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"The Conversation" - Worth Talking About

by Brian Cronin
in General

Alvin Ecarma's new DVD release, Lethal Force (which has finally been released, after being in distribution limbo for years), contains a short film on it starring Mike Baron's Badger.

If you are unfamiliar with the Badger, it was a black comedy parody of superheroes, as the Badger was one of a number of personalities of Norbert Sykes, a Vietnam war veteran, with multiple personality disorder.

The Badger tended to spoof the violence of superhero comics by attempting to place it in a more realistic context, and thereby showing how absurd some of the violent actions of superhero comics were. Ecarma's short film reflects on that very topic, and I think it does the job well.

The film, titled "The Conversation," is six minute long. It features a street musician being assaulted by a street tough, before the Badger gets involved and saves him, by hitting the street tough.

The musician takes issue with this, as he believes that violence doesn't solve things. So he and Badger have a (you guessed it!) conversation about violence. It's quite trippy, seeing this long-haired hippy type sitting down conversing with a guy in a superhero costume about the proper use of violence.

It's all punctuated by an ending where the hippy's beliefs are tested.

It was all handled quite well, I thought, and Badger's costume didn't even look that dorky (it looked pretty dorky, but not THAT dorky).

You can get the short film on the DVD release of Lethal Force.

Click here for ordering info.

Posted on December 24, 2006 @ 08:56 AM

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7 Comments

Chris Keels

December 24, 2006 at 9:49 am

Wow, I saw that at a short film festival in Atlanta about ten years ago. (At least I assume it was the same one; I can't imagine two people independently adapting the same Badger short)

I thought it was really, really odd, and I've scratched my head over it for a long time. My memory is that the actor played the Badger more or less like George Reeves-style Superman; very noble, old-school traditional superhero, and not like, you know, the actual Badger. At first, I thought the director and actor just weren't familiar with the character (Honestly, I figured they had picked the Badger just because they happened to have a Badger t-shirt laying around) But then I found the story it was adapted from (a backup story in one of the Capital issues), and it seemed like it was pretty word for word. So clearly they knew the Badger; why did they not make more of an attempt to play him more faithfuly? Maybe they thought having to explain "oh yeah, he's also psychotic" to an uninitiated audience for a five-minute short was too much, so they just went the "iconic hero" route? Dunno...

Anyway, an interesting little artifact, and I wouldn't mind seeing it again...

--Chris Keels

Brian Cronin

December 24, 2006 at 10:13 am

Yeah, I think that was probably the same one.

I think the change was for the very reason you mentioned - the whole "mental illness" thing was a bit distracting to explain in six minutes.

Sir Al

December 24, 2006 at 1:13 pm

Sir Alvin Ecarma, writer/producer/director of A CONVERSATION signing in with a thought and/or comment...

-Re: characterization. Yeah, it's not as faithful to the character but generally faithful on the back-up story on which it was based; that one featured the Badger in one of his lucid, philosophical moments that got featured less as the series went on. In any event, sticking to the story meant a simpler characterization and that was better for the film.

-Re: costume. Good thing it was shot in Greenwich village in NYC; anywhere else, and the actor playing the Bader would have been beaten senseless, at length and for good reason.

-Re: film upgrades. The audio for this release version was remixed and tightend up since the audio was never that hot. Also, there is a new musical score.

Anyway, thanks for the kudos Brian and Chris, I hope you're able to check out the movie via Netflix, Amazon or wherever. And get ready for my next project based on the epic legend of Neil Adams' Skateman. It shall be Totally Air wolf.

Your pal-

Sir Al

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