Billy Bob's Filmography
GHOST BRIGADE (1993)
Distributor
Turner Home Video
Director
George Hickenlooper
Character
Langston
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Movie Quote
LANGSTON: It's a glorious life!
Plot
It's the blue and the gray . . . and the kinda green. A brigade of Confederate soldiers has been cursed
by some ancient African magic (a karmic payback for slavery),
turning them into zombies. At night, they wreak havoc, leaving crucified
Union corpses on
the battlefield in their wake.
The
brigade's leader, Colonel Nehemiah Strayn (Corbin Bernson),
was captured and imprisoned before the curse befell his men.
Strayn is plucked from
prison to help Colonel John Harling (played by Adrian Pasdar)
and his Union troops find Strayn's men.
Along
the way, Strayn
is escorted by a freed slave named Rebecca (Cynda
Williams), a mute who shares a psychic connection with both Strayn and the
zombies.
What Billy Bob Gets To Do
Billy Bob is a reb
named Langston whose unit falls prey to, then enlists with the zombie
brigade (allowing for our hero to appear in some really odd
tribal make-up that makes him look like he's auditioning for
CATS). As Langston
would holler, "Mercy!"
Backstory
Shot not in the bluegrass fields of
Kentucky, but the drought-yellowed hills of Simi Valley,
California, GHOST BRIGADE is directed by George Hickenlooper (SOME FOLKS CALL IT A SLING
BLADE), who can be glimpsed painting General Robert E. Lee's portrait early in the film.
After helming HEARTS OF DARKNESS, a critically lauded
documentary about the making of APOCALYPSE NOW, Hickenlooper
wanted to further explore the basic themes of Joseph Conrad's
novella Heart Of Darkness with the story of
Colonel Strayn venturing into the wilderness to find his men,
who have embraced zombie evil with a Colonel Kurtz-like
vengeance. Hickenlooper's version of the film is titled
GREY NIGHT and was edited by Monte Hellman (of cult fave
TW0-LANE BLACKTOP fame). Producer Brad Krevoy recut the
film and replaced Bill Boll's Civil War period-appropriate score
with a generic horror soundtrack, releasing what he considered a
more commercial version under the title of THE KILLING
BOX. Hickenlooper's version, which includes a different
ending, greater character complexity, and more footage of Billy
Bob's Langston character, is available only on LaserDisc.
Both versions have been released as GHOST BRIGADE. The
Krevoy version is the one available on VHS. Are we
confused now?
Game cast includes Cynda Williams (then married to Billy Bob),
Martin Sheen, Adrian
Pasdar (who sounds like a lost Sheen child), TWIN PEAKS alumnus Ray
Wise, Matt LeBlanc, Jefferson Mays (the tag-tearing
administrator from SOME FOLKS CALL
IT A SLING BLADE), and David Arquette. Look for a
very svelt Brent Briscoe shooting
alongside Langston. The film became a cult classic
in Germany and managed to do so without David Hasselhoff in the
cast.
Awards (for GREY KNIGHT)
Worldfest (Best Actor, Corbin Bernsen) - 1993 - Winner
Relevant Links
IMDb Link
TV Guide review
Efilmcritic review
How about some real-life Civil
War ghost stories?
Related Merchandise
Well, there's the extremely rare GHOST BRIGADE coloring book,
the board game, the limited edition GHOST BRIGADE Lincoln
Navigator, the drooling zombie Happy Meal Toys, and the . . . okay, I typed this
one up on April Fool's Day. Gotcha!
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BBT On DVD
You can get George Hickenlooper's director's cut under the title GREY KNIGHT on DVD from Vanguard Home Video. It includes three behind-the-scenes interviews and the Director's Commentary, as well as the worst typesetting/art directing job in the history of home video on the back of the box. We are NOT kidding. The background is grey, alright, and the type with all the information about the film is in a pale gold (and all caps, to boot), which makes it well nigh on impossible to read unless there's some blacklight effect we haven't been told about. That's a shame, because the inside of the box includes a ghoulish shot of Ray Wise pulling an important clue from a corpse's mouth, and it looks great (as corpse-mouth shots go). We find it interesting that Billy Bob's post-LEVITY face is now plastered all over the front and spine of the video box, sans CATS makeup.
You can also get the GHOST BRIGADE version on DVD, which is available from Séville. Extras are skimpy (Interactive Menus--wowee!--and Scene Selections), but at least you can read the type on the back of the frickin' DVD cassette Odd cover art makes it look like one of the poor soldiers just got shot in the butt by a cannon.
The Brad Krevoy VHS edition of GHOST BRIGADE is out on
Turner Home Video. GREY NIGHT is also available on LaserDisc. CATS greasepaint sold separately. |
