Why Rip Torn Attacked Norman Mailer With A Hammer
In the year 1970, a movie was released titled Maidstone, written and directed by a confusing artistic soul named Norman Mailer. The movie is really only somewhat famous amongst filmmakers and film fans alike for one extremely disturbing scene that plays out at the end of the hour and fifty minute long movie that appears to show director and star Norman Mailer and co-star Rip Torn actually violently fighting each other. The movie itself is about an ego-centric filmmaker who starts a Presidential campaign... I guess? Amidst the movie, it is spoken that Mailer's character should be assassinated while on his road to become President, often by relatives, friends and acquaintances who are out for his assets.
In Rip Torn's words during an interview with Filmmakers Newsletter in 1971 when asked what the film was about, Torn explained, "it's about assassination. Norman asked several people to set up phony assassination attempts. I think they just didn't follow through." If that's correct, then I must say what an absolutely crazy idea to include in a movie where fiction and non-fiction split back and forth. So to some people watching, they probably could've believed it was just supposed to happen that way for the movies sake, and that it must not be real. But, it just so happens that it's very much real.
FULL uncut Mailer vs. Torn Maidstone brawl here.
Torn explains in the same interview, "I thought he knew I was going to do it. He said he knew something; he knew I was wired." And adding a moment later that it looked so real because "...he didn't play dead. He didn't fold." So, as it seems, this attack was indeed somewhat planned for the film, and that Mailer was supposed to fall and improvise his death. Even though a ton of the film is improvised, and it was the day after/or day of when filming for the movie had supposedly wrapped, Norman must have simply forgot that his character could be attacked at any moment under directions he gave cast members, and when he is attacked that he should play dead like his character really did get killed. The clearest reason to me above all for why Norman didn't do this is because the tap to the head with the hammer was harder than it was supposed to be, thus catching him way more off guard and to be very hostile and combatively defensive. Rip even mentions that although the hammer made contact with Norman, it wasn't entirely supposed to, as he mentions to Filmmaker Newsletter that people accuse him of "actually hitting Norman Mailer with a hammer" - meaning that people believed he really wanted to hit him even though he states furthermore that he never wanted to do this scene, and that he only did because he was directed to earlier on. Even after the altercation as they walk through the pasture, Torn can be heard saying that he's never hurt anybody on a film set before, he's never drawn blood, and appears to be distraught as he tries to explain that he was only doing what he thought he was supposed to do.
Okay, carrying on I noticed several things in their tones, body language, actions, and might try and give some ideas on what both of them could have been thinking. I'm no expert and have taken no classes on investigative work, I'm only guessing these body languages and thought processes because I understand human nature and behaviors. So, when it comes to thinking, keep in mind that Rip Torn himself has said he was up for five entire days leading up to this incident. I've seen comments on YouTube and message boards of people saying that he was on drugs, particularly methamphetamines, but I can't for the life of me find an actual source of where that information came from, other than the fact that Rip in fact does look drugged out of his mind. Well, he did say he was wired, meaning in a tense state on this particular day but alas once again, there's no source of him or anyone confirming he was on drugs. There's also no source that the ear became infected, but there is a source that the laceration on his ear was minor.
After the initial tap to the skull with the little hammer, Mailer shouts at him and backs away in actual confusion, anger, and possibly a little bit of pain as you can see he keeps touching his head on the spot where the hammer made contact. It's very clear that Torn expected Mailer to fall and play dead at this time, because he says "you must die, Norman Kingsley, you must die. Not Mailer, not Mailer. I don't want to kill Mailer, but I must kill Kingsley for the picture." He is speaking psychotically because remember, he was up for five days and extremely on edge. But he is saying this to Mailer as Mailer tries to get away spouting angrily and befuddled because he is obviously trying to get Mailer to understand through improv that he's doing the assassination he was told to try and do earlier that day, and was also told about it the previous day/days.
I firmly stand and believe that Rip Torn was not going to smack Norman's head again with the hammer, but rather pretend the rest of the way because as stated previously, I don't think he expected the hammer to hit him as hard as it ended up hitting him that first time. If anyone watched closely, as he goes in for an obvious half-assed swing (if he wanted to hit him hard again or harder this time, don't you think he would've swung faster and tried harder to do so?) he actually just lets go of the hammer when Mailer grabs onto him and lunges his mouth at Rip's ear. He actually seems to drop it in a sense of self-defense, like 'okay he's not improvising this scene like I thought we would. He's fighting back instead of playing dead so now I have to really fight back as well'. If I accidentally hit him with the hammer in the first place, I'd know that although it was expensive wasting that film on this attempt, I would like for him to know that it was an accident and to make sure he's alright and aware of what I'm doing now instead of continuing to act it out. So I can agree there that Torn wasn't 100% right or okay during this whole fiasco.
