Oooh, good director indeed. My favourite… Last Detail.
Harold and Maude :)
I’ve never really come to grips with Being There (this is not meant to be a comment on the film). I love The Last Detail because it is a very good film in terms of the direction and the sentiment of the story, and it is a candidate for the film containing the best Nicholson performance (the other being Cuckoo). Maybe if I rewatched Harold and Maude I would prefer it, bit it is a long time since I saw it. The same applies to Coming Home and Bound For Glory.
I think Ashby’s most personal film was probably Harold and Maude. My fav is Last Detail tho. Not just for Nicholson’s performance but for the way he edits it also. Makes it look very original. I heard that because of his editing on Coming Home during Voight’s famous speech, Voight won an Oscar. Before edit it was long winded and boring. Through Ashby editing genius, One of the best movie monolouges of the 70s. Bound for Glory is great but could have been a wee bit better, i dont kno, maybe not. love Being There.
Very underrated director possibly cause of a perceived lack of personal style but if their was a universal theme it may be his rebellious nature and not giving a fuck about the mainstream sensibilities like the best of the American New Wave.
We have traveled through Being There. The number of truly prognostic films made worldwide can’t be very large; but Ashby made one of them. (Michael Radford’s great film of 1984 just this past week or so suddenly got some attention in the media, for its prognostic value.)
Being There is a great movie and one of my favorites, but really because of Peter Sellers…Shampoo is great, but really a Warren Beatty film…The Last Detail is one of the masterworks of the ‘70s dominated by Jack Nicholson and Robt Towne’s killer script. Ashby’s direction of all of these is excellent…however, I think the TRUE Ashby films include Harold & Maude, The Landlord and even Lookin’ to Get Out…certainly more personal, very anti-establishment, and very off-kilter.
BTW…will SOMEONE release THE LANDLORD on DVD?!?!?!
>BTW…will SOMEONE release THE LANDLORD on DVD?!?!?!
Wonderful. One of the great absent-movies of the ’70s.
I wish I loved Hal Ashby, but I don’t.
Harold and Maude is definitely my favorite, but Being There is close behind.
Reconsidering, Shampoo is totally Beatty driven. With that, favorite Ashby; The Landlord
Second-Hand Hearts. It’s sublime.
The Last Detail
He’s most certainly an important director that few realize, It’s amazing the work he has done and then you see it come across in directors today. His sense of dark humour has a wit about it similar to Wes Anderson, which is a very easy comparison to make. The end of The Life Aquatic is actually very similar to that of Harold and Maude.
To list one of Ashby’s as a favorite is definitely a difficult task. I’d hate to be running a broken record but I’d have to say wither Harold and Maude or Being There…
No doubt, it has to be Harold and Maude. It is also on my top ten list. Rare to see a movie as funny, moving and wise as this cult movie. Makes you a little bit wiser too.
I don’t understand why Harold and Maude is so beloved.
Harold and Maude, followed by Shampoo.
It’s Being There and Bound for Glory for me.
and … if someone will field this…
Shampoo is one of those movies I just DON’T GET!
Not that I don’t understand the story, I do, but I have never understood the love and devotion to this movie. I was around in 1975 and I remember how popular it was. When I finally got around to seeing it sometime in the 80s, I was perplexed because I kept asking myself, Why did they even make this?" I suppose I’m asking for the movie’s point, or, even, it’s whole point of even being.
Further, while it has a ton of my favorite people involved (Julie Christie, Paul Simon on music, Robert Towne scripting, etc.), I never quite got how Lee Grant was singled out for it. She’s hardly in it, yet she gets an Oscar? And, don’t get me wrong, I like Lee Grant. For me, the really good performance in the whole thing is Jack Warden’s, and then maybe Goldie Hawn’s because I assume it was the first film in which she showed she has a brain and wasn’t simply the giggly blonde.
Help me out if you will. I’m genuinely curious.
Being There mostly due to Peter Sellers performance in it. He truly shines.
Being There, Shampoo, and The Last Detail
Nobody has answered my Shampoo query.
Jimenez?
David-Davecito?
bump for DAVID-DAVECITO!!!
I’ve only seen one Ashby film, Harold and Maude. It was a sweet movie, but I wouldn’t call it great. the Cat stevens music was kinda of annoying, the score could have been a little more subtle.
The Slugger’s Wife.
Ok, I’m kidding. But the answers are just too obvious (Shampoo, Being There, Harold and Maude, Last Detail) That said, I’m curious to see Lookin’ to Get Out (his long lost 1982 film with Jon Voigt). They’re releasing a previously undiscovered director’s cut of the film at the end of the month. I hear it’s actually quite good.
What about that Stones movie he did? Is that ever coming out?
Chris, do you really want a response? Generally people who ask “why do people love such and such a film” really don’t want an answer but a chance to explain why you’re wrong. Anyway, I love the whole end of the 1960s/passing of an era vibe of Shampoo. The political backdrop of the film gives it an emotional poignancy that’s rare in a romantic comedy. The end is devastating.
As for the Oscars Shampoo got or didn’t get, who cares? Warren Beatty should have gotten one for it but didn’t. Hal Ashby never won an Oscar (oh wait, I think he did for editing but not for directing). And Goldie Hawn already won an Oscar in 1969 and certainly didn’t deserve another one.
Ari — I really did/do want responses, and I thank you. You’ve seen my initial thoughts concerning the film. The thing is virtually nobody sees the film anymore to be able to give any responses.
Here is a good take from Downey, Jr.:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uArXRuyqkZ8
Harold and Maude for me
Harold And Maude probably just edges Shampoo for me. I find Shampoo to be Ashby’s best cinematic work because I view it as a bookend to the era that Easy Rider gave us. It’s very much a look at what happened at that dream, what those people became and what had and was changing during that era. Add to that a great Beatty performance, Julie Christie looking amazing and some of the finest scene stealing moments from Jack Warden. Brilliant. I just love Harold And Maude because of my personal connection to it.
Harold and Maude is funny as hell, but I think it gets muddled when it tries to be meaningful
Jimenez
Shampoo.