Ron Howard

Started by Xixax, January 25, 2003, 07:35:39 PM

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Xixax

It recently occurred to me that nobody ever seems to talk about Ron Howard.

Granted, I am not a huge fan, but you cannot deny that he's responsible for some of the highest grossing popcorn flicks ever.

I don't DISlike Ron Howard, he's just never made anything that is jaw-dropping to me. I can usually take his movies or leave them.

I was very entertained by Apollo 13 - to the point of buying the DVD (and his commentary was very interesting too, from a wannabe filmmaker standpoint - he talks a lot about setting up shots and what lenses he used and that sort of thing).

Anyway, I just wanted to open a thread on Ron. The proverbial good guy. I have heard it said that you would be hard pressed to find anyone in Hollywood who has actually worked with him that would have anything bad to say about him because in real life, he's so darned "swell".

Sounds like my kind of guy.
Quote from: Pas RapportI don't need a dick in my anus to know I absolutely don't want a dick in my anus.
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Gold Trumpet

Ron Howard, like very many good directors, will always remain a grade B director because with his movies, he shows no personal style or personal artistry and has no ambition to really push visual limits at all. David Mamet will forever be limited to this too with just his dogmatic beliefs in how to make a film and so will Sydney Lumet, even if they can make good films. They are men that are making good films but never showing any signs of what distinguishes films from other arts, including television.

~rougerum

©brad

Quote from: The Gold TrumpetRon Howard, like very many good directors, will always remain a grade B director because with his movies, he shows no personal style or personal artistry and has no ambition to really push visual limits at all. David Mamet will forever be limited to this too with just his dogmatic beliefs in how to make a film and so will Sydney Lumet, even if they can make good films. They are men that are making good films but never showing any signs of what distinguishes films from other arts, including television.

~rougerum

Hmm, I think first off that all three men are far from B-directors. Mamet?!

I am so grateful for direcors like Ron Howard and Ridley Scott who can make big-budget movies that are smart/funny/entertaining w/o insulting your intelligence (XXX).

Gold Trumpet

For reasons I've said, Yes, Mamet is a grade B director. Even he said in his directing book that he had no visual identity. Doesn't matter how good you become, you will always be limited to a grade B director because of what you are working in - film, which is a visual medium foremost.

~rougerum

Jeremy Blackman

Quote from: The Gold TrumpetDoesn't matter how good you become, you will always be limited to a grade B director because of what you are working in - film, which is a visual medium foremost.

If you just talking about Mamet, I might see your point.. although you're assuming that "grade B" directing will automatically make it a "grade B film." His writing might.. have... some... redeeming... umm... quality. Sigh.

Assuming that he has no visual identity, how then is it impossible for him to be an effective director? There's nothing great about his directing, but there's nothing really wrong with it... he doesn't screw up his movie by directing it. The best part of a Mamet movie is always the writing, anyway.

Gold Trumpet

Mamet can make great movies, and in my opinion, has for two movies. But when spoken of as a director for film, he will always be limited in that area. Actually, saying he has no personal artistry is wrong of me because his dialogue is recognizable a mile away. This isn't a bad thing, its just that as a director being the great artistic force for the medium, he will not gain that. With stage and writing, things would be different.

~rougerum

©brad

Perhaps he is more bound to stage and more theatrical conventions in regards to his films, but so is Woody Allen. Is he a b-director just because he doesn't establish a clear cut visual signature? Both men are two of the most influential writers in cinema and are far from B-directors.

Victor

Quote from: The Gold Trumpetfilm, which is a visual medium foremost.

~rougerum

this is a widely held belief that i totally diagreee with. the visual aspect is certainly one of the most important aspects of film, but filmmaking is for storytelling. and the visuals, the script, the music, is all about how to tell the story best. if mamet doesnt have a visual sense, then thats just how his story will be told. just because someones not an auteur, who has their own style and puts it on everyhting they do, doesnt mean their a 'b director'. i think the visuals in a beautiful mind were good, so what if it doesnt look like 'a ron howard movie'?
are you gonna eat with us too?

