Lynndi Lockenour
A local St. Charles man recently achieved his dream by writing, producing and directing his own film, something that has taken 12 years to finally become a reality. Ken Tipton; born and raised in St. Charles, his film Heart of the Beholder is based on the true story of how Ken lost his family, multi-million dollar chain of video stores and almost his life. His family refused to buckle to the terror tactics of a group of religious fanatics and the corrupt prosecutor the religious fanatics had blackmailed into ruining them because they would not remove Martin Scorsese’s controversial film, The Last Temptation of Christ, from his video stores. “It wasn’t so much about this particular movie,” Tipton said, “But more that I didn’t want someone telling me what to do.”
Heart of the Beholder is a film project that has been up and down the development slates in Holly wood since 1993. In most cases, the project was too controversial because it deals with the fanaticism of the religious right. However, Tipton is certain to say it is not about trashing Christians or their faith. Darlene Lieblich, Vice President of Broadcast Standards and Practices for Fox Cable Networks, said pure and simple the film is about the abuse of power – both religious and political. “In my 28 years as a television executive, I’ve read thousands of scripts,” she said. “It still amazes me how much trash finds its way into production, while riveting, relevant stories are ignored. Lieblich said when she read Heart of the Beholder she found it to be an incredibly powerful story. “Based on real people and real events, the films structure is flawless and the writing excellent in every aspect.”
Tipton moved to Hollywood in 1993 to begin working on the movie but after being bumped around by several companies, including HBO, it seemed a dead end. Though his family agreed he should stay in Hollywood until the film was completed, Tipton said he felt his family has suffered because of his dream. “It was a 12 year-long obsession I guess you could say.” To combat this, Tipton turned over all money made on the film to his ex-wife and children. “My ex-wife is my hero for raising our four children while I was out there doing my thing,” he said.
Attending his twenty-fifth class reunion in 1996 is what pushed Tipton to continue searching for a way to get his movie made. “People were saying ‘I thought you were in jail’ when I arrived,” he said. “I wanted people to know what really happened behind all the cameras and newspapers.” More than anything Tipton said he wants people to enjoy the film. “It’s entertainment and I want people to see it as that instead of fact checking every detail,” he said. “I’m not a documentarian; I’m a film maker.”
Shooting for Heart of the Beholder began in May of 2004 after finally raising enough money through the refinancing of Lieblich’s home and personal loans to make a $500,000 independent film. Tipton said by the time he finally got to begin filming he had directed it in his head for 1,000 nights. “I wasn’t really overly excited,” he said. “I slept fine the night before. I was just ready to get started.” In July 2004 the principal photography was completed and by January 2005 the film had to be completed and submitted to various film festivals.
After waiting twelve years to have his dream made a reality, Tipton said it was an amazing feeling when the last scene was filmed. “Everyone was crying because we knew it was such a good story,” he said. Tipton said he was lucky enough to have three of his four children help him film the movie. “After it was over they all said they never wanted to do it again because it was such hard work, but I think it was a wonderful experience for us to share.” The film was shot in 18 days, but took 10 months to edit, instead of the six months predicted because of various problems. “We were having sound problems and come to find out someone was cutting one out of every 24 slides out of our film,” he said. “So by the end of the movie, the sound was 2 minutes off from the pictures.” Eventually the problems were solved and editing continued, resulting in the finished film by January 2005.
Though Tipton changed the names of the characters when creating the movie, the film is based on his family’s experience 18 years ago. In the film Mike and Diane Howard, played by Matt Letscher and Sarah Brown, are a typical young couple with dreams of raising a family and starting a business of their own. They opened the first videocassette rental store in St. Louis in 1981 and with hard work their company grew into a multi-million dollar chain of stores.
During the growth of the company, a religious group called the Citizens For Decency frequently visited the Howard’s. The CFD insisted the Howard’s remove movies from their stores that they felt were “obscene or a determinant to the community and its children.” Films such as Taxi Driver, Agnes of God, Blazing Saddles, Animal House, Mr. Mom and many more were targeted. The CFD even targeted the Tom Hanks film Splash because they claimed the movie promoted sex with animals (bestiality) because he makes love to a mermaid. “These people weren’t even customers of ours at the time,” Tipton said, “So for them to be telling our customers what they should and shouldn’t watch really angered me.”
