Paul Schrader

I’m starting to think Paul Schrader is underrated. I think almost everyone knows him for writing Raging Bull and Taxi Driver but not for his wonderful directorial efforts.
I’ve only seen Blue Collar,Auto Focus, and Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters and I loved them all.

Can anyone suggest some of his other movies?

Hi Marissa

Affliction is very good, as is Light Sleeper and The Walker. American Gigolo and Cat People are interesting and very strong visually. Hardcore is an interesting contemporization of The Searchers.

Loved Mishima. I need to see more of Schrader’s films. Thanks for the recommendations, Matt.

^^I love Mishima, but in some ways it’s hard to believe it was directed by Schrader, and for years it was virtually forgotten. The Criterion edition is great!!

Schrader is hit and miss, but as Matt said, The Affliction and Hardcore are worth a look. The Walker is good, but i can’t see that appealing to anyone other than hardcore Schrader fans.

Never been impressed by his work.

DeNiro and Scorsese made Taxi Driver

I have always liked Blue Collar very much and haven’t seen Light Sleeper in years, but remember liking it as well. Mishima, Hardcore, and Affliction are films I want to see in the near future. I also enjoyed reading some of his critical writing on his site. Haven’t read all of it yet but what I have has been interesting.

http://www.paulschrader.org/writings.html

Light Sleeper is my favorite and Schrader is my favorite filmmaker.

^^interesting, to me ‘Light Sleeper’ is one of his worst, especially out of his more characteristic films anyway.

“Blue Collar” is a masterpiece of cinema. I saw it for the first time recently and I am convinced that Richard Pryor was one of the greatest dramatic talents to ever walk the face of the earth. Not only that, he was known primarily as a comic. “Blue Collar” is overwhelmingly brilliant in so many departments—the acting, writing, editing, direction, photography—just a major gem.

I absolutely love the bit where, just after a fatality in the plant, we get that big Goodyear billboard thingy with how many jillions of cars have been rolled off the line—with the number slowly ticking over to add ONE MORE CAR. The signficance of this struck me like a bolt of lightning—PRODUCTION and PROFITS over PEOPLE.

As one of the taglines for the film said back in 1978:

“The company builds cars and destroys men.”

“Blue Collar” is the American Dream. If you’re rich you can buy it. If you’re anything else, you gotta fight for it.

I have to disagree with the statement that only DeNiro and Scorsese made Taxi Driver. I recently read the script and posted some thoughts on it in my 50 Scripts in 50 Days (let’s just forget the 50 days part) Post and no doubt that Scorsese and DeNiro did an extraordinary job bringing the script to life, but the ideas and the
grasp of the inner man in a certain state of civilization in the script was extraordinary and just slightly ahead of the common perceptions of life – and that slightly ahead-ness makes for great art.

Schrader is an extraordinary writer who thinks/creates in film. Is DIRECTOR his best means of expressing his art?….not sure. Mishima is excellent. I recall Affliction being very good. I think anything he did is worth checking out – he is unique in that he’s been after certain themes, certain ideas, and its worth seeking out what he has found. From the Yakuza through the upcoming Jesuit he seems to be after 2 questions: 1. how do you apply internal beliefs to the external world, or even can they be applied?; 2. what is moral knowledge – is it a real, external thing or is it a made-up personal delusion?

So, yea, check out his films but also his scripts.

^^I think the first question is more relevant in Schrader’s work than the second, or at least more interesting anyway. Sean Axmaker summed up well here:

“Schrader has made his reputation revealing the scarred psyches of American men trying to reconcile the contradictions of masculine fantasy and social reality”

I think the same applies to Mishima too, at least roughly anyway, and most definitely Autofocus. That’s what makes Schrader compelling to me. When he presents characters whose dreams/ideas/obsessions are in direct conflict with the outside world and are generally responsible for their downfall.

He likes to present a fatalistic point of view and this is important, given his strict Calvinistic upbringing. Has anyone seen his Exorcist prequel? I’ve heard it’s pretty dull.

no for me he made the best of the Exorcist films

^^Lol Den, seriously?

I thought it had great potential, but the film wasn’t finished, so it’s difficult to judge.

no way it’s anywhere near the best Exorcist film. I’d take 3 over it anyday, let alone the original.

Exorcist 3 is one of the most underrated horror films of all time.

Thanks for all the suggestions!

Dominon was all atmosphere and music but it was terrifying.
The mood it sets and the performances are what they need to be.
It made my top ten of the year it was released. And Exorcist 4 (the Renny Harlin version) made my worst.

The Walker is highly underrated.

^Again, another surprisingly good performance from Woody Harrelson.

glad to see this thread. Schrader has never really made a successful film at the box office but almost all of his films gather some sort of cult following. Blue Collar is one of this best but his most under rated is “Forever Mine” released in 1999. It’s good companion piece to “Body Heat”. Also worth checking out is “Hardcore” and “Touch”.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZ07tbNAb54

http://www.joblo.com/posters/images/full/1997-touch-poster2.jpg

Dominion is an intriguing film, especially paired with Schrader’s other ostensible horror film, Cat People. By the way, you can’t get it on DVD, but Schrader’s Patty Hearst is certainly worth a look if you come across it.

Yeah, I would say that Taxi Driver was partially driven by Schrader as well. The fact that he was living at his ex-wife or is it ex-girlfriend’s house where he is said to have written the script points out to the fact that he was living a rootless existence at the time similar to Travis Bickle. But, I also think that Scorsese and DeNiro made major contributions as well. I think all three of them had to combine to make that a great picture. I haven’t seen Light Sleeper in a while, but I believe it’s pretty good. Also, Affliction was a very good movie with great performances by Nolte and Coburn who definitely deserved his Oscar that he won. I met him at the Jacob Burns Center and I found him to be a very nice man. He said that his mentor was Pauline Kael. One of these days, I should maybe try and read that book he wrote about Ozu, Bresson and Dreyer.

I thought he was living in his car when he wrote the script. Or is that just cinematic urban legend?

Ditto on needing to finally read his book (but I really need to see some Ozu and Dreyer first). I’ve read some of his articles and love his critical work.

Scorsese actually considers Taxi Driver to be more Paul’s film than his.

He’s made some really good movies…

Big fan of LIGHT SLEEPER, HARDCORE and (at least some of) PATTY HEARST. I think BLUE COLLAR is a masterwork.

But then there’s CAT PEOPLE (highly enjoyable but still leaves me asking…“why?”)

I love Paul Schrader, I have a copy of Adam Resurrected sitting on my shelf but I haven’t checked it out yet.

“By the way, you can’t get it on DVD, but Schrader’s Patty Hearst is certainly worth a look if you come across it.”

if we can’t get it, why bother telling us? ;-)

Patty Heart is the only Schrader film i haven’t seen i think.

His career isn’t looking good right now. it’s true he never really had a big box office success, but his last few films have barely been released at all. The last film that got released theatrically here was Autofocus.

looking at Schrader’s box office now, it seems he did have a moderate hit – American Gigolo.

3 Schrader films to avoid: Light Of Day, Touch, and Forever Mine. at least imo.

Yeah, I’m pretty sure Autofocus was his last film that played in my local theaters, too.