Until New Jersey mentioned it, how many can honestly say they saw the watermelon?
I didn't but as soon as he mentioned it, I looked for it.
W.D. Richter discussed the making of the film in detail in Empire a few years back. It was such a great article! I believe he discussed the watermelon a bit.
shareOkay, I've seen this film about a million times and find something new and wonderful in it each time...
But I don't remember a watermelon. What watermelon?
We saw it and even continued to riff on it when around watermelons for years afterward.
Side note: The rare Buckaroo Bonzai book is written from Rawhide's perspective. I don't recall the water melon in it. I took considerable care of the book and always retrieved it when loaned. It mysteriously vanished about 10 years ago.
Interview with Director answering why it's there:
_One crucial question… what is that watermelon doing there?_
Well, we were extremely concerned that Begleman was gonna shut the movie down. Every time we did something we were proud of, he would hate it. He really hated Buckaroo’s red glasses, he said, “a hero doesn’t wear red glasses.” He hated that there was a certain anarchic logic that he couldn’t get onboard with. So the watermelon is there just to see if he had gotten so disgusted with us that he wasn’t watching our dailies anymore. And it proved to be true, because early on in the movie, he would’ve shut it down for that little moment of the watermelon. But, he’d given up in despair.
_Wait, that’s why the watermelon is there? It’s a symbol of artistic defiance?_
The production designer, driving into work, went by one of those roadside fruit stands and bought a bunch of watermelons. He said, “I don’t know what I’m gonna do with these things.” During that day, we were blocking out little bits, and wandering around this abandoned factory and there’s this amazing machine sitting there, looking as if it’s ready to crush something. So I said, “Let’s put a watermelon in that.” And then they improvised those lines of dialogue, and it became extraordinary.
We never heard a word about it from the studio, so that was our way of recklessly saying, “They’re not even looking at our dailies anymore, and we’re far enough into the movie that they won’t shut it down, so let’s just do whatever we want.” And that was it, it was license to make the movie we wanted to make. To defy all logic, and just be.
More here:
https://thefront.tv/read/off-hollywood-buckaroo-banzai-wd-richter/