SPOILER WARNING
On Sunday night I sat on my couch, biting my nails in anxious excitement over HBO's True Detective, particularly the last six minutes of the show, which were done in a single take shot. It's so flawlessly executed that I didn't even realize it until it was three minutes into the sequence and the stakes kept rising and rising into a boiling kettle of intensity that rivals the very best of what cinema could ever offer. Director Cary Fukunaga (JANE EYRE, SIN NOMBRE) spoke to MTV about the 6-minute take, elaborating on the process to make it happen, saying that with the best oners "you don't even realize that they're oners. They're the most first-person experience you can get in a film."
In the fourth episode of the show, entitled "Who Goes There" (our review here) McConaughey's Det. Rust Cohle is in deep cover, pulling off a heist with a group of motorcycle gang thugs when the situation escalates into a violent shootout and escape. It's one of the most intense and lengthy one-shot takes that easily rivals that of standard bearers like Martin Scorsese, Brian DePalma, Wes Anderson, and Alfonso Cuaron.
"We had ADs [assistant directors] all over the neighborhood because we had to release extras, crowd running background, police cars, stunt drivers. There were actual gun shots and stones being thrown through windows. There were a lot of things to put together," Fukunaga said. "Even the action, the stunt sequences were complicated. We're working on a television schedule. It isn't like a film where you can spend a lot of time working the stunts out with the actors. We only had a day and a half to get Matthew and everyone else on the same page."
Check out the full shot:
HBO's True Detective is on Sunday nights at 9 PM. If you're not watching, it's time to get on it.
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