums or something. But Stuart is a real American, roll up your sleeves, DIY punk rocker - I should expect no quarter from this guy, right?

The actors and crew range from playing characters (Ted West & Marci Dacus go for campy & condescending respectively), to hilarious (Antonio Brazil), to extremely in touch with the situation (Ed Ivey practically narrates the film). The amount of talent here not being able to finish a project that was basically 5 minutes away from being done is ultimately a teeth grinding shame.

I'm glad that at least they made this cautionary tale, it should be seen by any budding filmmaker, and especially ones that work with some one else's material.

So, what did Alex Cox think of Kincaid's 'Waldo'? A bummer scene involving an oddly familiar comic book tells the tale. SHAME, Mr.Cox, SHAME!

I too must apologize for a somewhat biased opinion of this endeavor as I contributed to the soundtrack. Still I received my copy, sat back and enjoyed the rolling cast of characters who were perhaps more colorful than the characters they were creating in this tale of a film sequel shanghai. For those who feel George Bush is a "credible Texan", one need look no further than this film to shatter the image that Texas is full of truck driving, one-dimensional rednecks. The cast contains some of the most intelligent, peculiar and humorous folks you'll find anywhere as they spin their tales of agony, bliss and disappointment in going for a great film sequel, no budget, guerilla style (i.e. "punk rock style" as each person helps define).

This is a great documentary made with passion and guts and all the venom you'll need to break through to the other side of whatever industry b.s. and doublespeak you're dealing with (take note authors, painters, musicians and fellow filmmakers). It hearkens back to the credibility of the first wave of American hardcore music when the term "D.I.Y." was the standard, a period where courage, passion and commitment mattered way more than technique, style or precious calculations. Not that there isn't plenty of technique or style to this...the tone of the documentary is quite refreshing. The editing cuts provide as much drama as the dialog therein.

The idea of creating a documentary out of the sad demise of the cast, crew and director's initial intent is brilliant, totally Texas and absolutely punk rock. In the truest sense of the term.