An Oscar and Emmy winner for his innovative special effects work in films like the original “Star Wars” trilogy, “Jurassic Park” and “RoboCop,” Phil Tippett quit Hollywood to pursue an intensely personal vision.
Tippett’s “Mad God,” an 82-minute stop-motion effects film with no dialogue and a violent, dreamlike story, streams on Shudder Thursday following a 30-year struggle to see it made.
It’s no exaggeration to say “Mad God” pushed the creator over the edge with a mental breakdown that saw him briefly institutionalized.
“It was a religious experience for me doing the movie. I mean, a very transformative thing. Because it took so long, it changed all of my electrochemical synapses in my mind,” said the bearded, white-haired Tippett, 70, in a Zoom interview.
“Mad God” begins with a quote from Leviticus, itemizing many horrible things that will happen to mankind.
Yes, his film is religious, Tippett allowed, “but without an agenda for any particular religion at all.
“The Leviticus quote was something that came up really towards the end of the show; it was not anything that launched the idea in my mind. It was just something I happened to run across.
“The quote I found was in the Bible — and then I used the one from the Torah because it was a little bit worse.”
How did he go from being the ultimate Hollywood insider to finding it impossible to work there?
“Well, the last movie I enjoyed, where I really felt that I had a significant contribution to, was (1997’s) ‘Starship Troopers.’ Then everything just got so corporatized. It was like everything was a bunch of people trying to justify their miserable existence. It just became an ordeal and was no longer any fun.
“There was no way,” he added, “I could pitch ‘Mad God’ to anybody. Nobody was even remotely interested. They said, ‘Art movies don’t make money.’
“I realized, ‘You know what? You’re absolutely right. I guess I’m going to have to do this myself.’”
A Kickstarter campaign let Tippett do the first half of his 6-part film. Benefactors surfaced to help him finish. He used his unconscious to create “Mad God,” finding inspiration as he worked.
But what does it mean?
“What’s the meaning of any work of art? What’s the meaning of a Van Gogh?” he answered.
“You can’t say the meaning is ‘A sunflower.’ Art should not have a limit to it. You don’t even know what you’re doing when you’re when you’re starting. You just guided by some kind of internal light.”
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