Signing on to join the cast or crew of a film shooting on location is like joining the circus. The original Iceman, released in 1984, is a chilly example of life in the Big Top—of the continent, that is. Iceman was shot in the 40- to 50-degree-below zero terrain of Churchill, Manitoba, on Hudson Bay, in studios in Vancouver, and in the cold, harsh environment of Stewart, British Columbia.

David Mamet, who traveled with the film’s co-star Lindsay Crouse (his then wife), describes life on location as being “like people whose bus has broken down” who choose temporary roles, starting from a clean slate among strangers (142). Some of the people can be categorized into their job simply by their appearance. There’s the make-up woman, costume designer, and still photographer, who “are always very attractive and special looking” (151). Meanwhile, “the producers…are always Mutt and Jeff: one is a smiler and one is a worrier” (151-52). Many also seem to take on traits of circus performers or, in a reverse anthropomorphism of sorts, take on the traits of circus animals.

John Lone, who plays the Iceman, becomes a bear when he wears his enormous black bear parka. After stopping traffic in town with his ultra warm attire, he is affectionately and playfully known for days afterwards as “pom-pom” (147). The stunt men are the crazy trapeze artists as they perform a daring helicopter stunt. But the craziest is the parachute packer who surprises all by hitching a ride on the outside of the helicopter and, after the stunt is complete, jumping into an acrobatic free fall that scares everyone, until at the very last minute he opens his parachute (147).

There are also the tech workers who perform “circus catches in the outfield” during a Production Company vs the local Arts Club Theatre softball game (153). Even some of the locals become part of the act, or at least are appreciated for their efforts. On Easter the local hookers dress as Easter Bunnies. “This last impressed us all greatly as, professionally, we approve of any show of spirit...” (153), Mamet notes.

There is the erecting of the location “tents” or, more accurately, the taking over of large abandoned spaces for the duration of the shoot. An abandoned hotel in Stewart becomes the company’s soundstage tent. An enormous private dining room in a Chinese restaurant in Vancouver becomes the Sunday night cast-and-crew dinner tent. A second floor in an abandoned warehouse in Vancouver becomes the cinema tent where dailies (the raw, unedited film footage, usually of the previous day’s shoot) are shown to the assembled company. The mobile card tables that hold the snacks for hungry viewers punctuate the temporariness of that scene: the quick set-up and break-down that is part of circus life.

Life on the road, though it may appear glitzy and desirous to the audience during the show, “is a life of hard work, difficult living conditions, not much glamour, not much leisure” (157). It means, “never getting home, cycled as soon as we start to Go Native…” (158). It is a nomadic life while the shoot continues, much like the circus tour.

Yet, isolated in the far north as they are during the four months of shooting Iceman, Mamet describes a unique camaraderie that forms out of necessity in which they are all forced to rely upon each other. He writes, “And those quirks and idiosyncrasies we see on screen are not the weak formulations of actors trying to ‘create a character,’ but, rather, the unknown and loved idiosyncrasies of people whom we know…the true revelation of character: how people react under pressure” (158-59).

That pressure of life on the road, of living in a three-ring circus of filmmaking in small towns with nothing much to do except to work and unwind at night, may be exactly why people run away and join the bizarre tour of duty in the first place. Or it may be so they can recall years later how they were part of the circus crew that actually pulled off the filming of a cinematic masterpiece.

¹ Written for semester coursework with Neil Landau.

Work Cited

Mamet, David. “Observations of a Backstage Wife.” Writing in Restaurants. New York: Penguin Group, 1986.