With his long hair, sunglasses and bellbottoms, Hal Ashby was the epitome of the 1970s flower child, even though he was a decade older than most of the filmmakers working at the time. Though his flame burned brightly and briefly, he left behind a series of classics that signified the nose-thumbing, countercultural attitude of the era, with a bit of humanism and heart thrown in for good measure. Let’s take a look back at all 12 of his films, ranked worst to best.
Born on September 2, 1929 in Utah, Ashby ambled around before becoming an apprentice editor for Robert Swink, working for Hollywood legends William Wyler and George Stevens. He moved up the ranks to become an editor for Norman Jewison, with whom he shared a fraternal and professional relationship. They cut five films together, including “The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!” (1966), which earned him his first Oscar nomination,...
Born on September 2, 1929 in Utah, Ashby ambled around before becoming an apprentice editor for Robert Swink, working for Hollywood legends William Wyler and George Stevens. He moved up the ranks to become an editor for Norman Jewison, with whom he shared a fraternal and professional relationship. They cut five films together, including “The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!” (1966), which earned him his first Oscar nomination,...
- 8/25/2023
- by Zach Laws and Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
When you think of 1980s action movies, visions of steroidal juggernauts like Schwarzenegger and Stallone are likely to spring to mind, but there was always another, if less numerous, stream running through their midst: gritty, downbeat, and cynical films typically helmed by New Hollywood stalwarts whose careers were in various stages of diminution. Among them were Hal Ashby’s strident, coke-fueled 8 Million Ways to Die, John Frankenheimer’s seamy extortion saga 52 Pickup, and William Friedkin’s To Live and Die in L.A., a neon-hued noir reworking of the morally ambiguous cops-versus-criminals terrain he had staked out a decade earlier in The French Connection.
Like Friedkin’s earlier film, To Live and Die in L.A. cannily blends quasi-documentary procedural realism with an unpredictable modernist sensibility. The story is succinct in its pulpy purity: loose-cannon Secret Service agent Chance (William Petersen) vows to take down elusive counterfeiter Rick Masters (Willem Dafoe), no matter the cost,...
Like Friedkin’s earlier film, To Live and Die in L.A. cannily blends quasi-documentary procedural realism with an unpredictable modernist sensibility. The story is succinct in its pulpy purity: loose-cannon Secret Service agent Chance (William Petersen) vows to take down elusive counterfeiter Rick Masters (Willem Dafoe), no matter the cost,...
- 7/24/2023
- by Ed Gonzalez
- Slant Magazine
Cinematographer Stephen H. Burum will be honored at EnergaCamerimage with the festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
Set to run in Torun, Poland, on Nov. 12-19, Camerimage, which focuses on films and cinematography, will celebrate its 30th anniversary this year.
Burum is best known for his collaborations with director Brian De Palma, which yielded such classics as “The Untouchables” (1987), a tale of the battle between good and evil; Vietnam War drama “Casualties of War” (1989); ”Carlito’s Way” (1993), which portrayed deep social divides; the iconic “Mission: Impossible” (1996); “Snake Eyes (1998); and “Mission to Mars” (2000).
His body of work also includes Joel Schumacher’s “St. Elmo’s Fire” (1985), Danny DeVito’s “The War of the Roses (1989), and Ken Kwapis’ and Marisa Silver’s “He Said, She Said” (1991).
Born in rural California in 1939 to a family of that owned and worked on several small newspapers, Burum became interested at an early age in film and shot his...
Set to run in Torun, Poland, on Nov. 12-19, Camerimage, which focuses on films and cinematography, will celebrate its 30th anniversary this year.
Burum is best known for his collaborations with director Brian De Palma, which yielded such classics as “The Untouchables” (1987), a tale of the battle between good and evil; Vietnam War drama “Casualties of War” (1989); ”Carlito’s Way” (1993), which portrayed deep social divides; the iconic “Mission: Impossible” (1996); “Snake Eyes (1998); and “Mission to Mars” (2000).
His body of work also includes Joel Schumacher’s “St. Elmo’s Fire” (1985), Danny DeVito’s “The War of the Roses (1989), and Ken Kwapis’ and Marisa Silver’s “He Said, She Said” (1991).
Born in rural California in 1939 to a family of that owned and worked on several small newspapers, Burum became interested at an early age in film and shot his...
- 5/5/2022
- by Peter Caranicas
- Variety Film + TV
Tommy “Tiny” Lister, the hulkish character actor whose pro-wrestler frame and menacing onscreen disposition highlighted the first two Friday films, Jackie Brown, The Fifth Element, and more than 200 other movies, died Thursday at the age of 62. His manager, Cindy Cowan, confirmed the actor’s death to Variety. A cause of death was not immediately known, but Cowan told Variety that he was found unresponsive in his Los Angeles apartment “after displaying symptoms of Covid-19 in recent days.” Cowan said Lister had been diagnosed with Covid-19 earlier this year.
“Deputies were...
“Deputies were...
- 12/11/2020
- by Jason Newman
- Rollingstone.com
Hal Ashby would’ve celebrated his 90th birthday on September 2, 2019. With his long hair, sunglasses and bellbottoms, he was the epitome of the 1970s flower child, even though he was a decade older than most of the filmmakers working at the time. Though his flame burned brightly and briefly, he left behind a series of classics that signified the nose-thumbing, countercultural attitude of the era, with a bit of humanism and heart thrown in for good measure. In honor of his birthday, let’s take a look back at all 12 of his films, ranked worst to best.
Born in 1929 in Utah, Ashby ambled around before becoming an apprentice editor for Robert Swink, working for Hollywood legends William Wyler and George Stevens. He moved up the ranks to become an editor for Norman Jewison, with whom he shared a fraternal and professional relationship. They cut five films together, including “The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!...
Born in 1929 in Utah, Ashby ambled around before becoming an apprentice editor for Robert Swink, working for Hollywood legends William Wyler and George Stevens. He moved up the ranks to become an editor for Norman Jewison, with whom he shared a fraternal and professional relationship. They cut five films together, including “The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!...
- 9/2/2019
- by Zach Laws and Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
Like many people, Amy Scott first came to the work of iconoclastic director Hal Ashby through “Harold and Maude.” The singularly joyful and macabre love story has been a staple of repertory theaters and college video viewings since it was released in 1971. “It blew my mind, it shifted my personal narrative,” says Scott, who makes her feature documentary directing debut with “Hal,” which screened this weekend at the Telluride Film Festival and opens in selected theaters on Sept. 7.
After being introduced to Ashby through her friends in film school, Scott continued her career as an editor, and when she read the biography “Being Hal Ashby: The Life of a Hollywood Rebel,” she realized that there was still no documentary about the seminal filmmaker.
Despite creating so many distinctive films of the 1970s, including “Coming Home,” “The Last Detail,” “Shampoo,” “Bound for Glory,” and “Being There,” which Scott calls his masterpiece,...
After being introduced to Ashby through her friends in film school, Scott continued her career as an editor, and when she read the biography “Being Hal Ashby: The Life of a Hollywood Rebel,” she realized that there was still no documentary about the seminal filmmaker.
Despite creating so many distinctive films of the 1970s, including “Coming Home,” “The Last Detail,” “Shampoo,” “Bound for Glory,” and “Being There,” which Scott calls his masterpiece,...
- 9/5/2018
- by Pat Saperstein
- Variety Film + TV
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