A return to the land of ‘Giant'

MARFA Jason Willaford said he doesn't want any credit for "No Country for Old Men's" Academy Award Nomination for best cinematography.

But if not for him, the rugged desert mountains of Presidio County may have had no part in the film, directed by his friends, Joel and Ethan Coen.

Initially, the team behind "Fargo," "Miller's Crossing" and other modern classics were planning to shoot all the landscape scenes in New Mexico for their take on Cormac McCarthy's 2005 book.

"I said, there's a huge difference between the terrain here and the terrain in New Mexico," the Marfa artist and gallery owner said. "I'd read Cormac's book and said, ‘This is the area he's writing about.' "

And so, scouts headed to Marfa to check the area out.

"The consensus was it was totally different," Willaford said.

So, while much of the movie was filmed in New Mexico, film crews spent several weeks in the Marfa area, primarily shooting around FM 2810 and Fowlkes Ranch.

Ironically it was another movie also shot in the same area that won the award.

Like "No Country for Old Men," "There Will Be Blood" was nominated for eight Oscars, the most of any films in 2008.

Cinematography was one of several categories both movies were nominated in, which also included best picture and best director, both won by "No Country."

While he agrees that two nominations and a win says something about the terrain in Marfa, Willaford was generous in his praise for "No Country for Old Men" cinematographer Roger Deakins, who has been nominated for an Oscar in cinematography seven times, including twice in 2008.

"That guy's amazing," Willaford said. "I didn't really know what I was doing. I just showed them a lot of places."

THERE WILL BE WORK

For "There Will Be Blood," many supporting roles were made up of locals. Around 150 extras were from the Marfa area.

The most prominent was Dillon Freasier, a Fort Davis child cast in the role of H.W. Plainview, who played the son of the character played by Oscar winner Daniel Day-Lewis.

But, as for Marfans, none had a more prominent role than 49-year-old graphic artist Christine Olejniczak. She said she was cast in the role of Mother Sunday because of her resemblance to actor Paul Dano, who played the role of twins Eli and Paul Sunday in the film. 

She said the experience was "amazing."

"I had such good fortune to work with people like (director) Paul Thomas Anderson and Daniel Day-Lewis," Olejniczak said.
Along with Dano, who was previously best known for his role in 2006's "Little Miss Sunshine," actor David Willis was established in the profession. But two Alpine girls were cast in the roles of the Sunday daughters.

"It was really fun," Olejniczak said. "I'm a visual artist. I consider it to be the largest art piece I've ever been a part of."

The job meant long days in the desert sun recreating an early 20th Century California boomtown, wearing heavy period clothing.

While you might think this would lead to some awkward looks coming through the border patrol checkpoint south of Marfa, she said the agents quickly got used to the parade of residents of fictitious Little Boston.

Working with Day-Lewis, who earned his second best actor Oscar for playing Daniel Plainview, was an eye-opening experience for Olejniczak. Plainview is able to pry the oil-oozing land away from the Sunday family by offering "quail prices," instead of market oil value.

But Day-Lewis was always kind, especially in the presence of children.

"We didn't socialize or chit-chat a lot on set," she said. "He had a serious job to do, and he didn't allow himself to be distracted. I think all of us respected that."

And, Olejniczak added, everyone who appeared in the movie, even those like her who didn't have any lines, can say they were in a film with Day-Lewis. The star appeared in every scene.

Still, she said she couldn't pick a favorite moment from the filming.

"It was a very intense two months of my life," she said. "I just tried to keep my eyes and ears open. It's kind of like one big moment for me."

THE ONLY ONE IN TOWN

While "There Will Be Blood" employed enough people to start a small Texas town, as far as Chip Love knows, he's the only area resident to appear in "No Country for Old Men."

Love played a motorist who's pulled over by Anton Chigurh, a psychopathic killer played by Spanish actor Javier Bardem in an Oscar-winning role.

"After we shot the first take, he said, ‘Congratulations on your first scene in a movie.' "

Chigurh, who had just killed a sheriff's deputy with his own handcuffs, made Love's character "Man in Ford" the first of many victims using a cattle stunner to the forehead.

But Love, the president of Marfa National Bank, said the movie hadn't made much of a change in his life.

"That was something I did just for fun," he said. "I've already got a day job. Acting's best left to the professionals."

Love's scene was filmed near his ranch, about 25 miles south of Marfa. He said it's common to be pulled over there because the heavily patrolled road ends at the Mexican border.

Being a local, he decided to offer suggestions on his character's dialog. To his surprise, the filmmakers were receptive.

But Love said he felt a bit guilty after reading the book the film was based on. He then realized he had altered the words of McCarthy, who has been called America's "greatest living writer."

"They just pretty much let me do what I wanted to do," he said. "What do I know? I thought I was helping (the character) be a West Texan."

Love was offered the role after taking Willaford and scouts out to his ranch while they were looking for locations.

"When I read the script I didn't think it would have much commercial success, just because it's so bloody and messy," he said.
"But that's part of their skill," he said of the Coens.

A MOVIE MECCA?

Love's role gave him a chance to keep up a family tradition of sorts. His grandmother was an extra in "Giant," a 1957 Best Picture nominee that was Marfa's previous film claim to fame.

"It's probably more fun for us to see her in her role than it is for me, because mine doesn't end that well," Love said.
And since Hollywood returned to the Big Bend, he said interest is again high in the area.

"People seem to be interested in everything with the movies," he said.

Love said it's pretty impressive to have two films made within a month in a town of around 2,100.

As long as Westerns are popular, Olejniczak said Marfa will have a role in movies.

"There's just not a lot of places in the country anymore with open skies," she said. "They couldn't find anyplace in Los Angeles without a telephone wire running through it or a billboard."

Watching her movie, Olejniczak said it took a bit of time to think of her familiar landscape as California, even with Jonny Greenwood's haunting score in the background.

"We are all personally attached to these hills and these mountains," she said. "It may be easy for other people to have that suspension of disbelief, but, for me, I look out the window, and it's any other Tuesday."