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Posted: |
Feb 7, 2017 - 2:11 PM
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By: |
Morricone
(Member)
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Without digging onto his complete filmography, let me just state that OUTLAW JOSEY WALES is a masterpiece. No less an eminence than Orson Welles went on national tv and praised it as such.
And, no ,Philp Kaufman did not direct the film. He wrote the screenplay and was fired days into shooting because he did not know what he was doin'.
Glad you recognize UNFORGIVEN. GRAN TURINO is also brilliant and check out WHITE HUNTER, BLACK HEART
BRM
Ps When I saw the thread title, I originally though that Tarantino was now posting here
No I did not say Phillip directed more than a couple weeks of this. I did say he meticulously cast and designed the film as he did for THE GREAT NORTHFIELD RAID and WHITE DAWN. He "not knowing what he was doing" is totally your say, not even Eastwood had that opinion. The true version is found in a lot of sources. They all more or less said the same thing. Here is a typical one in Wikipedia:
Principal photography began in mid-October 1975. A rift between Eastwood and Kaufman developed during the filming. Kaufman insisted on filming with a meticulous attention to detail, which caused disagreements with Eastwood, not to mention the attraction the two shared towards Locke and apparent jealousy on Kaufman's part in regards to their emerging relationship. One evening, Kaufman insisted on finding a beer can as a prop to be used in a scene, but while he was absent, Eastwood ordered Surtees to quickly shoot the scene as light was fading and then drove away, leaving before Kaufman had returned. Soon after, filming moved to Kanab, Utah. On October 24, 1975, Kaufman was fired at Eastwood's command by producer Bob Daley. The sacking caused an outrage amongst the Directors Guild of America and other important Hollywood executives, since the director had already worked hard on the film, including completing all of the pre-production. Pressure mounted on Warner Brothers and Eastwood to back down, but their refusal to do so resulted in a fine, reported to be around $60,000 for the violation. This resulted in the Director's Guild passing new legislation, known as 'the Eastwood Rule', which prohibits an actor or producer from firing the director and then becoming the director himself. From then on, the film was directed by Eastwood himself with Daley second-in-command, but with Kaufman's planning already in place, the team were able to finish making the film efficiently.
Obviously Eastwood was not allowed to do this again (he had wanted to do it before when he had some problems with Michael Cimino on THUNDERBOLT AND LIGHTFOOT) and so most of what came after was Eastwood directed and I practically checked out of expecting anything from his films for a long time.
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"I feel a massive sense of irrecoverable loss that Ennio Morricone didn't become Clint Eastwood's composer."
Many of Clint's earlier films did contain outstanding scores including Morricone's TWO MULES FOR SISTER SARA (AND HE SCORED in the line of fire TOO):
DIRTY HARRY
MAGNUM FORCE
OUTLAW JOSEY WALES
ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ
HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER etc.
His theme composed for UNFORGIVEN is excellent but yeah, maybe he should have stuck to directing and acting>
brm
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I'm looking forward to seeing this film, I've always had an interest in the life of Howard Hughes. Fascinating character. I often wonder why Warren Beatty hasn't made more films in the last 20 years or so, good actor/director.
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All of Hollywood has asked the same question.
The feeling amongst those who know him is he just can not commit to a project. He dithers endlessly.
Too bad
b
PS bEATYY had planned to make a bio of Hughes years before Scorcese's AVIATOR. While I like Scorcese's film I would have loved to have seen Beatty's version. Instead we got BUGSY
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Posted: |
Feb 8, 2017 - 9:39 AM
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By: |
Morricone
(Member)
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No I did not say Phillip directed more than a couple weeks of this. I did say he meticulously cast and designed the film since the director had already worked hard on the film, including completing all of the pre-production....
So, are you saying the film would have turned out the same if PK directed it?
That is what you are implying.
I give props for Kaufman's 'pre-production' but Clint's outstanding direction can not be swept aside
I t is a brilliantly directed motion picture and Clint deserves the praise or condemnation
btw there is no 'THE" just UNFORGIVEN
Not the same, he is a different director. But Kaufman is part of a rare breed - the writer-director. This group (including John Huston, Joseph Mankiewicz, Billy Wilder, Preston Sturges, etc.) started out as writers and had other directors make wonderful films of their scripts. But they felt, no matter how great the director was, they knew the nuance of what they wrote better and it is they who should be directing.
I don't know how many have directed films, I have, but the idea that you come on the set and simply start directing actors is off the mark. Preproduction is all important, in fact, Alfred Hitchcock went so far as saying all the excitement and creativity is in preparation and shooting is relatively boring. Kaufman is a writer and has done meticulous preparation on all his films. I have seen his storyboards to WHITE DAWN, UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING and QUILLS. I have also seen Eastwood's films and know his eye and techniques. The sense of composition in OUTLAW is closer to Kaufman which leads me to conclude that in order to get the film finished on time, which Eastwood did, he used Kaufman's storyboards and they were great. He also did not dump those two weeks of shooting Kaufman did but more or less matched the rest of the film to it.
If you google the term "90% of directing is casting" you will find John Ford, Elia Kazan, Martin Scorsese, William Wyler, Steven Spielberg, Robert Altman, John Huston and every great director who ever lived saying the same thing. Philip Kaufman has said it himself, he totally cast OUTLAW JOSEY WALES. Once you have the casting what you do is stay out of the way of the professionals you have cast. Let them do their job. The reason Eastwood is the masterful director he is today is he eventually came up with techniques that reinforce this, including not saying "action" and "cut" but using other signals that wont disturb the acting flow.
So what I AM saying is (and you may find this outrageous) is 1) many of the reasons you and many others find OUTLAW JOSEY WALES a masterpiece has to do with Kaufman, 2) if Kaufman had been allowed to complete this he would have attained the level of success he had to wait until THE RIGHT STUFF to achieve and 3) (the most outrageous of all!) he MIGHT have made it an even more of a masterpiece than Eastwood did. The fact that it took quite a long time for Eastwood to make another film half as accomplished while Kaufman came into his own soon afterward reinforces that.
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As you know Eastwood is an uncredited "producer' on all his films though his company, Malpaso.
He is heavily involved in the making of his films.
Your stance reminds me a bit of Pauline Kael who outrageously and libelously claimed that Herman Manceiwicz was the main reason for the success of CITIZEN KANE, not Orson Welles.
let us leave it at that
bruce
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For anybody who actually read “Raising Kane” ...
Henry
I did
bruce
ps wasn't the title THE CITIZEN KANE BOOK?
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