For what seemed like years page 6 of Variety had a small ad tucked in the bottom corner of just a head shot and the tagline "Zack Norman is Sammy in Chief Zabu". The ad would go on to underscore just how hit and miss the movie business can be. Chief Zabu ended up a rough cut seen at a few private showings before spending decades in a can on some dusty shelf. Had they released it in the 80's it would have gotten lost in a sea of action movies and lived it's life as a videocassette rental from Blockbuster. It's a great script. Some very talented actors play off each other giving the characters a rich depth. It's beautifully shot and evokes the 80's the way they were without being heavily stylized. It's not the 80's of Patrick Nagel, Cocaine and Desperately Seeking Susan. It's the 80's of Cagney and Lacy or Family Ties. It's also not finished and it shows. It breaks the rule of just because you shot it doesn't mean it needs to be on screen. One example is the guards at Skip's mansion. It feels like they spent a day shooting all these interactions hoping for one good one for the movie and then since they had them, every one ended up in the film to stretch it out from the 50 good minutes they had to get to what the Screen Actors Guild would consider a feature length film. This comes at the expense of scenes that feel missing. What happens when the delegates from Toboraku go to the French Consulate? You see them walking through Manhattan, they go into the consulate. It seems like there's a very important scene missing. Exactly like putting a gun on the table in the first act. There are other scenes that are missing. The UN vote that the whole film revolves around is never shown. Perhaps these scenes were never meant to be shot and in a more complete film would never be missed. What is clear is that the film although brilliant in concept and performance is unfinished. Even though it's not a whole film, it's fun to finally see Zack Norman play Sammy in Chief Zabu.
Review of Chief Zabu
