Hal Ashby

Started by j_scott_stroup04, December 17, 2003, 08:47:17 PM

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j_scott_stroup04

I'm aware that Wes is heavily influenced by Hal Ashby, I was just wondering what people's take on Ashby's films are.  I myself, cannot comment, for I have not seen any of his films, but plan on watching Harold and Maude tonight or tomorrow.
"The sunshine bores the daylights outta me!"- Rolling Stones

"When I am King you will be first against the wall!"- Radiohead

ShanghaiOrange

Being There kicks Muhammud Ali's ass.
Last five films (theater)
-The Da Vinci Code: *
-Thank You For Smoking: ***
-Silent Hill: ***1/2 (high)
-Happy Together: ***1/2
-Slither: **

Last five films (video)
-Solaris: ***1/2
-Cobra Verde: ***1/2
-My Best Fiend: **1/2
-Days of Heaven: ****
-The Thin Red Line: ***

russiasusha

Being There = un-known classic
Harold and Maude = Not really that good even though it is considered an underground classic.  The only thing that movie has going is the performances.
Guess that means i'm back on zigzag!
Movies before 1930 suck

socketlevel

he also edited "in the heat of the night."  being there is a fucking classic for sure!
the one last hit that spent you...

Sleepless

I really enjoyed Harold & Maude, but then I love that whole "Catcher In The Rye"-esque genre anyway. I only saw it a few weeks ago, but I thought it was a great movie - very funny, and terrifically affecting performances.
He held on. The dolphin and all the rest of its pod turned and swam out to sea, and still he held on. This is it, he thought. Then he remembered that they were air-breathers too. It was going to be all right.

Ravi

Quote from: russiasushaHarold and Maude = Not really that good even though it is considered an underground classic.  The only thing that movie has going is the performances.

And Cat Stevens' music.

cine

This thread would probably benefit by being moved to The Director's Chair.

cron

i saw Being There about a week ago and it's a great film, although i felt kinda uncomfortable  with the bloopers at the ending credits.
context, context, context.

soixante

Shampoo is Hal Ashby's best film, and Last Detail and Coming Home and Bound for Glory are pretty great, too.  He had quite a winning streak in the 70's -- everything he made was great.

A lot of actors were nominated for Oscars in Ashby films -- Nicholson and Randy Quaid in Last Detail, Jack Warden in Shampoo, Bruce Dern in Coming Home, Peter Sellers in Coming Home.  Oscar winners -- Lee Grant in Shampoo, Jon Voight and Jane Fonda in Coming Home, Melvyn Douglas in Being There.

Ashby was one of the great ones, and he is sorely missed.
Music is your best entertainment value.

SoNowThen

I've asked this before, but why the hell not again:

anybody seen Lookin' To Get Out???? It sounds rockNroll, but I can't find it anywhere...
Those who say that the totalitarian state of the Soviet Union was not "real" Marxism also cannot admit that one simple feature of Marxism makes totalitarianism necessary:  the rejection of civil society. Since civil society is the sphere of private activity, its abolition and replacement by political society means that nothing private remains. That is already the essence of totalitarianism; and the moralistic practice of the trendy Left, which regards everything as political and sometimes reveals its hostility to free speech, does nothing to contradict this implication.

When those who hated capital and consumption (and Jews) in the 20th century murdered some hundred million people, and the poster children for the struggle against international capitalism and America are now fanatical Islamic terrorists, this puts recent enthusiasts in an awkward position. Most of them are too dense and shameless to appreciate it, and far too many are taken in by the moralistic and paternalistic rhetoric of the Left.

Finn

He was a wonderful filmmaker. My favorite film of his was Being There.
Typical US Mother: "Remember what the MPAA says; Horrific, Deplorable violence is okay, as long as people don't say any naughty words."

cron

does anyone knows if it was his intention to have bloopers at the ending of Being There?

i think this applies to all movies
after the ending you need some time to evaluate "the meaning of the movie" (bla) and the bloopers interrupt that process.
context, context, context.

SoNowThen

what about Ashby's Stones documentary --- anybody seen that?


why are films by this fucker so hard to find?
Those who say that the totalitarian state of the Soviet Union was not "real" Marxism also cannot admit that one simple feature of Marxism makes totalitarianism necessary:  the rejection of civil society. Since civil society is the sphere of private activity, its abolition and replacement by political society means that nothing private remains. That is already the essence of totalitarianism; and the moralistic practice of the trendy Left, which regards everything as political and sometimes reveals its hostility to free speech, does nothing to contradict this implication.

When those who hated capital and consumption (and Jews) in the 20th century murdered some hundred million people, and the poster children for the struggle against international capitalism and America are now fanatical Islamic terrorists, this puts recent enthusiasts in an awkward position. Most of them are too dense and shameless to appreciate it, and far too many are taken in by the moralistic and paternalistic rhetoric of the Left.

ShanghaiOrange

Apparently, the video version just have the credits over TV white noise.
Last five films (theater)
-The Da Vinci Code: *
-Thank You For Smoking: ***
-Silent Hill: ***1/2 (high)
-Happy Together: ***1/2
-Slither: **

Last five films (video)
-Solaris: ***1/2
-Cobra Verde: ***1/2
-My Best Fiend: **1/2
-Days of Heaven: ****
-The Thin Red Line: ***

soixante

Ashby fell on hard times in the 80's.

He made a film called Second Hand Hearts with Robert Blake and Barbara Harris.  He shot it in 1978, then went off to shoot Being There.  The film was held up for a while, then given a perfunctory, one-week engagment at a 2nd run theater in Westwood in 1981 (the same treatment was accorded Robert Altman's Health, which sat on a shelf for a year before getting a one-week, zero-promotion run in Westwood).

I've never seen Second Hand Hearts.  I did see Ashby's next film, Lookin' to Get Out, which was shot in 1980 but didn't arrive in theaters until 1982, when it was dumped by Paramount.  This was the first Ashby film I didn't like, though maybe I need to give it another chance.

Ashby directed a concert film of the Rolling Stones 1981 tour, called Let's Spend the Night Together, and it's terrible.

In 1985, Ashby hit his nadir with The Slugger's Wife, written by Neil Simon.  

In 1986, he made a comeback with the noir drama Eight Million Ways to Die, with Jeff Bridges and Rosanna Arquette.  It was dumped by its distributor, but it is a great cult film, and it put Andy Garcia on the map.

Ashby was slated to direct Dustin Hoffman in an adaptation of Elmore Leonard's La Brava, but that fell through.

Ashby died in 1988.
Music is your best entertainment value.