|
| |
Robert Wise: A Lifetime of Achievement
From: American Film Institute
| By:
|
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION |
From Citizen Kane to Star Trek, from The Haunting to The Sound of Music, the work of Robert Wise has moved, terrified, fascinated and dazzled audiences for more than 60 years. In 1998, Wise (right) received the American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award, an honor bestowed upon individuals whose careers in motion pictures or television have greatly contributed to the enrichment of American culture. AFI recognized Wise's versatility, creativity and commercial and critical success. |
 he trustees of the American Film Institute have selected Robert Wise to receive its 26th Life Achievement Award. |
Robert Wise has been a powerful force in American movies for more than six decades, first as editor of several cinematic classics; later, as producer and director of some of the best and most memorable films of all time. Wise has characterized himself as a journeyman filmmaker--the consummate professional--but his career has been marked with enormous critical and commercial success. Films as disparate as The Body Snatcher (1945), Blood on the Moon (1948), The Set-Up (1949), The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), I Want to Live! (1958) and The Haunting (1963) are some of the seminal films in their respective genres. And, in an industry which sometimes tends to put art and commerce in different categories, Wise's blockbuster classics like West Side Story (1961) and The Sound of Music (1965) attracted millions of ticket buyers, garnered ecstatic reviews and were showered with accolades and awards. |
 | |
| The 1965 film trailer for The Sound of Music. | |
Wise got his start in the business as an editor, working on landmark films such as Of Human Bondage (1934), The Informer (1935), Top Hat (1935), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939) and, most notably, Citizen Kane (1941). Called in to re-edit Orson Welles' The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), Wise was given his first opportunity to direct--uncredited--when the film needed a few bridging sequences. The result was, and remains, controversial. But Wise was on his way. |
As a director, Wise cut his teeth with the esteemed Val Lewton company at RKO, where sensitive and intelligent horror films were created on extremely low budgets. At RKO, the fledgling director learned much about texture and mood--how to make an audience feel and react through suggestion, rather than through explicit effects. Years later, as one of Hollywood's top directors, he paid tribute to those formative years with The Haunting, about which he has said, "You hear some things and don't really see anything. I can't tell you how many people said it was the scariest movie they'd ever seen, and it all came from Val, and my days with him." |
Some critics have complained that Wise's films seem to lack the kind of thematic unity that film scholars treasure so highly. But there is no reason to believe that Wise considers this trait to be a fault: to him, the film is always more significant than the assertion of the director's personality. He is far more concerned with facing new challenges and creating new worlds than in spinning endless variations on a few obsessive themes. |
In fact, Wise's versatility seems nearly endless. Even after his great successes, when he was firmly established as a master filmmaker, Wise never submitted to the kinds of formulas that might ensure great box office. Consider, for instance, his films of the 1970s: a taut, big-budget science fiction film, The Andromeda Strain (1971), was followed by an intimate love story, Two People (1973), which in turn led to a dazzling, special-effects-filled, multi-character disaster film, The Hindenburg (1975). The latter half of the decade brought us the intelligent and underrated horror film Audrey Rose (1977), which led to the mega-budget Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979). On the surface, none of these films seems to resemble any of the others, whether in theme, technique or point of view. However, their commonality lies in the solid, creative professionalism of their construction and in the passionate direction evident throughout all of Wise's films. |
Wise's two most popular, acclaimed (and profitable) films, West Side Story and The Sound of Music, have thrilled, moved and inspired audiences for more than 30 years, and their ability to do so has not dimmed a whit. They are "movie movies" of the highest order, yet they also reward the closest examination of their film technique: editing, cinematography, acting and direction. |
To Robert Wise, this is as it should be. He has said he believes that there is no contradiction between a good movie artistically and a good movie commercially: "If you make it so personal that very few people go to see it, then you really haven't punched over what you have to say. The potency of the theme of your film is only as good as the number of people who see it." |
Wise's films have been potent indeed. He has excelled at every level of achievement in the entertainment profession--successful in art, commerce and in passion. Great careers have been built on any one of these traits. By hitting them all, Robert Wise is uniquely deserving of AFI's Life Achievement Award. |
|
| |
