On Reflection: Graham Fink Recalls BA Face

In the spirit of celebrating unity and togetherness, we take a look back at one of the first ads to bring together people from all walks of life and all cultures around the world: British Airways’ Face.

Reportedly one of the most expensive adverts ever made, the visually spectacular spot was one of the highlights of director Hugh Hudson’s career. But as Graham Fink, one-half of the Saatchi & Saatchi creative team behind the ad reveals, things could have been very different…

About six months after [copywriter] Jeremy Clarke and I had written the British Airways Face script, we finally got approval to go and make it. Now, all we needed was an amazing director.

I had just watched a re-run of The Deer Hunter, the 1978 Vietnam war film directed by Michael Cimino. Two years later, Cimino was to bankrupt United Artists – one of the biggest studios in Hollywood – with the filming of his flawed masterpiece, Heaven’s Gate. The stories about the shenanigans and excesses involved in the making of this epic Western are quite unbelievable and are documented faithfully in Steven Bach’s book Final Cut: Art, Money, and Ego in the Making of Heaven’s Gate…

On set during the filming of Heaven's Gate

So off I went to see our head of telly, Jim Baker. Jim was an ex-marine. I only know this because he used to tell me so himself. “Jim, I’ve got a great idea for a director to shoot BA Face… Michael Cimino.”

It was at this point, for the first time, I watched an ex-marine spontaneously combust. “Jesus!” he said. “Have you ever read a book called Final Cut? He makes Tony Kaye look cheap.”

Using the Saatchi mantra of ‘Nothing Is Impossible’, I stepped over the fragments of the ex-marine and soon enough the script was winging its way to Cimino’s offices.

Two weeks later an answer came back. Cimino wanted US$1 million just to read the script.

Needless to say, we decided to go with award-winning director Hugh Hudson instead.

Cut to three months later. Hugh, Jeremy and I are in a strange hotel in the forests of Utah. It’s deer-hunting season. Twelve-year-old kids are outside brandishing rifles and firing at anything that moves. Apparently, before we’d arrived, one of them had fired shots at an air ambulance as it flew overhead.

Meanwhile, we are casting a scene where big groups of people come together and hug. I distinctly remember the room being very large with two of the walls built of logs. Halfway through the casting session a polite young lady from the hotel came in and asked if there was a Hugh Hudson present? “There’s a gentleman who wants to say hello to you.”

In walks Michael Cimino. They hug. It transpires that Cimino is here to start work on his new film, starring Mickey Rourke.

The next evening in the hotel bar, Jeremy and I pluck up the courage to go and say hello to Mickey. After taking the mickey (!) out of our accents, he tells us about the first day of shooting.

The opening scene was a dramatic motorbike crash. Apparently Cimino started screaming at the stuntman to ride closer to the camera. The next take ended up with bike and rider taking out the camera and cameraman. They had to call an air ambulance!

An ex-marine’s words were ringing in my ears.

The film was called Desperate Hours.