As you know it, Craig got some problems with John McTiernan during the filming,
especially the camphound action sequence, Craig classic old school way of filming
action and stuntwork was not to the taste of McT, Craig's notorious for putting the actors
near explosives, to get the most realistic and authentic result onscreen.
Blain's spitting and starting to kill with the explosion behind him was typical
Baxley's trademark.There are plenty.
From his book :
"[At dailies] John McTiernan jumped up in front of the screen and shouted at me, 'What the f_ck are you doing, this is not a war movie! You're ruining my f_cking film!' Joel [Silver] shouted back, 'Shut the f_ck up and sit down, John, or I'll f_cking fire you.' Then he looked over at me and said, 'This stuff is fantastic.'"
Despite Silver's involvement, parts of that sequence were edited to appear less brutal, the beginning
has a shoddy editing when Dutch hits the fuel
dump.In the final version of the film, the same shot
of a stuntman , blown up, is used twice, fortunately a few pics depict this great shot, another part was cut
later.
During the dailies, producers asked to McT why they didn't see anyone firing their weapons, they put pressure
on him to the point he left the room very upset, he directed the scene where the squad tears the jungle apart and
still miss the predator, he came back and asked them if there was enough gun porn for their liking in this new scene.
I personally love both Craig and John even if their style is drastically different, I have the utmost respect
for stuntmen , and i find it cool to get more insight about this guerilla camphound massacre sequence.
You can get Craig Baxley's book Driven: A Memoir by Craig R. Baxley, recently released
he talks about his career.
