Marathon Man (1976)

combatentropy said:
For more 1970s paranoia, and even more understated camerawork, you might try the three films by Alan J. Pakula: Klute, The Parallax View, and All the President's Men. I used to think I loved Pakula's visual style: conservative but well chosen. Then I realized who I really liked was Gordon Willis, the cinematographer for all those movies. Pakula was more of an actor's director and let Willis do his thing.
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Yeah, Gordon Willis was a master, no question. I’ve seen all those movies, though I never thought of them in the context of “all done by Pakula”. Most recently I’ve rewatched All the President’s Men, and yeah, it was very good, mostly down to the actors, I thought. The Parallax View I have seen probably close to 20 years or so ago, maybe time for a re-watch? Although I don’t recall being especially impressed by it, except that it did manage to do the paranoia atmosphere really well, which is an accomplishment in its own right, no doubt. It’s funny how some of these stand the test of time and others don’t. Without getting political, when I re-watched All The President’s Men (about a month ago), I did have the thought “despite all the skullduggery afoot, these were pretty innocent times” - we’ve seen things evolve into much more disturbing directions. It was a record of how the system in the end worked, or did not work… whereas many would probably feel these days that the system definitely does not work, even a little, and so Watergate where at least *somebody* was held accountable was a very “feel good” thing, despite hints that the rot went far deeper than just that one event and the event was just a small manifestation of the underlying disease, so taking out that wound really didn’t cure the underlying illnesss. I wonder if 50-60 years from now, *today* will seem an innocent time given the distopia folks live in in the future. Gee, I feel old when I think that at least for my generation, Watergate is still A BIG DEAL, even though I was too young to witness/follow it personally in real time… for the under 30 crowd, I wonder if anyone even knows what it is or how important it was… as a 20 year old, seems to me, you’ll have different feelings watching All The President’s Men than anyone over 40 or 50… what do you make of that film if you’re a youngin?

The other thing is, that at the time the film was made and for decades later (until fairly recently), the identity of Deep Throat was still secret. Today we know, but at the time the film came out, it was all wild and mostly wrong speculation, heh.
 
"While I was in the advertising business (at McCann-Erickson), I worked with both Gordon Willis, Jr. and Conrad Hall, Jr. - both as DP's. The one thing I was told before meeting them was: "Don't ask about their father(s)!" I can't imagine working in such shadows." I know Gordon Jr. A very sweet guy. I talk about his father with him whenever I get the chance.
 
kevin baggott said:
I know Gordon Jr. A very sweet guy. I talk about his father with him whenever I get the chance.
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Next chance you get, ask him if he remembers shooting the Friskies cat food spot with the 3 tigers on set with the 1 small tabby cat. I remember the client (Nestlé) requesting the cat and one of the tigers be shot side-by-side eating the product and interacting. As producer, I was finally able to convince Nestlé that the little kitty cat would end up being dessert before anyone could stop it. We ultimately hired Jim Henson's company to create a stand-in tiger for the shot where the two were interacting. The 3 tigers were the ones seen in GLADIATOR trained by Randy Miller. I remember that when we were shooting a close up of the tiger eating and Gordon wanted to do another take - Miller went in to get the bowl of food so that the Home Ec could redress it and the tiger swatted him away with his huge paw and let out a giant roar while he just continued eating, but rising on his hind legs. Randy froze and quietly announced, "Everyone be real still...and very quietly back out of the soundstage. The last one out, just close the stage door behind you and don't come back in until I come back out." I have to admit that there were some pretty scary sounds coming from inside the stage before Randy re-emerged and told us that all was good and we could come back in and continue. This all happened many years ago and the agency, client and crew handled the production without any kind of barrier between the tigers and all of us - no plexi, fence or barrier of any kind...and Gordon was the closest of all of us, maybe 8-10 feet between him with the camera on dolly and the tigers in the living room set. And off in the corner of the stage, a little bit in the shadows, stood a guy with a rifle at his side. That was a memorable shoot. Gordon was great!
 
In the early 90's I was living in Northampton, MA and a big feature shoot came to town, "Malice". I watched the exterior filming on a variety of occasions. For one scene in the center of town, a lot of people showed up to watch, because they had read in the papers that Nicole Kidman was in the movie (and she and then husband Tom had been seeing at a couple of restaurants in our little city). They were sure to be disappointed because an unknown actress was the only working talent that day (see sequence below), but I was probably the only person in town to recognize Gordon Willis standing by himself on a traffic median taking readings and squinting up into the sky. I approached him, introduced myself and tried to engage in small talk. "So, how's the show going for you?" He grimaced, looking up at the sky again: "I'm just a ****ing meter monkey on this one". I guess the days of shooting unlit exterior s(much of what they shot in Northampton) was boring him! (and I get how he felt, it ain't my favorite either).

That particular shot is tracking the girl on the bike at :54--an exquisite bit of operating actually, knowing the width of the street I'd guess at least 150mm, probably longer.
 
"I'm just a ****ing meter monkey on this one" - that's pretty funny. The editor from American Cinematography has been working on a book on Willis. He did a bunch of interviews before Willis passed on. Not since I heard that Tarkovsky's diaries were going to be published years back have I've been waiting for a book to come out.
 
CharlesPapert said:
meter monkey [...]. I guess the days of shooting unlit exterior s(much of what they shot in Northampton) was boring him!
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Well, that whole sequence looks great!

It's interesting, though, that even famous people still struggle on the job --- whether it's a cinematographer sometimes feeling like a meter monkey or a director arguing with the studio about final cut. I guess the struggle never ends, no matter matter how many decades of acclaim you have under your belt.
 
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