i want you to hit me as hard as you can
no matter where you go there you are that iconic line has become a pop culture mainstay
thanks to one of the strangest movies of the 1980s buckaroo banzai or as it's actually titled
the adventures of buckaroo banzaiacross the 8th dimension this 1984 science fiction movie has
been a cult classic for four decades and remains a fan favorite amongst those who've actually seen
it thanks to its virtually inexplicable plot part comedy part action part sci-fi part martial arts
part musical part western part satire and part of a franchise that never came to be buckaroo bonsai
just might be the single most bizarre movie we have ever covered for this series the time has
come prepared for my return a huge box office bomb when it was first released grossing only
six million dollars against the 17 million dollar budget buckaroo banzai holds a decent 68 rating on
rotten tomatoes where critics sum it up succinctly as violating every rule of storytelling and
narrative structure in creating a self-contained world of its own yeah folks that's from variety
by the way and you know what that pretty much sums up exactly why this movie has remained a personal
favorite of ours here at joe blow for so very long buckaroo banzaiwas released when western pop
culture was obsessed with japanese and chinese culture releasing two years after blade runner
and the same year as both the karate kid and 16 candles while the asian influence is palpable
buckaroo banzai often feels like a teenager's fever dream that throws everything but the
kitchen sink into this crazy story excuse me mr president i have to go talk to the hornet's nest
good god it's legacy is so strong that everything from star trek and men in black to fight club and
back to the future have featured references to the movie in fact many bukru bonsai fans have spotted
direct connections to robert's max's back to the future whose flux capacitor bears this remarkable
similarity to the film's oscillation overthruster wes anderson's life aquatic also shares more than
a few connections in regards to the offbeat tone and team dynamic in both movies in short bakru
bonsai is a weirdly wonderful movie that not enough people have watched the origins of this
film came about in 1974 when director w d richter was introduced to the writings of earl mcrosh
both alumni of dartmouth college richard read rush's novel dirty pictures from the prom and
the two started writing letters to each other after several years raj met richter in la and
began working as a screenwriter when rosh first explained his idea for a character named bukru
bandi richter and his wife paid the writer fifteen hundred dollars to develop what he envisioned
as inspired by all those all out pressed the accelerator to the floor non-stop kung fu movies
of the early seventies richter recalls that raj started writing multiple screenplays featuring
the character who was renamed buckaroo bonsai and would abandon each after only getting about
30 pages into it rash himself remembered how easy it was to start a story and then forget about it
over those early years the writer compiled dozens of scripts that ended up
that way including treatments with titles like find the jet car said the president
the strange case of mr cigars and more richter says it never made its way to the finished script
as rosh would continue writing and writing and writing and writing and writing the development of
bakru bonsai paused when richter began working on a screenplay for martin scorsese's film new york
new york amongst other unproduced scripts it was finally in 1980 that richter met with producers
frank marshall and neil canton canton and richter formed their own production company and planned
to make buckaroo bonsai their first film this time rash wrote a screenplay called lepers from saturn
which they shopped around but no studio was willing to take a risk on such a strange product
from unproven filmmakers the treatment eventually made its way to mgmua who signed richter and
roche to a deal within 24 hours over the next 18 months saturn became planet 10 and lepers became
lectroids what are they fluctuates from planet 10 by the 8th dimension the project was jeopardized
in 1980 by the writers guild of america strike mgm chief david begelman left the studio and
took buckaroo bonsai to 20th century fox where they were greenlit with a 12 million
budget three drafts later the shooting script was ready and casting began
while the studio wanted a recognizable face richter wanted an actor who could both look heroic
with grease all over his face and project the kind of intelligence you would associate with
a neurosurgeon and inventor focused on stage actors richter stumbled upon peter weller
weller was initially reluctant to take the role because the uneven tone well it recalled would
it be campy would it be a cartoon or would it be the sort of wacky realistic film that could catch
people sideways and not be a cartoon i understand it and i don't quite understand it to this
day weller apparently based his character on ilya kazan jacques cousteau albert einstein leonardo
da vinci and adam ant seeing as how his character is a physicist neurosurgeon test pilot rock star
that seems to be the right mix of inspiration and that's about all there is really to say about that
for the villainous doctor emilio lizardo the studio wanted yet another unknown but rosh
always envisioned john lithgow who was riding high at the time as bonsai's nemesis lithgow
is also unsure of playing the role but has always said in the past that this is one of the favorite
roles that he ever played lithgow apparently copied his italian accent from roberto timminelli
a tailor who worked at mgm uh along in my congratulations for your great inter-dimensional
dragon throw he also adopted a crab-like walk to imitate the alien nature of the character
bonsai's love interest penny priddy is played by ellen barkin was she very beautiful
she was queen of the netherlands that's a long way from where i come from christopher lloyd
