By RM
A question for Sam Fuller, in Afterlife Hollywood
If Mr. Fuller were around, I'd have this question for him: Why, after his dynamic early efforts like The Steel Helmet and Park Row, were most of the movies he made under contract to Fox slow, dull, and utterly uncinematic? Pickup is terrific, an exception to the rule, but Fixed Bayonets, Hell and High Water, House of Bamboo are all talky and static, not Mr. Fuller's style at all. (Forty Guns, made a bit later, was better.) My suspicion is that it was 20th's "house style" in the 1950's, especially when Cinemascope came in-don't move the camera too much, minimize closeups, avoid flashy editing. After that period ended, he hit one out of the park with Run of the Arrow, made at RKO, and followed that with The Crimson Kimono, excellent, for Columbia.
Why he's a "Great American" is beyond me, but he was a great (if erratic) filmmaker. And anti-Communist, perhaps, but he was a liberal-White Dog was quite the propaganda piece, but brilliantly done, his last great movie. (The professional racists, morons all, thought it was an anti-black movie and made plenty of trouble over it!)
I got to see Sam in person at the Film Forum in NYC. All I remember is his big cigar, and an anecdote about the French critics reading symbolism into his closeups of feet during the chase scenes in Arrow (which were taken with a double, in lieu of having pain-in-the-neck Steiger do them) - he sent them a large mockup of a foot, which he obtained from a podiatrist's office!
-RM
N.S. Young people won't know this, and even the more mature among us will have long ago buried this deep in the attic of their minds, but once upon a time, there were quite a few influential, liberal anti-Communists (e.g., Jack Kennedy and President Nixon).
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4 comments:
Thinking it over, Sam probably didn't have full control of those movies at Fox- the one I saw recently, HOUSE OF BAMBOO, was written by somebody else, with Sam as co-writer; it was pretty laborious. Normally Mr. Fuller is the producer AND writer AND director of his movies- a genuine auteur! (The major studios didn't like someone who wore too many hats.)
One thing excellent in BAMBOO was that Robert Ryan guy- he's so good at playing cold villains, you might think he was a Democrat in real life!
Here's a fun anecdote: when the rushes for ARROW were being screened, each shot began with a jerk of the camera. It was suspected that the equipment was defective- turned out, instead of yelling "Action!", madman Sam began each take by firing a gun into the air- right next to the unfortunate cameraman's ear!
-RM
You probably answered the question. Unless Fuller felt "fully involved", in every creative process, he went through the motions. He took more interest in his own "brain child"--gave more effort,in that circumstance--to make a movie he'd be proud to release. Others,it was just for the money. No one rolls sevens all the time(unless the dice are loaded). Directors seem to make their best movies early and as they get older,have a few bombs pop up on their resumes. It happens to the best of them.
--GRA
--GRA
Hitchcock said, "You're lucky to get 3/4 [roughly] of what you want onto the screen"- and he pre-planned everything meticulously. Because of (Communist) labor union rules, the director can't touch the camera (possibly can't even look through the viewfinder)- and neither can the cinematographer- only the camera operator! It's amazing that the system still managed to turn out so many great movies!
-RM
PS- Fuller's THE BIG RED ONE, his "dream project" which didn't get made till late in his career, was awful (in my estimation)- and the "restored" version, released after his demise, was even worse! (Beware "Director's Cuts" released after the director is dead!) That's one movie he should have made as a much younger man.
-RM
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