Father Geek here with sad news... John Schlesinger, director of the multiple
Oscar-winning X-rated modern classic
"Midnight Cowboy" as well as "Darling", "Billy Liar" and edge-of-your-seat thrillers like "The Falcon and the Snowman", "Marathon Man", and "Pacific Heights," that explored the lives of lonely losers trapped in a complex and rapidly changing society, died Friday in Palm Springs at the age of 77. When ol' Father Geek was in Film School in the late 60's and early 70's working directors like Kubrick, Fellini, Kurosawa, Wilder, Truffaut, Bunuel, Hawks, and John Schlesinger were held up as the examples for us to follow... They're all gone now and sadly their footsteps were never really filled. Oh, we've got plenty of "Good" directors out there, but "Great Artiste" with something important to say and the "cajones" to let it all hang out, I'm afraid not. The bottomline and blockbuster mentality has done them in, in the good old USA at least... and we're all much poorer for it. I'll miss you John!
Here's just a little of what the "AP Wire" had to say...
Here's just a little of what the "AP Wire" had to say...
Schlesinger broke ground with 1969's "Midnight Cowboy," which starred Jon Voight as a naive native Texan who turns to male prostitution to survive in New York and Dustin Hoffman as the scuzzy, ailing vagrant Ratso Rizzo. The film's homosexual theme was regarded as scandalous, but the tale of underdogs trying to survive in a merciless metropolis was embraced by critics and Hollywood despite its shocking sequences. Based on a novel by James Leo Herlihy, "Midnight Cowboy" was nominated for seven Academy Awards and won three — best director, best picture and best adapted screenplay. It was the only X-rated film ever to win the Oscar for best picture; reflecting changing standards.
After "Midnight Cowboy" he explored homosexuality again in his next project with 1971's "Sunday Bloody Sunday," which starred Peter Finch and Glenda Jackson as acquaintances who each reluctantly share a love for the same young man. The director received another Oscar nomination for the film.
The characters in Schlesinger's films often struggled with their place in the world, and he depicted them as lonely, disenchanted and sometimes forgotten. In 1975, he directed an adaptation of the Nathanael West novel "The Day of the Locust," about young wannabe-stars who find only disappointment in Hollywood.
He wasn't above directing commercial films, like his 1975 thriller "Marathon Man." That teamed him again with Hoffman, who played an innocent man tortured for information by Laurence Olivier, a hiding Nazi war criminal with a penchant for drilling teeth. That turned Schlesinger toward more thrillers, including the 1985 tale of true-life spy skullduggery "The Falcon and the Snowman," starring Sean Penn and Timothy Hutton as two young Americans convicted of spying for the Soviet Union.
Schlesinger established himself as one of England's most promising young directors in 1962 with "A Kind of Loving," which starred Alan Bates as a man who marries his pregnant lover only to find himself ill-prepared for commitments. He followed that with 1963's "Billy Liar," about a lazy young man who hides from responsibility by daydreaming — one of his dreams is about a young woman played by then-newcomer Julie Christie. Christie worked with Schlesinger again on his next film, "Darling," which won her an Academy Award for best actress in 1965 for her role as a ruthless model who bullies her way to success. Schlesinger was nominated for best director. His other films included 1987's "The Believers," starring Martin Sheen as a psychiatrist fighting a voodoo cult, and 1988's "Madame Sousatzka," which featured Shirley MacLaine as an eccentric piano teacher who befriends a 15-year-old student but clashes with him over whether he should try to earn money from his talent.
He started the 1990s with a story about how little neighbors can know about each other — "Pacific Heights," with Michael Keaton playing a malicious tenant who starts out charming but begins to terrorize his landlords, Matthew Modine and Melanie Griffith.
His last film was the 2000 comedy "The Next Best Thing" — about a straight woman (Madonna) who decides to have a child with her gay friend (Rupert Everett).
