Film is Pwn

I just saw a news report that director/producer/actor Sydney Pollack died at age 73 from cancer, and thought I’d write a quick tribute to a great filmmaker whom I respect a great deal. 

Pollack’s filmography as a director included classic movies like The Absence of Malice; Out of Africa (the ’85 remake); Jeremiah Johnson; They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?; Tootsie; and The Way We Were.  One of his bios I saw mentioned that he directed 12 different actors in Oscar-nominated performances, which says something about his talent behind a camera.

Though he is most famous as a director, Sydney Pollack was a great actor in the relatively few films in which he appeared.  He carried a natural gravitas with him playing authority figures like George Clooney’s boss in the awesome Michael Clayton and Sean Penn’s boss in the Interpreter.  I haven’t seen the romantic comedy Made of Honor which is currently in theaters, but according to Ebert & Roeper, Pollack as the lead actor’s Dad steals the movie and is the only redeeming feature. You might remember Pollack from the first of a series of clever advertisements shown before movies where he was the director who interrupted the sad guy being dumped by his girlfriend and “directed” him, with the catch of we won’t interrupt your phone calls if your phone calls don’t interrupt our movies.

Some of my personal favorite Pollack directorial efforts are, in no particular order:

- The Firm (1993).  In my opinion it’s easily best John Grisham adaptation and probably Tom Cruise’s best performance ever as a young lawyer hired into a seemingly perfect law firm, as the suspense builds slowly to a boiling point, a trademark of Pollack films.  Gene Hackman and Holly Hunter are especially good as well in supporting roles.
 - The Interpreter (2005). The last feature film directed by Pollack, starring Nicole Kidman as a UN Interpreter who overhears a murder plot and Sean Penn as the detective assigned to protect/investigate her.  This is very unlike modern movies, with an emphasis on character, substance, and story rather than shock and awe. 
- Three Days of the Condor (1975). This is a very Robert Ludlum-y conspiracy/spy movie starring Robert Redford as a C.I.A. analyst who finds all his co-workers dead and quickly discovers he has no one to trust.  Very believable, effective story telling, as Redford’s character is thoroughly believable as a sort of bookish analyst who doesn’t turn into some action hero in the process.

–DJR