Artists typically fall into two categories: dreamers and doers. While it’s important to have a dream, it doesn’t mean anything if it just stays inside your head. Zachary Oberzan is a doer.
Oberzan saw the movie “First Blood” back in the early 1980s. “First Blood” is the Sylvester Stallone Rambo film most critics call “the good one.” Oberzan was such a fan of “First Blood,” he picked up the David Morrell novel on which the movie was based and was blown away even more. The novel, far more complex and nuanced from the resulting film, gave Oberzan the dream to one day make a more faithful adaptation of Morrell’s original book.
Unfortunately, since the Rambo series took on a much different tone with the second film (where Rambo rescues POWs from Vietnam), a tone that proved to be very popular with 1980s era audiences, there was not much hope someone would ever do a more faithful remake of the original book.
Normally someone with Oberzan’s dream would try to wrangle the rights away from the copyright holders, convince financiers to invest several millions of dollars, find bankable actors to carry the movie, find a distributor, and then release the film. Even when said process runs smoothly, it can take several years, and oftentimes the end result is a film that’s never released, let alone made.
Oberzan said “F–k all that!” and just did it himself … in his 220 square foot New York City apartment … with a home video camera … and a total budget of $96. Oberzan not only wrote, directed, shot, and edited his adaptation, but also performed all of the acting roles. The result is one of the most compelling films I’ve ever seen.
On first glance (especially from the trailer), Oberzan’s adaptation, called “Flooding with Love for the Kid,” seems completely insane and ridiculous, like Ed Wood directing the Max Fischer players from “Rushmore.” However, once you get over the shock over how the film looks and plays, you start to pay attention … and then you find yourself riveted.
This will likely never wind up on anyone’s list of greatest films ever made. But Oberzan, using tools most of us have access to … but would never use … even if some of us filmmaking dreams, made a completely fascinating and exciting feature length film. He does such a great job with what he had to work with, it makes you wonder what he could do with a bigger budget and better tools. Oberzan is not only someone to watch, but his story is an inspiration to artists everywhere.
If you’re interested, check out Oberzan’s website which provides more details on how you can order the film:
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