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Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind
The life, career, and tragic death of the Hollywood icon are uniquely and lovingly brought to the screen by HBO in a beautiful 2020 documentary called Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind which takes a different approach to offering a new look at a lot of things we already know about the star and offers new information as well.
The documentary opens with its executive producer, Wood's daughter, Natasha Gregson Wagner talking off screen about the day she learned about her mother's death and then segues into Natasha sitting down and talking to Robert Wagner and playwright Mart Crowley, Natalie's best friend, who share memories about their first meetings with Natalie, intermingled with a barrage of home movies, still photographs, and film clips.
This documentary didn't follow the traditional chronological route of most celebrity documentaries. The interview goes straight to the end of Wagner's first marriage to Natalie, right around the time Wood's career was blowing up. It then goes back to her childhood and an emotionally charged sequence where several different people are asked to talk about the exact moment they heard about Wood's death and it was interesting to watch how every single person who was asked about this remembers in vivid detail exactly where they were, what they were doing and exactly how they felt when they got the news. It goes without saying that Robert Wagner did not participate in this section of the film.
Don't get it twisted though...Natasha Gregson Wagner and Robert Wagner do sit down together and talk about that tragic night on the boat. It was very hard watching this part of the film because it was clearly not easy for either of them. It was genuinely moving to watch both Natasha and Wagner's eyes well up with water as Wagner talked, though I still get the feeling that Wagner is hiding something, but this is the most opening up I have seen about what happened that night from Wagner.
There's also a nice overview of her career that revealed a lot of things I didn't know. This was my first exposure to a lot of personal and professional turmoil during the filming of The Great Race and the pain she went through when, for the first time, she and RJ were working at the same time. He was working on Hart to Hart and she was working on her final film Brainstorm which co-starred Christopher Walken, who was on the boat that night but only appears in archival footage in this documentary.
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In addition to Natasha, Wagner, and Crowley, commentary is also provided by Robert Redford, Mia Farrow, Richard Benjamin, George Hamilton, Jill St. John, Natalie's daughter Courtney and stepdaughter Katie Wagner. There is also a rare appearance from Natalie's second husband Richard Gregson, who now suffers from Parkinsons. And as superficial as it might sound, another thing this documentary brought home for me was that Natalie Wood was one of the most breathtakingly beautiful women who walked the planet. Second only to Marilyn Monroe, I don't think there was any actress the camera loved more than the incredible Natalie Wood.
The life, career, and tragic death of the Hollywood icon are uniquely and lovingly brought to the screen by HBO in a beautiful 2020 documentary called Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind which takes a different approach to offering a new look at a lot of things we already know about the star and offers new information as well.
The documentary opens with its executive producer, Wood's daughter, Natasha Gregson Wagner talking off screen about the day she learned about her mother's death and then segues into Natasha sitting down and talking to Robert Wagner and playwright Mart Crowley, Natalie's best friend, who share memories about their first meetings with Natalie, intermingled with a barrage of home movies, still photographs, and film clips.
This documentary didn't follow the traditional chronological route of most celebrity documentaries. The interview goes straight to the end of Wagner's first marriage to Natalie, right around the time Wood's career was blowing up. It then goes back to her childhood and an emotionally charged sequence where several different people are asked to talk about the exact moment they heard about Wood's death and it was interesting to watch how every single person who was asked about this remembers in vivid detail exactly where they were, what they were doing and exactly how they felt when they got the news. It goes without saying that Robert Wagner did not participate in this section of the film.
Don't get it twisted though...Natasha Gregson Wagner and Robert Wagner do sit down together and talk about that tragic night on the boat. It was very hard watching this part of the film because it was clearly not easy for either of them. It was genuinely moving to watch both Natasha and Wagner's eyes well up with water as Wagner talked, though I still get the feeling that Wagner is hiding something, but this is the most opening up I have seen about what happened that night from Wagner.
There's also a nice overview of her career that revealed a lot of things I didn't know. This was my first exposure to a lot of personal and professional turmoil during the filming of The Great Race and the pain she went through when, for the first time, she and RJ were working at the same time. He was working on Hart to Hart and she was working on her final film Brainstorm which co-starred Christopher Walken, who was on the boat that night but only appears in archival footage in this documentary.
In addition to Natasha, Wagner, and Crowley, commentary is also provided by Robert Redford, Mia Farrow, Richard Benjamin, George Hamilton, Jill St. John, Natalie's daughter Courtney and stepdaughter Katie Wagner. There is also a rare appearance from Natalie's second husband Richard Gregson, who now suffers from Parkinsons. And as superficial as it might sound, another thing this documentary brought home for me was that Natalie Wood was one of the most breathtakingly beautiful women who walked the planet. Second only to Marilyn Monroe, I don't think there was any actress the camera loved more than the incredible Natalie Wood.