Kiwi reveals Tarantino’s true misanthropy
Those with longer memories will recall with some amusement when TVNZ reporter Rod Vaughan chartered a helicopter to fly in and confront business mogul Bob Jones at his favourite fishing spot. The former boxer broke Vaughan’s nose. Jones was fined $1000 – and famously asked the judge if by doubling up to $2000 he might be allowed to do it again.
There was the time an Auckland Star reporter was bitten on the backside at Auckland Zoo. Our former business reporter, Matt Nippert, was rather ingloriously set upon by a low-rent con-artist wielding a can of flyspray.
In this country, the risks to a journalist’s safety are low. Even after leaving his broadcasting career to enter politics, the worst that happened to National MP Steven Joyce was a flying dildo to the face.
Perhaps it is the laughable nature of these risks that makes journalists so often dismissive of health and safety regulation; we criticise ‘‘bureaucratic red tape’’ and ‘‘cotton wool’’.
That sniggering is silenced when tragedy strikes. The deaths of 29 men in the disgracefully-managed Pike River Mine was numbing. The death of 19-year-old Eramiha Pairama in a logging accident was shameful, worsened by the company’s directors liquidating the business to avoid paying $100,000 in fines and reparations to Pairama’s struggling family.
That is why New Zealand actress Zoe Bell’s comments today are so thought-provoking. Speaking to the Star-Times, Uma Thurman’s stunt double expresses regret at a crash on the set of Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill movie.
Normally, Bell would have been driving, but she was nursing an injury – so Tarantino insisted Thurman take the wheel. The star crashed into a palm tree, suffered concussion and injured her knees.
This is not of the same magnitude of Pike River, but it highlights the same willingness to push for results at all costs.
Bell pays tribute to Tarantino, saying it was his passion to make the best film possible that led to the accident.
There’s the rub. The pursuit of excellence is more subjective than Tarantino admits. One person’s Oscar statuette is another’s smashed head and knees.
New workplace safety laws make companies and their directors accountable for foreseeable injuries to their workers and visitors. To some, this seems draconian; to others, the paperwork seems tiresome.
But this law change is not just about sheeting home responsibility; it is about managing risk and changing attitudes.
Whether in a West Coast coalmine or on Hollywood’s red carpet, we can no longer afford leaders to put results ahead of people.