After the hammer drops and Mailer has his arms around Torn, Mailer quickly chomps down on his ear while holding Torn's right arm and neck, and you can visibly see when he bites down if the footage is frame by frame. Torn now seems - through body language - very distraught and quickly scrambles to try and throw Mailer down or get him off. During the struggle, Mailer becomes off balance by Torn's movements causing him to be slammed onto his back and it looks like his head hits the ground decently hard. Mailer is the only one heard grunting as if he's either really hurt or struggling badly. While grappling on the ground with his ear between Mailer's teeth, Torn tries to calm the situation a bit it seems by saying "Norman...", to which Norman shouts for him to let go of the hammer with his teeth still clenching Torn's right ear, not knowing the hammer was dropped just moments before they fell to the ground.
If I haven't explained it enough, a brief recap might help - Rip Torn was told days prior and on the same day of this incident by Mailer that his character should carry out an assassination attempt at an unexpected time so that it would continue to blur the line between fact and fiction for the film. Ironically, that is exactly what happened. That was the fucking point of direction he gave Torn, he didn't want to know when the assassination would happen. By thinking it from all aspects though, possibly Mailer was expecting Torn to make it more obvious, like run up to him in the middle of a scene with a prop gun or pretend to snipe him from a distance, similarly to how Presidents might have typically and historically been assassinated of course. Coming at him with a hammer and actually accidentally tapping him a bit too hard on the dome is not the smartest or the most obviously typical way to approach acting out an assassination.
The part of the fight that seems to confuse most, including myself, is after they tumble to the ground and Torn seems to try and get Mailer off his ear rather calmly. After Norman yells for him to drop the hammer, Torn is heard saying, "No baby, no baby. You can trust me, baby. Do you trust me?" He's actually asking this so that Mailer could maybe get the hint once more of what was going on and finish the scene where the assassination would be successful. As he stated to Filmmakers Newsletter, "There’s an element of trust there. That was the nature of Norman’s speech in the Hilltop Hotel that the film was built on trust. If he hadn’t trusted me, he would not have asked me to set up that phony assassination attempt. But by actually doing what he asked me to do, he thought I had betrayed him. If I had not done that action, I would have truly betrayed him." As they assemble their trust amongst one another on the ground with Torn pinning down Mailer, Mailer lets go of Torn's ear and asks if he can be let up now. Torn replies "No, I must hit you with this hammer." and proceeds to pretend to grab an invisible hammer next to Mailer's head.
Mailer. acting quickly, seems to accidentally elbow Torn in the chin as he tries to further defend himself from being hit any further. This is the part that's confusing, and where I almost genuinely think that Torn became actually angry and hostile that he was struck in the chin because with what appears to be nearly all his strength, he begins to try and strangle Mailer with both of his hands around Mailer's throat and neck. Norman yells for someone to stop Torn, but really it took another minute for anyone to even step in at all, and by that point Mailer is almost strangled unconscious. Although the yelling is unbearable, Norman is lucky that his wife stepped in to be the first one to notice something is wrong and begin pulling Rip's hair and smacking his face pretty hard. Once she begins striking Torn, two other actors quickly hop in and pull the two apart.
The physical fight ends there, but the two continue to talk and argue flip-flopping back and forth from in character to not in character. Norman can be heard telling Torn that he's cutting all his dialogue from the movie, which Torn replies that he didn't want dialogue anyway. This entire time though, Rip Torn is continuously trying to explain that what he had done was for the purpose of the movie and that he's never hurt anybody on a film set before. It basically ends abruptly when Mailer says, "You might as well cut this tape. He doesn't stop as long as anything is running." This causes Torn to point at him, because by Norman saying that last bit to him it means he's implying that he knows Torn is only continuing the fighting and arguing for the movie. He's saying as if, "well if we turn the cameras and tape recorders off, he'll finally stop because it's no longer for the movie now". That's why Rip points and goes "ooh!" because Norman knew there at the end finally that it's all for the film and the hit to the head was completely unintentional.
So, there you have it. In conclusion, it was all really just a huge misunderstanding, a lot of miscommunication from both parties. Although, to me, Maidstone is a really boring film and the only good parts were when Rip Torn was on screen, it's considered a classic amongst many film fans and film school students alike; a legendary movie if you must call it.
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