Delano Herald Journal

Serving the communities of Delano, Loretto, Montrose, MN, and the surrounding area

Wright County goes to the Oscars



On March 21, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences
will hand out their annual Oscars for excellence in film in 1998.

As would be expected, the names that shaped the big races
will be a part of Oscar night – Spielberg, Hanks, Streep, Hozempa.

Hozempa?

Believe it or not, if not for Wright County Sheriff Don
Hozempa, the film “A Simple Plan” may have had a far different
look. The movie, which was set in Delano, has earned a pair of Oscar nominations
– one for adapted screenplay and the other for actor Billy Bob Thornton.

While the community was excited about having a major motion
picture filmed in Wright County, Hozempa didn’t share the same enthusiasm.
He didn’t want the police to come off looking like buffoons, as others have
in recent films.

“I was really apprehensive about being caught in a
‘Fargo’ situation,” said Hozempa, referring to the Minnesota-based
film that portrayed law enforcement in a less-than-flattering light. “I
thought there was a chance that they could make us look like we’re not very
bright. So, I told them I wanted to read the script.”

Such demands are typically reserved for pampered stars,
but the film’s producers accommodated his request, adding film critic to
Hozempa’s other duties. While he did comply with the company’s requests,
which ranged from the use of the sheriff’s department logo and replica badges
to department coffee mugs, arm emblems and unique paint number for vehicles,
he wasn’t without a few lingering reservations.

“I was concerned, because the script had a lot of
violence and a graphic sex scene,” Hozempa said. “But that’s what
sells these days and, although they took the sex scene out of the finished
picture, it was still very violent and I was concerned.”

For those unfamiliar with the film, it centers on three
struggling Wright County locals who stumble across a crashed airplane that,
along with a couple of dead bodies, contained $4.4 million in cash.

The three decide to keep the money and the film degenerates
as each loses trust in the others and falls victim to pressure and blackmail
tactics.

While the script was interesting enough, Hozempa still
had a problem – the character that was portraying him. While he was technically
the sheriff of Wright County, he was referred to as the chief of police
– something that would be missed by almost everyone but Hozempa.

“I tried to square them away that the sheriff is not
a chief of police,” Hozempa said. “I couldn’t get them to understand
that no matter what we did, so he stayed a chief.”

Hozempa was offered a chance to be an extra in the film,
but declined. He found the scenes shot with extras – almost all of which
ended up on the cutting room floor – to be too repetitive and time-consuming,
but his department was involved in many aspects of the film – ranging from
off-duty officers working patrol and security during filming to serving
as technical advisers for the crime scene.

As it turned out, less of the movie was shot in Wright
County than originally expected. The filming began in late October of 1997,
but, thanks to the much-celebrated El Nino, the film was missing one crucial
element – a typical blanket of Minnesota snow. Many of the outdoor scenes
had to be moved to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, where even El Nino can’t
stop lake-effect snow.

When the movie held its pre-release premiere party at the
Mall of America, Hozempa schmoozed with the wine and cheese set, but figures
that was the extent of his brush with Hollywood.

While he was very impressed with Thornton, the Oscar-winning
actor/writer that won an Academy Award for “Slingblade” and who
Hozempa thinks has a good chance of bringing home Oscar gold March 21, the
movie won’t be one that he would likely see again.

“It was an experience that a lot of people will never
see again in their lifetimes, so that was something a lot of them will take
away from all this,” Hozempa said.

“I thought the acting was superb, but if I was rating
it, I would probably give it a thumbs down. It was just too depressing.
It was a good movie, but just not my type of film that I would like to see.
I’d recommend people go see it, because of the local ties, but I like a
movie you can feel good when you leave the theater and this wasn’t one of
them.”

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