|
Sydney Pollack was a solid, if unspectacular, Hollywood filmmaker for 40+ years.
His background as an actor and acting teacher in the 1950s provided the basis for his excellent relationships and collaboration with a handful of Hollywood's biggest stars, resulting in films that were noted more for their great performances than for any ideosyncratic themes or cinematic style that could be described as "Pollackian".
His own work as an actor made him a better known personality than his limited directorial career would otherwise have warranted, though he did have a few big hits over the years. But his films were often successful, and he was more prolific as a producer than director, not only producing 10 of his own movies but 20+ other theatrical features, as well as some TV movies and documentaries.
Early Career
Pollack was an acting student of the legendary Sandford "Sandy" Meisner in the 1950s, and later was a stage actor and acting teacher. He began directing in TV in the early 1960s before breaking through with a few features in the mid 60s.
The Slender Thread (1965) - his first feature, it starred Sydney Poitier and Anne Bankroft, about a suicide hotline. It got 2 Oscar noms for art direction and costumes.
This Property Is Condemned (1966) - Pollack here begins his big screen collaboration with Robert Redford, co-starring Natalie Wood, with a script by FFCoppola, based on Tennessee Williams play.
The Scalphunters (1968) - This mediocre western comedy starred Burt Lancaster, with Shelley Winters and Ossie Davis. Unmemorable, except for the relationship between Pollack and Lancaster. At some point before this film (or during it?), Lancaster got Pollack hired to finish some scenes on Lancaster's other film that year, The Swimmer , which had been delayed when director Frank Perry was fired.
Castle Keep (1969) - Lancaster worked with Pollack again on their third consecutive film, this WWII actioner. Its a strange, not particularly successful anti-war film.
* They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969) - Pollack broke through with this fascinating, tragic look of Depression-era dance marathons and the desperation of the participants. He got DGA and Oscar nominations for his direction, with great performances by Jane Fonda and Gig Young.
Sydney had arrived.
Mid-Career
Pollack was now an established director de estime', an "actor's director". He worked with his favorite collaborator, Robert Redford, on 5 more films over the next 13 years, as well as with Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffmon, Paul Newman and Meryl Streep.
* Jeremiah Johnson (1972) - this character study of a mountain man is one of Redford's best performances, and a compelling film.
The Way We Were (1973) - this Redford/Streisand tearjerker is one of the most beloved hits of Pollack's career. Personally, I'd rather have a sharp stick jammed into my eye than sit thru this movie ever again.
The Yakuza (1974) -Pollack got a producing credit on this one, his first, as payment for agreeing to come in late on this project, scripted by Paul Schrader ("Taxi Driver"). Originally, it was going to be a Lee Marvin / Robert Aldrich pic (now THAT would've been cool!), but when warhorse Robert Mitchum was dragged out of a potsmoking haze to star, he forced out Aldrich to get Pollack. The result is a strangely lethargic tough-guy noir in Japan's criminal underworld.
* Three Days of the Condor (1975) - Back with Redford, Pollack makes the best thriller of his career. You can really see the Hitchcockian influence on Pollack, after years of directing "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" on TV, with lots more cinematic razzle-dazzle than he customarily employed.
Bobby Deerfield (1977) - Pollack produced and directed this lame Pacino movie, ostensibly a love story. Better forgotten.
* The Electric Horseman (1979) - like he did with CONDOR after YAKUZA, Pollack returned to Redford after DEERFIELD fiasco. Now THIS is a solid love story. Fonda & Redford are middle-aged mismatched lovers in the story of a cowboy on the run with a stolen horse, and the newswoman chasing the story who gets caught up in the nobility of the cowboy's last grab at redemption. One of Pollack's best.
Absence of Malice (1981) - He produced & directed this solidly mediocre story of libel, with Newman getting an Oscar nom.
*Tootsie (1982) - Pollack's first fullout comedy was not a "drag" by any means. Hoffman is great, but so is Pollack himself, as Hoffman's put upon agent. The picture got 10 Oscar noms, including 2 for Pollack (for direction & production). The feminist concept that the Hoffman character has to pretend to be a woman to learn how to be a better man is somewhat muddled by the less politically correct notion that it took a man to teach the female characters how to be better women. Regardless, it still is a funny, funny movie.
Out of Africa (1985) - Oscar always loves big romantic epic films, and they love movie stars, and so here Pollack gives them Redford and Streep, and African plains, and the Academy finally gave him 2 Oscars (direction and best film) for this bloated, dull, totally overrated turd. It's a shame that this is the main one that keeps getting referenced in all Sydney's obituaries.
Late career
After his laurels for AFRICA, Pollack spent more time producing other people's films than making his own. Most of the films he directed in the last 20 years were unsucessful and uninteresting.
Havana (1990/I) - The Redford collaboration ended sadly with this misfire.
The Firm (1993) - Pollack produced and directed this Grisham legal thriller with "the new Redford", Tom Cruise. A solid entertainment, better than most of the Grisham adaptations that followed.
Sabrina (1995) - Remaking Hollywood classics is always tricky (and usually pointless), but I always thought Bogart was terribly miscast in the original, and I thought Harrision Ford was a much better choice by Pollack for this remake. And Julia Ormond, while no Audrey Hepburn, held her own. Still, as with many Pollack movies, the pacing is turgid, giving far too much attention to performances than to narrative pacing.
Random Hearts(1999) - Working with Harrison Ford again, this tearjerker makes most romance novels seem like MOBY DICK.
The Interpreter (2005) - Pollack went out with a whimper with this hackneyed political thriller in the U.N., with Nichole Kidman and Sean Penn. The film is sabotaged by a bad script.
-------------
Pollack's legacy is a handful of excellent films, and a greater number of great performances, both by his actors and by himself (in an ocasional supporting role). To the extent you could find any thematic threads to his work, it could be seen as depicting a vaguely liberal worldview, with environmentalism and feminism cropping up here and there. But in the end, he may have been more craftsman than artist, more producer than director, and more acting teacher than anything else. However, his movies were succesful and he had an impact on the film culture of the 70s-80s. He didn't have the lightest touch, nor the deepest insights, but he was a pro's pro and, by all reports, a solid citizen.
So long, Sydney... and thanks for all the fish.
|
