The Lyons Den
Starring E! movie dude Ben Lyons
Where'd the "Real" Directors Go?
Paramount Pictures
Happy Fourth of July week, folks! I took some time away from the golf course this weekend (what up, T Kid?) to watch a flick last night. This is what I do, and I'd love to hear about some of you doing this, too, especially if you curl up with an old movie after taking in the new releases.
A bunch of us were at the crib and watched Marathon Man, with Dustin Hoffman and Laurence Olivier. The John Schlesinger-directed, William Goldman-written '70s thriller is a prime example of how they don't make movies like this anymore. Commercial yet thought provoking and artistic, the film embodies an era when the director was king.
Nowadays, it's all star power. Not just actors, but producers and studio execs. From Bruckheimer and Grazer to Weintraub and Weinstein, when we think of people "making" movies we now think of who is "paying" for movies.
Picturehouse
The most talented directors of my generation—the ones who made names for themselves in the '80s and '90s—aren't usually big draws at the box office. Quentin Tarantino, Steven Soderbergh, Alfonso Cuarón, David Fincher, Craig Brewer, Guillermo del Toro, Spike Lee, Spike Jonze, P.T. Anderson, the list goes on.
While Brett Ratner and M. Night Shyamalan and commercial filmmakers are raking in the box-office bucks, there's a movement that has been overlooked by the general public. Some of these "director's movies"—Fight Club and Magnolia and, hopefully, Pan's Labyrinth—are revered by fans for years to come, at least, but not by the masses on opening weekend.
Perhaps in the digital age, things may return to the way they were in Hollywood's greatest decade, the '70s. Back when Lucas and Spielberg, Scorsese and Lumet, Polanski and Schlesinger all ruled—back when the director was king.
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