was the one and only choice to portray john big booty understand monkey boy
let's get out of here john o'connor and the rest of the cast was rounded out by jeff goldblum
as new jersey lewis smith as perfect tommy and clancy brown is rawhide other notable supporting
characters are played by the great vincent ciavelli dan hidaya comedian yakov smirnoff and
no name to me says in the 1980s more than yakov schmirnoff and breaking bad's jonathan banks plus
carl lumley production designer jane michael riva worked with richter for two years to develop the
look of bukru bonsai which resulted in a blend of 80s fashion with an off-kilter approach to
the alien designs the lizard-like lectroids were inspired by an anthropologist theory
what dinosaurs would have looked like had they evolved like humans the red lectroid's clothing
was inspired by russian utilitarian clothing the spaceships differ from what audiences had come to
expect from star wars and star trek and take on a much more organic appearance this was evident
in the less polished look of the film which echoes the dystopian look of movies like mad max
rather than the refined look of star trek filmed in and around los angeles buck rubanzai was a
challenge for the studio to release with copious scenes removed at the 11th hour
including an alternate opening featuring jamie curtis as buckaroo's mother
richter was constantly at odds with producer bigelman who he called an enemy of the entire film
20th century fox was equally concerned about the marketing of the movie which they could not
figure out in a move that would echo the last decade or so of studios at san diego comic-con
fox began marketing bakru bonsai directly at star trek conventions they showed clips
and gave out branded headbands which are now highly sought after collector's items
there was no traditional marketing push for the movie aside from some ads in marvel comics even
john lithgow has stated he struggled to explain the story to people despite loving how complex
and weird it is when it hit theaters on august 15 1984 it went up against star trek iii the search
for spock ghostbusters indiana jones in the temple of doom and more and with competition like that
it should be no surprise that bonsai grossed less than half of its budget critics called it
unintelligible but how did it go from bombed cult classic baku banzai is the closest thing hollywood
has produced to england's doctor who like the long-running bbc series bakru bonsai is an amalgam
of dozens of genre staples combined with a blend of tones and styles there are no direct jokes
in buckrow bonsai yet it's also kind of funny if we blow this today there ain't no tomorrow
peter weller was so damn cool in the title role that it's amazing to see just how different he is
here compared to his later roles in rubble and of course recently in star trek into darkness
ellen barkin was at the height of her sexiness with peggy pretty ranking as a sci-fi sex symbol
to rival carrie fisher in return of the jedi like many cult classics from the 80s bukru banzai
suffers from comparisons to star wars similar to george lucas's franchise bukru bonsai has
deep roots in the serials of the 1940s and 1950s like flash gordon and buck rogers but rather than
follow a straightforward genre formula bonsai is absolutely a film about nerds and geeks made by
nerds and geeks the complicated jargon coupled with archaic special effects lends the film the
feel of an independently produced feature rather than one coming from the same studio as the empire
strikes back there's not a lot of violence or sex in bhukru bonsai which lands the film
a feeling of innocence that belies the fairly mature subject matter this is a family-friendly
film that should appeal to kids and teens but with the pacing and tone of a more adult-centric story
maybe it's that disconnect that prevented the film from finding a wider audience
also i think the movie probably has a little too much music i mean peter weller kind of stops the
show to do some singing and i don't know if that's exactly what people wanted in a sci-fi action film
definitely not what i wanted that said the rest of the score by michael botaker is amazing especially
the ending march where they're all kind of walking along in fact that is the scene that's pretty much
copied by the end credits of the life aquatic with steve zizu here's a little trivia fact the theme
song by michael bodicker at the time wasn't quite ready so the song they're actually walking along
to is uptown girl by billy joel if you play this scene while listening to uptown girl you'll notice
that well they're walking completely in time to that song it's pretty cool so maybe it's the
disconnect between sci-fi comedy musical western and every other genre that it kind of embraces
that prevented it from finding a wider audience but like those on the cutting edge of science
or musicians invested in rock and roll baku banzai is indebted to everything that came before it and
feels like nothing else out there bakaroo bonsai is unabashedly a 1980s movie that looks dated four
decades later as we approach the movie's ruby anniversary there is finally a sequel coming in
the form of a novel by rosh titled bakru bonsai against the world crime league which is set to
be published this halloween if you ever watch the film you'll notice that it ends with a tease for i
suppose what they hoped would be a sequel against the world crime league and the head of the world
crime league hanoi shan keeps getting mentioned in the film so hopefully this world crime league book
kind of pays off for all this huge bonsai fans this of course is the perfect chance to revisit
this classic movie and revisit some of the best costumes and quote you never knew you were missing
and who knows bukru bonsai may ride again one day kevin smith once said that he was going to turn
it into a series but it never happened until then it really is the best movie you never saw
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