When Martin Scorsese’s controversial film, The Last Temptation of Christ was released on video in 1989, the Howard’s were the only video stores in St. Louis to offer the film for rent. The CFD declared war on them, harassing the Howard’s and their employees, vandalizing stores and cars and even going so far as to make death threats toward the Howard’s daughter, which Tipton said was the most difficult thing about all the entire ordeal.
When the Howard’s refused to buckle, the CFD blackmailed the Prosecuting Attorney with information about the prosecutor’s secret sex life. The prosecutor then had no choice but to ruin the Howard’s any way he could. Obscenity charges were filed and the prosecutor fed the media vague details about investigations, alleging that the Howard’s had ties to organized crime. The Howard’s won their case, but the negative publicity and legal fees bankrupted their business and harmed their family. “My business started right here on First Capitol with my first store where I only had 68 movies,” he said. Within five years Tipton turned those 68 movies into 6 stores worth over three million dollars. “To lose all that just because some particular religious group doesn’t like some of the movies we offer; I had to tell the story.”
Depressed and contemplating suicide after the decline of his business, Mike Howard’s unexpected meeting with a prostitute made everything clear. The woman had fallen into the religious group after leaving the sex business. She found the emotional acceptance she needed by picketing gay funerals, abortion clinics and any other group the CFD decided to target. The Prosecuting Attorney had been a regular customer of the woman and she told the religious group about the Prosecutors hidden sex life. She felt terrible about what happened to the Howard’s and agreed to help set up a sting to expose the corrupt prosecutor. Though the Howard family endured tremendous loss, there was something to be said for getting revenge on the prosecutor.
When Nikos Kazantzakis published the book The Last Temptation of Christ in 1955, the Catholic Church banned it and the Greek Orthodox Church excommunicated him. Three decades later, acclaimed director Martin Scorsese released his screen adoption of the novel. Scorsese’s film portrays Jesus as a confused man who struggles against his dual nature, thoughts and action. Preproduction of the film began in 1983 and until the release in 1988, groups affiliated with the Christian Right demonstrated against the film through petitions, phone campaigns, radio broadcasts and street protests.
By the time The Last Temptation of Christ went into wide release, the national controversy had diminished, but now individual cities and towns were seeking bans on the film. Among the list of cities was St. Louis. Blockbuster Video declined to carry the film in its stores. Even though the film earned mixed reviews in other countries, the film earned Scorsese an Academy Award nomination for Best Director.
If Heart of the Beholder is successful, Tipton plans to continue filmmaking. “This is my life,” he said. He currently has nine scripts ready as possibilities for his next film, including a sequel to Heart of the Beholder. “It took all these weird things and this up and down roller coaster of the last 12 years for me to finally realize this is what I want to do,” Tipton said. Despite his success with this film, Tipton said he hopes he never has to write for a film again. “The film we shot was rewrite number 246,” he said. “I started with over 400 pages that had to be cut down to 110 before we could begin.”
Tipton’s film will be showing Sunday at the Filmmaker’s Showcase in St. Louis at the Tivoli. The screening will be dedicated to Steve Mizerany, since he is the man Tipton credits with starting this entire journey. Tipton was working as a computer repairman for IBM in 1980 when he received an emergency phone call from Steve. It was payday and dozens of employees were waiting for their checks. The reason they were waiting is because the payroll operator had vomited all over the keyboard. Tipton finished repairing the keyboard in time for payroll to run. As a gift for braving the vomit to get him through a tough situation, Steve gave Tipton a Beta Videocassette Recorder. This machine inspired Tipton with the idea of renting movies and eight months later he opened his first video rental store.
Tipton’s dream is to eventually come back to the St. Charles area to shoot a movie. “You can’t get a better place than this,” he said. “Main Street could easily be a scene from the 1890s and south St. Louis looks like New York.” Tipton said if he gets the choice, chance and budget to come back to the area and shoot, he’d do it in a heartbeat. “People in St. Charles look like real people,” he said. “People in Hollywood look like Hollywood people trying to act like real people.” Tipton also encourages people to visit the website, www.beholder.com for more information or if they are interested in distributing the film.
