What are the Buckaroo Banzai Production Binders?
Buckaroo Banzai Production Binders Introduction and Overview
by Sean Murphy
(This article originally appeared as part of In Medias Res: The Buckaroo Banzai Production Binders By Sean Murphy, Dan Berger, DeWayne Todd, and Steve Mattsson in the August 2019 issue of the World Watch One newsletter.)
Among the limited number of Buckaroo Banzai items available officially (including the novel and comic books) and unofficially (the scripts and bootleg soundtrack) certain unique items become “holy grail” relics among Banzai fans. One of these is a collection of production documents that include something called “The Essential Buckaroo.”
Initially, in an interview from the Fall 2004 issue of the World Watch One newsletter, W.D. Richter gave the impression that The Essential Buckaroo was a collection of writings made by Earl Mac Rauch, saying, “We had a reference book while we were making the film that we called ‘The Essential Buckaroo.’ It became sort of a curiosity in the production department because it was essentially all of those false starts Mac had made over several years [while developing the script].”
It turned out that this reference to The Essential Buckaroo was made in error.
What Richter was actually referring to was a document called “A Buckaroo Banzai Sampler”, which we’ll cover in a future issue of the newsletter. However, this innocent mistake led to something wonderful.
Ernie Cline read the September 2018 issue of the World Watch One newsletter where DeWayne Todd was interviewed and The Essential Buckaroo was mentioned. Ernie realized he had something special and emailed us to say, “Guess what I purchased off of ebay in France two years ago? A copy of the BB production script and storyboards used by production illustrator Tom Southwell—and it includes a copy of ‘The Essential Buckaroo!’” We were both surprised and elated, to say the least. Ernie kindly shared the contents of the production binders with World Watch One to help us document this amazing discovery.
The sheer volume of information contained within the production binders required a group effort to properly digest and discuss their contents. We’ve decided to tackle the contents of each binder in separate articles in an effort to give Banzai fans an overview of this amazing production information. The binders contained the following:
- A variety of production illustrations for the film, spread
over 82 pages, such as Buckaroo Banzai logos, clothing,
vehicles, and an alternate BB comic book cover. See What are the Buckaroo Banzai production
illustrations? to learn more.
- The script of the film called Shields Against the
Devil—Another Buckaroo Banzai Thriller, a 110 page second
draft dated September 17th, 1982. See What is the Buckaroo Banzai production
script comparison? to learn more.
- The storyboards for the film totaling 363 pages. See What are the Buckaroo Banzai production
storyboards? to learn more.
- The Essential Buckaroo, which is a collection of 145 pages
of newspaper and magazine articles that inspired/informed the
movie, as compiled by Mrs. Eunice Johnson, Archivist, Knight
of the Blue Shield. See What is the
Essential Buckaroo in the Buckaroo Banzai production
binders? to learn more.
This page was last updated on May 10th, 2020.
Maintained by Sean Murphy [figment@figmentfly.com]