Filmed in New Mexico, the Alec Baldwin Western “Rust” grew to become notorious when work on the 2021 film culminated within the unintentional deadly capturing of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. The Hulu documentary “Last Take: Rust and the Story of Halyna” reexamines what occurred on the troubled set, and it options interviews with a number of folks concerned, a few of whom categorical a bitter frustration with how the tragedy was mentioned on-line. Actor Josh Hopkins, for instance, calls the web “the land of cowards,” which he discovered “enraging because they don’t know anything about a movie set and don’t know anything about the hearts of the people involved.”
That he and his colleagues would deal with public outrage, when one may need anticipated anger directed towards their employers, is gorgeous. However the Occupational Security and Well being Administration inspector assigned to the case (recognized right here solely as Lorenzo) is blunt about the place the main focus ought to be: “Every worker in America has a right to a safe workplace.” Along with Hutchins, “Rust” director Joel Souza was shot within the shoulder and survived.
Within the fast aftermath of that October day, it grew to become clear this was not an unexplainable occasion. That’s bolstered in director Rachel Mason’s documentary, as nicely. “Every accident is preceded by a series of failures,” says the OSHA inspector. That anybody on set would direct their ire on the public’s response, fairly than at those that oversaw this sequence of failures, is baffling. It’s additionally conspicuous that nobody provides voice to the worry: That would have been me. Have been profession preservation instincts guiding what they have been prepared to say on digicam?
Mason launched into the documentary on the behest of Hutchins’ widower, Matthew Hutchins, who wished her humanity recentered. “But I realized I couldn’t make a film about her life unless I understood how she died,” Mason says within the movie. Maybe because of this she fails to seize who Hutchins was past some good phrases spoken about her by shut pals. Notably, Matthew just isn’t interviewed. That’s comprehensible. It’s additionally an issue for the movie. Regardless of its well-intentioned goals, “Last Take” reduces Hutchins’ life to the circumstances of her loss of life.
For those who have been enraged when the story first broke, the documentary will re-enrage you over again. Three folks have been held criminally chargeable for the capturing, regardless of the OSHA inspector’s opinion that there was “no way this is only limited to three people.”
The Hulu press supplies are cautious to phrase the involvement of the movie’s star in passive phrases: “A prop gun held by actor Alec Baldwin fired a live bullet.” Baldwin was additionally a producer on the movie and he was charged with involuntary manslaughter. The case was dismissed after the choose dominated the prosecution had withheld proof. (The movie’s different producers will not be mentioned within the documentary.) Armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was convicted of involuntary manslaughter. And first assistant director Dave Halls pled no contest to negligent use of a lethal weapon and was given six months probation. (The prosecutor tells Mason she additionally supplied Gutierrez-Reed a deal that will have resulted in no jail time, however Gutierrez-Reed selected a trial as an alternative.)
Budgets on impartial movies are at all times tight and there’s intense stress to stretch a greenback. “Where is management’s priority?” asks the OSHA inspector. “Are we pushing production, production, production over people’s safety due to money?”
OSHA in the end issued one thing referred to as a “willful citation.” In keeping with the inspector, “There was enough input from management, enough knowledge, enough warning, enough complaints — all of these red flags — and management said, ‘Well, let’s just move on.’ We call that plain indifference.” A slide then seems on display: “In February 2023, OSHA agreed to settle with ‘Rust’ Productions, who were not required to admit any wrongdoing.”
The movie doesn’t ask in regards to the decision-making behind this end result, however a constant theme emerges referring to the query of who’s culpable. Clips from numerous TV interviews embrace one that includes Baldwin, who states that “someone is responsible for what happened and I can’t say who that is, but I know it’s not me.” Mason then cuts to a distinct clip that includes Hutchins’ husband. He sees issues in a different way: “The idea that the person holding the gun causing it to discharge is not responsible is absurd to me. Every individual who touches a firearm has a responsibility for gun safety.”
Baldwin, his spouse and their kids are presently featured in a brand new TLC sequence about their lives. In keeping with Folks journal, this prompted a response from Hutchins’ members of the family: “Is his reality show just a veiled attempt to create sympathy for himself with a future jury pool in our civil case? Is this just a shameless attempt to portray him as the real victim in this case?” The identical report notes that Baldwin “never called or tried to contact her parents or sister to say that he was sorry, and to this day he has never taken responsibility for Halyna’s death.” Hutchins can also be survived by a younger son.
On the day of the capturing, Baldwin was interviewed by a sheriff’s detective and within the video he’s seen drawing a diagram to elucidate the setup: “I sat here, and the camera was here, and she was here, and Joel was here.” The detective stops him: “She being … Halyna?”
It’s placing that Baldwin refers to Souza by identify however not Hutchins. Not lengthy after, one other detective says that Hutchins has died: “Joel’s still at the hospital. But the other person involved didn’t make it.” As soon as once more, Souza is called and Hutchins just isn’t. How rapidly she has been downgraded to “the other person.”
In later footage, Baldwin and his spouse confront a gaggle of paparazzi and a photographer admits to not remembering Hutchins’ identify. The Baldwins disgrace him, however their righteous indignation feels insincere contemplating Baldwin wasn’t utilizing her identify in that footage with detectives.
“There was an ugly frenzy” across the case, says Souza. “They sort of erased her from it really quickly.” He appears to be speaking in regards to the media. One other doable takeaway: The erasure was even broader.
At the least the documentary places Hutchins’ identify proper within the title.
‘LAST TAKE: RUST AND THE STORY OF HALYNA’
2.5 stars (out of 4)
Score: TV-MA
Tips on how to watch: Hulu
