Even if I watch and review a lot of films – sometimes I stumble upon a title or an actor which are well known to the general audience – yet unknown to me. That is the case with the seemingly famous actor Andrew Mason – who I saw for a very first time only a few minutes ago while watching a short film called ” The Pilot’s Tale”, in which he is the main protagonist. Andrew starred in films back in the 80s – and just like Barret Oliver – is not well known to me as back then I must have been too young to watch anything but Sesame Street …
The film itself is not perfect (my opinion – despite its festival awards). My first thought is that the dialog scenes are a bit static – reminding me of a theatrical performance. On the positive side – the wonderful soundtrack by Jim Cooper compensates for that – and alongside it the lyrics of the songs ( which reveal most of the the prognost background and his feelings ) – makes the movie a beautiful visual poem.
Andrew starts as a young boy who mourns the death of his Dad – who was a pilot shot down in a war conflict. He meets different people – including the pilot who shot down his Dad’s plane – and they help him come to terms with that huge loss in his life. I remained under the impression that the film is made with one goal – to help all kids who suffer the loss of parent. ..
Quotes from The Pilot’s tale :
” If you believe in something , something important , something worth hanging on to – you have to fight for it …”
” You can`t live your life with hate in your heart ”
‘The Pilot’s Tale’ was originally filmed as ‘Flypast’ with Noah (Neverending Story, Battlestar Galactica etc) Hathaway in the main role, although filming was completed the film was never released. It was then made on video with Andrew Mason taking over the role.
Rewind has been going for quite a while, originally with VHS tapes and now with DVDs. They make their own low-low-budget films, mostly corny ghost stories. Their school story series is a cut above the rest. Now and then they scoop a 'proper' actor – Matt Jonson who was the Artful Dodger in Cameron MacIntosh's Oliver and Gavroch in Les Miz stars in the Rewind musical Smugglers and some audio cds. They also got Mark Lester to agree to a signature edition of photos.
Andrew did his films in the 80s – so I guess the company you mentioned must have gotten the rights to release these DVDs.
Wasn't Andrew with Rewind Motion Pictures? I think he did about 6 films for them which are available on 2 DVDs. Rewind films are a bit amateur hour, but they're fun. Seems to me that it would be hard to make a film which wouldn't win some kind of award somewhere!