Hal Ashby was born the fourth and youngest child in a Mormon household in Ogden, Utah, on September 2, 1929. His father was a dairy farmer. After a rough childhood that included the divorce of his parents, his father’s suicide, his dropping out of high school, getting married and divorced all before he was 19, he decided to leave Utah for California. A Californian employment office found him a printing press job at Universal Studios. Within a few years, he was an assistant film editor at various other studios. One of his pals while at MGM was a young messenger named Jack Nicholson. He moved up to being a full fledged editor on The Loved One (1965) and started editing the films of director Norman Jewison.
A highlight of his film editing career was winning an Oscar for the landmark In the Heat of the Night (1967). Itching to become a director, Jewison gave him a script he was too busy to work on called The Landlord (1970). It became Ashby’s first film as a director. From there… read more
one of the worst soundtracks i can remember from any movie and im trying to not be hyperbolic. it was trite to the point of absurdity. Beast of Burden just sounds silly today in any movie. Its associated with such extreme melodrama. Filmmakers can be a lot more imaginative and i know it was made in '78, still not an excuse. jon voight was super cool though.
Very, very good film, with Ashby patching up what could have been a very slow paced narrative with his trademark editing and constantly interesting soundtrack. The main fault is the last twenty minutes, and the melodrama it descends to as the filmmakers try to find a way to reconcile the characters. The conclusion isn't awful, but the climax is.
