richard donner, oh richard donner

(xpost)

also at the screening a bunch of quebec sword-fighting types stood up before the movie, they were in it! the guys who swordfight on the mountain every weekend! those guys.

on xpost: lethal weapon 2 rules, what are you talking about?!?!

"My body is falling apart! I need to keep it together, and I need money for that. I make the movie."

i saw his first film on cable once, it's called x-15 and is about an early, abortive space program within the air force... pilots and the women (including mary tyler moore IIRC) who love them. it had very TV-style values, with a predominance of close ups and ugly simplistic decor. the documentary-esque sequences involving the testing and launch of the planes (yes, planes) were better than the sequences of wives yammering about their absent husbands.

i think a lot of people are kept from wanting to become directors because they're afraid they'll become richard donner.

i thought superman II was COMPLETED by lester after donner left the project. in fact he shot stuff for the first two movies at the same time, but gave up before the second project was complete.

I wouldn't argue that donner was an "auteur" of any kind, and not just because I don't like that word--but he was a talented action director

and that counts for something

frankenheimer over altman????

it's tough with altman because my opinion really changes on him depending what movie I've seen last, he's such a yo-yo

I really think superman is a terrific movie though, it's really really well-directed and funny and great and the spectacle is just beautiful!

Now that I know that, I feel cheated at not getting to see General Zod and Ursa and Non run around a field in super-sped-up motion.

"Sorry about your field, PITIFUL EARTH PERSON"

http://www.whoosh.org/issue34/graphics/mur1.jpg

A character-driven action thriller that stars Bruce Willis as Jack Mosley, a broken down NY detective assigned to escort a petty criminal (Mos Def) from the precinct to the courthouse. The seemingly simple 16 block journey becomes a test of character for them when Jack’s ex-partners attempt to stop them.

http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/16blocks/trailer/

"DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY!!!"

hahahaha

Does s1ocki even remember now?

For the first time in god knows how long I watched Superman this evening; I'd been meaning to go back and look at it ever since the Man of Steel trailer came out. I remember telling a (much younger) member of the group who saw said trailer with Dark Knight Rises that Donner's effort was essentially the first 'modern' superhero film in terms of technical accomplishment and taking it with some degree of seriousness, and I just wanted to make sure it held up in my brain.

My god, Donner, the Salkind production team, everyone made it work so, so ridiculously well. Just the opening half hour or so alone, everything about it -- tells a full origin story without wasting any time, hits every beat of the 'classic' background to the character while creating a film-specific aesthetic and approach, never once doesn't look gorgeous whether on Krypton or the Midwest or the Arctic. It's so clearly not a 'superhero'/comic book movie as we collectively deal with it, it's a movie about a character who happens to be a superhero instead, and everyone's given just enough room to breath to make an impact with their characters, from Brando and Stamp onward. Opening pre-credits tackle the comic book origins of the story with sheer love, the credits and space sequences still work as a weird, wonderful queasy interstellar journey, and Jeff East, who played young Clark Kent with Reeve's overdubbed voice for consistency, carries out that necessary part pretty beautifully. And I just love how the first reveal of Superman full on is Reeve in the distance, he takes off, flies towards the camera but not close enough for a proper close-up/hero shot and...we're in everyday New York and things continue from there.

Seriously impressed. The whole opening is an inadvertant masterclass in how to do this and I really don't think any movie that followed since has nailed it just so without seeming either completely contrived or by just taking another route and going in medias res plus flashbacks.

Any 'comic book' movie, I should say, in the last sentence there. Anyway!

https://deadline.com/2021/07/richard-donner-dead-superman-lethal-weapon-director-1234786372/

Dead at 91.

"DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY!!!"

...

the happiest day of my life will be the day I actually get to shout that as they drag me away
― s1utsky (slutsky), Thursday, November 27, 2003 10:48 AM (seventeen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

I'm of an age where I never missed The Banana Splits on Saturday mornings so I could catch Donner's Danger Island serial.