Bruce Willis had a big problem with Michael Bay’s Armageddon

On paper, the combination of actor Bruce Willis and director Michael Bay would look like a match made in the sky. From the beginning of his career, Bay demonstrated an affinity for the launch of film stars with great personalities, and Willis was one of the greatest personalities of the 90s. The actor’s particular brand of machismo serves the Rah-Rah’s Jingoism de Bay , especially well in the third characteristic of the director, “Armageddon” of 1998. Who else that Willis could make a general audience buy the premise evidently ridiculous that the head of the Willis Petroleum Drilling Company, Harry S. Stamper, And his pillmaders could receive a shock course in astronaut training to handle a mission on a mission “? Planet-Killer” Asteroid went directly to the earth?

In “Armageddon”, as in many of Bay’s films, there is much that can be criticized; Even the defenders of the film (yours really included) admit that the premise is one that extends the limits of even the credulity of film B, regardless of how scientifically it is possible. So, although it is not surprising that Willis has been very critical of “Armageddon” in the years after the film, his flesh has more to do with what No In the film as much as what it is, the main theme is numerous moments of construction of characters that Bay eliminated from the theatrical cut of the film. Although Willis’s complaint is well founded, there is a cut of the Extended director who seems to solve this problem; However, I would have to buy a DVD of collection of decades criteria to see it.

To be clear, Willis has filed many complaints over the years about “Armageddon” and his experience. As the morning call told him (through) After the release of the film in 1998, he thought that the film was “also MTV-Camera Cutty” and that “Billy Bob (Thornton) was poorly used”, but also talked about how the spaces that he and the other actors used in The film had numerous problems, with Ben Affleck apparently “seen attacking the front glass in its helmet with a rock because I could not breathe” in a moment. In a later interview with Ain’s it. News that no longer seems to be online, Willis apparently continued to say that the unfortunate scream and screams of the Bay brand was not something that seemed pleasant, although “we were all big boys and we overcome it.”

I was in A 2002 cover story at the New York TimesOn a theatrical production of “True West” Willis starred, where the actor explained even more his problem with “Armageddon.” In addition to the unpleasant working conditions and the rapid reduction style of Bay’s firm, Willis was not happy that much of his work and that of others were not included in the release of the film:

“There were so many scenes in ‘Armageddon’. All the excellent action scenes are on the floor of the cutting room and were sacrificed by this type of MTV version, Michael Bay’s vision of the cinema.

This whole edition of “MTV version” to which Willis refers is his way of describing Bayhem’s cutting style of Bay, something that really came true with “Armageddon” and has only become more wild and more intense In the movies he has made since. While the US Bayheads see Bayhem as a feature and not as an error, Willis’s point on the theatrical cut of “Armageddon” sacrificing so much character for the plot and the incident. The film is so full of things that even at 150 minutes it feels hurried! Although Willis can have other reasons not to love “Armageddon”, the reasons why he declares seem enough to leave a bad taste in the mouth.

However, one wonders what Willis thinks about the cutting of the film of the director of Bay, a version that until now has only been available in the movie of the movie Long Impres Collection of the Criterion Collection collection. He has certainly seen some of that, since he was part of the launch comments (you know, the one that has gained notoriety over the years thanks to the uniluting comments of AFFleck about the film). The director’s cut is only three minutes longer than the theatrical cut, but that extra time allows Bay to re -add some key lines of dialogue and moments extended among the characters. Two of the most important additions are the scenes that involve Willis himself, one in which he and Nasa’s head of Thornton have a heart of heart, and another where Harry visits his father (played by Lawrence Tierney) before take off in your fateful mission.

It is completely possible that these scenes were some of which Willis was so discouraged to see lost in the theatrical cut, such as both moments, as are, they develop further the character of Harry and the film itself. Harry’s father even offers a dialogue line that perfectly encapsulates the emotional theme of the whole film: “God gave us children, so we would have roses in December.” With the impulse that “Armageddon” is about how the previous generation, at its best, makes sacrifices to allow the youngest generation to survive, this moment and a couple of others help the film to be an emotional experience much more moving that all theatrical cuts. -Spectacle-And-Forced-Heart. Who knows how many additional images can still exist (Disney, if you are really publishing a 4K edition, put the director’s cut and any other material on the disc!), But the existence of the director’s court is sure that simultaneously does it do it simultaneously. Try and refute Willis’s point. While it is a pity that the actor and Bay never return to work together (imagine Willis in the role of Cade Yeager in “Transformers” instead of Mark Wahlberg!), We will always have “Armageddon.”