Who Needs Sleep?

"Who Needs Sleep" (2006) Highlights Bad Labor Conditions Part Of Movie Making.

Hollywood cameraman of fame Haskel Wexler made this movie after he was almost killed in a car crash caused because he was so tired from a too long work day on a movie project he fell asleep at the wheel of his car, which was "totalled" (Wexler survived the crash).

This documentary is the result of Wexler's car crash. It is worth seeing.

Movie making is often dangerous, and not just for "stunt men."

This is true for all people working in an industry where bad labor conditions and practices are commonplace.

Bad work conditions are widely accepted as "unavoidable" and "inevitable." Neither of those conclusions is true.

Making movies under humane and intelligent work conditions is possible, and has been done before in the past.

Labor which cannot be performed under healthy and humane conditions should be refused. It is not sensible or logical to agree to or submit to brutal and unreasonable (and illogical) work conditions whether in the movie industry or in any other industry or enterprise which requires human labor.

Laborers should refuse bad labor conditions, not agree to be part of it or to accept it in any way.

Those who hire laborers have a moral obligation to provide only decent and healthy labor conditions. This includes, but is not limited to, reasonable hours of work.

The wrong motives and bad character of some movie employers along with workers who collude with such employers is at the heart of the problem.

Standing up to the bad guys, refusing to work for them, avoiding them, and evicting them is what the whole situation facing workers is all about.

Surviving and being part of movie making without the bad guys.....can it be done? Yes. It's been done before, and it can be done again. It just takes planning, high standards, and courage.

Hollywood style movie making (not necessarily in Hollywood anymore, and not limited to feature movies and certainly including national television drama filming) is dangerous and has been for a long time.........actually through the entire history of the movies as a big time business which time period extends back to the early 1900's and silent era "primitive" movies.

The history of dangerous working conditions and disasters and loss of life during and as a result of movie making is extensive and legend.

Haskel Wexler created a documentary in his old age about dangerous work conditions on movie shoots. He was a life long cameraman/ director, famous and experienced as a major player in Hollywood since 1947.

At age 83, he created a "last hurrah" documentary titled "Who Needs Sleep" which is unusual because it points out that the price paid for movies everybody loves and needs is danger and at times loss of life and permanent injury to workers who make movies possible.

His "Who Needs Sleep" documentary is a protest about a situation long known, but sadly seldom acted on or even much publicized. People part of the movie business work under brutal and dangerous conditions.

He gives many examples in the course of his documentary.

Wexler notes that when he was a young cameraman worker in Hollywood, he worked 8 hour days, had time for his family, worked in healthy conditions which deteriorated over time.

Longer and longer work days came to oppress him and his fellow workers.

12 hour and 14 hour days became common, and 18 hour and 20 hour days were not unusual. These hours were (and are) worked by union workers, making it obvious that organized labor does not protect its members from the increasing danger of ever longer hours on the job in the movie business.

In the 19th century, England's art critic of fame John Ruskin (1819 - 1900) wrote a book in 1857 titled "Political Economy of Art" (later re-issued by Ruskin in his old age and re-titled "A Joy Forever, And Its Price At The Market" in 1886) in which he noted that conditions in the art world and the commercial side of it all had led to widespread dishonesty and fraud which had (1857) become commonplace, and seemed to be the price of commercial success in the art world.

Haskell Wexler's documentary movie titled "Who Needs Sleep" is a cry of objection to widespread labor practices part of the mainstream movie-making world in the USA, and Wexler suggests during his narration comments that the same problems and wrong mentality regarding bad labor conditions increasing and becoming commonplace extend outside the movie world into other parts of the mainstream USA labor force, including into health care and other areas critical to society's survival functioning.

His movie is a "little movie," made by a now very old man, and obviously made on a low budget about a topic not presently (2012) considered "mainstream." Even so it is valuable and deserves to be seen and supported because it treats an important topic, controversial, but not to be ignored.

John Ruskin, in the mid-19th century, tried to make the same points, overall, that Haskel Wexler makes in his old age 21st century movie.

The times, sadly, have not changed, and are getting worse.

The conditions and situations both men highlighted with their reporting should be paid attention to and the bad conditions challenged, and somehow changed.

At the least, the problems cited by Ruskin and Wesler should become widely known so that people can protect themselves from danger clearly present, and getting worse as time passes.

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Written by Tex Allen, SAG movie actor.

Email Tex Allen at TexAllen@Rocketmail.Com

Movie credits and biography of Tex Allen at WWW.IMDb.Me/TexAllen.

OK, so i didn't like the film all that much. haskell wexler makes several interesting and valuable points, i'll give him that. unfortunately he does so in a very tedious, lecturing manner. the presentation is all over the place and doesn't come to any particularly coherent conclusion. this feels like four or five mini-documentaries tacked together, with only one of them focused on the title subject.

i suppose that he wouldn't have gotten nearly as much attention if he'd called the film "working conditions in Hollywood suck", though that would have been a better title for it.

and i suppose the ultimate critique: the two people i saw the film with both fell asleep about halfway through!

Wexler does a magnificent job of persuading his audience to wake up and smell the very real dangers of overworking and the pricey toll it's taking on our health and our lives.

It would be tough to leave this film and not be stirred to stop accepting the status quo of corporate America. Ultimately this film shows us that the system needs an overhaul. But it's clear that the leaders of the unions and our government organizations, like OSHA, who are "suppose" to be operating to protect the little guy -- clearly are not. Like other health and life issues throughout history, e.g., smoking and drunk driving, it's the little guy who has the biggest voice, once he decides to use it. Time and time again, the film shows us through clear, objective reporting on the part of Wexler, that the leaders are only passing the buck. They refuse to directly answer his questions which are quite reasonable, and instead offer replies that merely attempt to detour the filmmaker from initiating any real change. Wexler is a stalwart champion (with a dry and down-to-earth sense of humor) who uses this issue to persevere with this film, eight years in the making.

This is not just for film crew people but for all workers who long to shake off the heavy cloak of overwork-dom mystique that is killing many of us, literally. Thought-provoking and entertaining...factual and inspirational.