Gold Trumpet

Filmmaking is for storytelling, but how do you think you tell a story the best when on film? Its through visuals. This is what makes film identifiable from literature because for literature to push itself farther, it must push the language. Like Shakespeare wrote in such complexity, he was also pushing the language and giving more meanings. To do that in film, you must be able to think with a visual sense in what perspective and what look would best be able to capture what you are going for. Mamet films by just putting a camera in front of the actor speaking, thats it. He just films to capture what is only in his writing and does it in the most simple way. That's not going to get the best reaction for a movie crowd. Sorry, but the deepest subconcious reaction one can get, when dealing with films, is through visuals and music and music is complementing the visuals in films.

Ah but Woody Allen does have his own style, even if he sometimes borrows from other filmmakers in doing it. The best idea to get from him is that his filmmaking for his entire career has mirrored mostly the filmmaking of the silent era. Where filmmakers today would film mainly in focus of who is talking, with an opening shot of location to set up where they are. For much of Woody Allen's career, he would film far away dealing with the idea that a comedy is shot far away while a drama is shot close up, a silent era rule. With this filmmaking Allen best sets himself up to his physical movement as a comedian and to get laughs through that. But from Annie Hall on, he has been able to show some different ideas as wwell. Annie Hall allowed him to play with the use of subtitles, like a Godard film. Manhattan was drowned in black and white romanticism. Stardust Memories was an ode to the style, Fellini-esque. Zelig was filled with ideas, mainly of old time footage mixed with things new. Crimes and MMisdemeanors experimented with rough editing in to tell its story and Sweet and Lowdown experimented with use of documentary-like footage mized with a fictional story. But the most prevailing visual sense is his filmming like it was a silent era comedy.

My main argument comes from people who just set up the camera in the most obvious place and films with no imagination, and a lot of good directors do that.

~rougerum

RegularKarate

Mamet's theory is to show the most amount of required information in the most precise way.

He even says that in his book.

Maybe he doesn't have swooping camera moves or sparkling cinematography, but shoots his movie with the shots in mind.

He isn't a B director

Gold Trumpet

That's true, but thats also a characteristic of a B director only because Mamet speaks nothing of visual composition in order to best attain what he wants in the movie. Mamet is an Eisenstein dictactor of editing tricks that was very imaginative back in the 1920s to 30s, but have since then became outdated because it limits the imagination that a director can have. Mamet's films are like exercises in what to show, instead of being really creative and trying how to show them.

Note: I am not saying this doesn't allow him to make bad films, it just says that he will never be a great director, but a director only of great films.

~rougerum

Jeremy Blackman

Mamet isn't extremely visually creative, but I wouldn't really complain about it, cause it doesn't detract from his movies, and that's just his personality. He seems like a tyrant of his own creativity. I can just imagine him sitting hunched over at his desk, picking his screenplays apart.

Satcho9

I think the best thing about Ron Howard were the "Akward" years for him. You know what I am talking about. Those years he began going bald and the weird hats he wore in a sad attempt to cover it up. He wore everything from fedoras to beanies, then he settled on his baseball hat. But its just funny to see how insecure he was. That must suck to have red hair AND be bald. Some peoples luck!

Duck Sauce

Yeah, Howard was bald, but he looked so young still. Anyway, to jump in, name some other B directors and see if Mamet fits in that catergory.

MacGuffin

Source: Variety



Evan Rachel Wood will saddle up alongside Tommy Lee Jones and Cate Blanchett to star in Ron Howard's Western "The Missing" for Revolution Studios and Imagine Entertainment.

The film represents Howard's first directorial effort since winning the Oscar for Universal's "A Beautiful Mind".

Formerly called "The Ride", "The Missing" has been put on the fast track to start shooting in New Mexico in March. Columbia Pictures plans to release the suspense thriller sometime in spring 2004, with a March date now in mind.

Set in 1886, the story centers on a woman who reunites with her estranged, dying father in order to rescue her daughter who has been kidnapped by a band of outcasts. Wood plays Lily, the daughter, who is forced to fight for her survival until found.

Ken Kaufman ("Space Cowboys") penned the script for "The Missing", an adaptation of the Thomas Eidson novel "The Last Ride".

Best known for her recurring role in ABC's drama "Once and Again," Wood, segued into movies shortly after the show's cancellation last year, landing a part opposite Al Pacino in New Line's comedy "Simone".
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


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