It's the scene I think of in the wake of Mr. Scheider's passing yesterday at the age of 75. I know that every tribute to him will include mention of his roles in "The French Connection" and "All That Jazz" and, of course, as Police Chief Brody in "Jaws" (my favorite scene of that entire movie was always Brody's wife and Richard Dreyfuss talking at the dinner table while Scheider sits in the foreground, opens the bottle of wine, pours a glass, and has a long drink). A lot of people probably don't even "The Myth of Fingerprints" exists and that's why I feel it's important to mention it.
I don't think you make a movie like "The Myth of Fingerprints" to pull down a cheap buck. It's an ensemble cast, a first time director, not a big Hollywood studio, and you're filming in the middle of nowhere. You make a movie like that, I think, because something about the material appeals to you, or relates to you. It speaks to you in some way. And you make a movie like that in the hopes that people watching might have to speak to them in the same way. If you can touch one person the way the material touched you then it's all worth it. Isn't that the cliche?
Obviously, I never met Roy Scheider. But if I had this is what I would have wanted to say: "Mr. Scheider, that scene in 'The Myth of Fingerprints' where you're walking by yourself with the turkey, well, I can't explain it in words but that scene means the world to me. The whole wide world. Thank you."
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