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WHO: Myron Natwick Shot in New Westminster in the spring of 2006, Natwick's new film Amber's Story chronicles the true events surrounding the kidnapping and murder of nine-year-old Texas girl Amber Hagerman in 1996. It was the efforts of Amber's mother, Donna Norris, that led to the creation of the nationwide AMBER Alert broadcast system. Directed by Keoni Waxman and written by Richard Leder, the movie also stars Law & Order's Elizabeth Rohm as Donna, Sophie Hough as Amber, and Nanaimo's 11-year-old Jodelle Ferland as Nicole.
As antagonist Glenn Park, Natwick's onscreen purpose is ultimately twofold. Through Park's unhealthy fascination with Nicole, Natwick reveals the sinister machinations of a real-life offender who triggered an AMBER Alert. Perhaps even more importantly, Park's character serves as a red flag to families considering leaving their child or children with an untested acquaintance who could be anything but a care giver. As Park, Natwick is terrifying. Amber's Story, in being based on a true crime story, is especially devastating.
Fortunately, when Movies For Breakfast called the actor to talk about his role, Natwick's gentle incarnation showed up. One of the first things we wanted to know is how it felt to play the bad guy in a true story versus a fictional drama. Myron Natwick: You know, we actors say 'a job's a job's a job's a job.' You try to portray the character as a human being, whatever his flaws may be. Movies for Breakfast: How much research did you do on Glenn Park? MN: I just actually asked the director if Park had any record of molestation or any criminal record, and he had nothing. He had been a businessman who knew the mother. He'd lost his business and his family, and he would take this little girl out after school and take care of her while her mother was working. MFB: Did you know a lot about the AMBER Alert when you were doing this film? MN: I didn't know anything about it. You just see things flash on the freeway. But I gave a copy of the film to somebody and they said, 'This is a good film. I think this will make people more aware.' MFB: Do you think films like this can make a difference? MN: I would certainly hope they make a hell of a lot more difference than X-Men III, which I saw the other night. [Laughing] There's so much out there with special effects and they want to wonder why the world and the nation and the kids are all, you know, violent. Everything is violent. Everything is aggressive.This [Amber's Story] deals with violence. At least this could serve a purpose. I don't know that this other stuff serves anything. MFB: What purpose do you think Amber's Story serves? MN: It could make people more aware of these signs. You see something out there and go, "hey, I better watch for that white car and that license plate. If I see it, I better do something about it." Because pedophilia is rampant. You have a perfect case now with this John Karr and JonBenet Ramsay. It's crazy! Apparently, one of the producers from LA had heard about the [Amber Hagerman] story, and then he called the mother down in Arlington, Texas and talked to her a little bit, and got the rights to the story. He said, "I'm going to really try to get this on television." He had her blessing. But that doesn't mean anything. Trying to get a movie made is like trying to move 14 mountains. So he did get it made and she came up to the shoot. I wasn't around but someone told me that she said several times to him: "You kept your word." I think that's damn important. It has to touch a few buttons. I don't think X-Men III touches any buttons whatsoever. MFB: So you think films should have a purpose beyond pure entertainment? MN: Yes. Not all films. There's room for entertainment. I used to like the Marx Brothers and all those crazy, crazy things. But maybe it's aggression in the movies I don't like. This world is caught up right now in all this stuff going on. Is that what we came here for? To be violent? I don't think so. *The AMBER Alert Plan uses the same concept behind notifying communities of severe weather emergencies. It instantly galvanizes the entire community to search for and return the missing child. For more information on the AMBER Alert
Plan, see below: AMBER Alert Society of British Columbia
5,000 Murders a Year--For Now No one said operating on the right side of the law would ever be a walk in the park. But some British Columbian good guys found out just how overwhelming life on a homicide squad can be when they joined a crime-solving task force on the streets of Guatemala City, which suffers 5,000+ murders each year. The result of their journey, Fred Yackman and Steven Hunt's startling documentary Duel With the Devil, had the audience gasping when it screened at Pacific Cinematheque on May 30. The disturbing film follows a Guatemalan homicide task force that traveled to British Columbia to study fundamental crime scene investigation skills and then returned home to replicate what they'd learned, overseen by BC police officers. In partnership with the Law Courts Education Society, Ministry of Attorney General, and the RCMP, the squad is setting out to fundamentally change the Guatemalan judicial system. The belief is that improved forensic evidence that leads to more convictions will create a situation where people realize they can't get away with their crimes. Duel With the Devil comprises interviews with Guatemalan criminals, a gun control advocate, private security guard, judges, prosecutors, a forensic anthropologist, congresswoman, and a 16-year-old-girl who is quietly determined to see the man who raped her brought to justice. At a forum of BC-based project members after the screening, it became clear that the officers from Central America had an easier time visiting our country than the Canadians had when traveling to Guatemala 's mean streets. “I almost went into a depression. I thought, ‘what am I doing here? It's hopeless,' ” admitted Paul Williamson, a judge on the Supreme Court of BC, who went to Guatemala City with the project evaluation team earlier this year. Over time, however, Williamson changed his mind. It was the Guatemalans' resilience, despite everything facing them, he said, that converted him to believe it was critically important that the project succeed. Was the BC squad frightened to be on the streets at night in a city so much more violent than Vancouver? “I do find it overwhelming to go to more homicides in a night than I would in a year [in BC],” RCMP member Tim Sleigh told www.moviesforbreakfast.com. He also pointed out that the group wore Kevlar bulletproof vests. But like Williamson, Sleigh said that witnessing the determination of Guatemalans who were committed to fight for the truth, and for their grandchildren, distracted him from any fear he was feeling. What Can Ordinary Canadians Do to Help?
On TV The Pentagon-Hollywood connection. What gives? If you've always suspected that the US Army helped to bring big-budget action movies to the screen, Operation Hollywood vindicates you! Following up on the book of the same name by David L. Robb, a journalist who worked for Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, filmmaker Emilio Pacull's documentary looks at the help producers have sought—and got—from the military over the years. The program lists the producers and the movies that have enjoyed military cooperation and shows how the military's script editors work. In a September 20, 2004 interview with Jeff Fleischer for Mother Jones magazine, author Robb said that the most important criteria the Pentagon uses in deciding whether to help a film is that the film has to “aid in the retention and recruitment of personnel.” In exchange, we learn, the makers of movies like Top Gun and Pearl Harbor get military gear, equipment and information. (That's exciting, so why did the latter movie suck?) Operation Hollywood features letters, interviews and anecdotes from Clint Eastwood, John Wayne, and Francis Ford Coppola, among others, to explore the relationship between Hollywood and the US Army. This documentary airs as part of Perspectives, Knowledge Network's new collection of social issue documentaries.
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