Directories Movie Reviews

This volume in Robert J. Emery's series of filmmaker profiles bears all the strengths and weaknesses of the series as a whole: It provides an adequate and interesting overview of the career and films of Lawrence Kasdan (whose parents encouraged his writing aspirations), but it doesn't have enough depth or insight to offer lasting value to aspiring filmmakers--the series is clearly geared toward mainstream appreciation. Of particular value is Kasdan's candor in discussing the disappointments of his career, and his strict preference to direct his own screenplays rather than entrust them to another filmmaker. Kasdan earned that right after writing such high-profile screenplays as Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Empire Strikes Back, and his character-based dramas and comedies (most notably Body Heat, The Big Chill, Silverado, and The Accidental Tourist) have earned him the trust and appreciation of all the actors who've been privileged to work with him.

This one-hour documentary includes engaging interview clips with Kevin Kline (a Kasdan regular), Geena Davis, Bill Pullman, and Dennis Quaid, but other clips (Meg Ryan, Kevin Costner) were clearly lifted from secondary sources (promotional interviews and such), and they're too brief to be of interest. Taken as a whole, however, this look at Kasdan's career is comprehensive (up to 1995's French Kiss) and valuable for its extended interview with Kasdan himself--a gifted writer who has found his dream job in directing (and protecting) the films of his choice. --Jeff Shannon

The American Film Institute's series on today's most acclaimed Hollywood directors focuses this time on Oscar-winner Norman Jewison, helmsman of such movies as In the Heat of the Night, The Hurricane, and Moonstruck. The documentary features extensive interviews with Jewison and actors he has worked with over the years--from Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger to Goldie Hawn and Whoopi Goldberg--and clips from his major films. Although the piece doesn't go into depth on any one film, it does provide a good overall picture of Jewison's character, philosophy, and style. He emerges as a kind and sincere man, beloved by his actors and dedicated to making films with important social messages. In the Heat of the Night was, according to Poitier, "revolutionary, unheard of" in its significance for the civil rights movement. When no studio was willing to take a chance on financing his film, A Soldier's Story, a murder mystery about six African American soldiers set during World War II, Jewison offered to make the movie for nothing. And there are some great inside-Hollywood stories here, such as Jewison's wry tale of his meeting with the studio executives who wanted him to direct the screen adaptation of Fiddler on the Roof. --Laura Mirsky

This edition of The Directors is a mixed blessing, but it's refreshing for the candid manner in which William Friedkin assesses his own career. Having once aspired to a pro basketball career, Friedkin saw Citizen Kane and was inspired to pursue filmmaking. Of course, the Oscar-winning director of The French Connection and The Exorcist can claim his own phenomenal successes, but this kid-gloved program glosses over Friedkin's subsequent fall from Hollywood grace following the commercial and critical failure of Sorcerer, his ambitious remake of the French classic The Wages of Fear.

Given such a lightweight treatment of Friedkin's volatile career, interview clips offer adequate compensation. Once maligned as a megalomaniac, Friedkin is seen here (during the production of his 1995 thriller Jade) as an engaging subject, allowing that The Exorcist is "the one film I've made that could be called something of a classic," and chiding current Hollywood films for offering little more than "easy answers to easy questions." Friedkin discusses highlights from his best films (including the awesome chases in The French Connection and To Live and Die in L.A.), and concedes that while directing is "a young man's game," he still enjoys the challenge. Additional interviews include fawning sound-bites from Jade co-stars David Caruso, Chazz Palmintieri, and Linda Fiorentino, but the list of absentees is nothing if not conspicuous. Friedkin may have alienated many of his past collaborators, but this talented filmmaker has clearly mellowed (he's been married since 1991 to studio executive Sherry Lansing), and filmgoers can only hope his considerable talent enjoys a latter-day revival. --Jeff Shannon

It's a mixed bag in the age of illuminating DVD supplements, but First Works effectively demonstrates the early promise of 13 successful filmmakers. Culled from programs originally broadcast on Showtime in 1990, this crude compilation combines student films, early professional work, and interviews with now-famous directors at various stages of commercial and artistic achievement. Martin Scorsese was already an established master, and his comments here--along with his hilarious 1964 student film It's Not Just You, Murray--remain pertinent to aspiring filmmakers everywhere. Aimed at a film-school audience with generic narration and unnecessarily long, poorly integrated film clips, these programs nevertheless provide access to films that are difficult or impossible to see anywhere else, offering embryonic parallels (especially in the cases of Scorsese, Spike Lee, Oliver Stone, and Robert Zemeckis) to the careers that followed. Series creator Robert D. Kline provides his own astute perspective in a latter-day bonus interview that's as educationally valid as anything in his earlier programs. --Jeff Shannon