Ultimate Dolph

lhz wrote:I was planning to re-watch THE LAST PATROL soon in HD. I possess only the German LAST WARRIOR re-titled edition. Is anyone know if the Australian release from the folk of UMBRELLA ENTERTAINMENT got the same transfer than the German one or is it different ?
Does the Australian edition got the English or English SDH subs ?

You also worked with action legend Dolph Lundgren, I have heard he is such a great person. What was it like filming the Last Patrol?
Dolph was an absolute dream to work with. He’d come to the set every day with all of his dialogue memorized ahead of time.

Is it true you and Dolph only agreed to do this movie if the script was re-written?
Yes, but the two writers of the script were also producers on the movie, and they refused to allow me to alter a word of their precious screenplay.

From the steaming jungles of Vietnam to the verdant hills of Hollywood, Sheldon Lettich has carved a unique legacy amongst his peers. In an era before costumed superheroes ruled the multiplex, when action stars were not pumped up and enhanced by special effects, because they were the special effect!

Sheldon was at the forefront, working with action superstars like Jean-Claude Van Damme, Mark Dacascos, Sylvester Stallone, and Dolph Lundgren. Movies like Lionheart, Double Impact, and Only the Strong are now widely considered classics of the genre, and his relationship with Van Damme would span multiple films. This is not only Sheldon’s story, but a deep dive into those action classics and the others that are part of his multifaceted filmography.

Sheldon Lettich: From Vietnam to Van Damme features brand new interviews with Mark Dacascos, Boaz Yakin, Brian Thompson, and many more to bring you a behind-the-scenes overview of the action-packed cinema of the 1980’s and 90’s.

You also worked with Dolph Lundgren on The Last Patrol; what was that like and did it come out as you hoped?

Dolph was amazing. He was born in Sweden, but spoke English like someone who’d spent his entire life in America. He could memorize long passages of dialogue, which is why I was able to film long takes without a cut. Other aspects of the movie were disappointing, to say the least. We didn’t have nearly enough money, and the script was terrible. I was not allowed to change a word, because the writers were also producers. This is all discussed in further detail in my biography.

You also directed a military-style film with Dolph Lundgren, The Last Warrior (aka The Last Patrol).

Now, that was a script that I didn’t write. It was not a good script. I had written another screenplay called Hell on Wheels, which is about these military dune buggies that were used in the first Gulf War. It got optioned by Largo Entertainment, and Largo got me in touch with a producer named Jacob Kotzky, who was Israeli. Israel was the perfect place to shoot this movie, because they had a lot of captured Soviet equipment. And Saddam Hussein was using Soviet equipment. Basically, this is during the Cold War. So, the Soviets were supplying Saddam Hussein with military equipment. The Soviets were supplying the Syrians, the Jordanians, and the Egyptians with Soviet-made hardware. And once the Americans got into the game, they were supplying the Israelis with American-made stuff. So, they had a few horrendous wars over there, and the Israelis ended up capturing a lot of this Soviet equipment. They had a bunch of [this old equipment available].

They had all the goodies, all the Soviet tanks — all of that stuff. So, we were going to do [Hell on Wheels] over there. It would’ve been a perfect place to shoot the movie because it was desert, it looks just like Iraq. [But] Jacob could not raise a sufficient budget to shoot it. It was a big movie with big battle scenes. He did have some money raised and he still wanted to make a film. He had made a movie [earlier] with Dolph Lundgren in Israel called Cover Up. [So,] he got in touch with Dolph, and Dolph was interested. Jacob found a script called The Last Patrol, which was written by a couple of people who basically had only written soap operas before. These were not action writers.

I just didn’t think the script was good, but I liked the idea of shooting a movie in Israel and working with Dolph Lundgren. That all sounded good to me, so I signed up for that. And same with Dolph, Dolph wanted to work with me. Neither one of us liked the script, but I told him I would fix up the script, and I certainly had the credentials for fixing up an action movie.



And so, that was the plan. But then, when I got over there, the writers were also producers on the movie, and they said, “Oh no, you’re not touching a word of our precious [script]. Okay. You’ve got to shoot this script the way it is”. They also threatened to fire me. They said, “If you change anything, we’re going to fire you. We’re going to get somebody else to do this”. Because they thought their script was brilliant. Well, it wasn’t. Dolph pretty much felt the same way. Well, look, we’re in Israel already, let’s just shoot this damn thing and make the best of it.

[To be fair,] these two writers were actually pretty good when it came to dialogue. There was a lot of dialogue in the movie. One thing I found about Dolph was that he could memorize dialogue. We did a few scenes that were two pages long, so, we’re talking about two minutes of screen time. And I shot these scenes without a cut. I did get some coverage in case I wanted to cut in, but I didn’t need to. Dolph could pretty much play an entire scene, an entire two-minute scene, and not miss a beat and get every word perfect. And even though he was born in Sweden, he worked on his accent, and he sounded like an American. You see the movie, you wouldn’t know that he was from a foreign country. I was pretty damn impressed with Dolph Lundgren, and he was very easy to work with. We did our best with that one.

Sometimes that’s all you can do. You do the best you can with what you’re given.

I brought my family over there, to Israel. So, I wasn’t about to say, “Okay, I’m pulling the plug on everything. You’ve all got to go home. All right. Forget about being in Israel.” I liked being there, too, and I had some relatives that were living there. We made the best of it, and I must say I had a really good time working on that movie. But just because I had a good time working on it, doesn’t mean the movie itself turned out good.

I had some pretty rough times making Double Impact, for example. That was a really long, tough shoot. You can get all the details in the book — a lot of personalities that weren’t getting along with one another, and logistical problems. We were supposed to shoot the entire movie in Hong Kong, and because there was so much bickering between the various producers, we decided to move the entire production back to the US. During the Christmas and New Year’s break, we basically packed up and moved back to LA, and shot a good portion of the movie in Los Angeles, which you certainly can’t tell, if you watch the movie, it looks like the whole thing was shot in Hong Kong.

We had a terrific production designer who designed and built some sets [to create that illusion]. There’s a scene where Chad and Frank first arrive in Hong Kong and they’re driving down the streets in the Mong Kok district, and then, they get out of their van, and they go inside this bar where Frank knows that they’re going to find Alex. They’re in the street, and they go inside, and then, we cut. And now, we’re inside a mahjong parlor. Well, that mahjong parlor was in LA, that was a set — just a perfect transition.