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I woke up this morning -- late, around 9 am -- to news of the death of Sydney Pollack. Which we all knew was coming for a long while. The thing about "death's honesty" (a Bob Dylan coinage from the mid 60s) is that all dread and preparation are forgotten once that solitary walk across the footbridge has been made. Then it all comes washing in. Sydney wasn't a "friend" but a confidante and supporter, a guy I could always call and, I felt, a warm acquaintance.
As difficult as approaching a threshold always is, once it's been surmounted there is only peace and tranquility for the traveller. The burden is over, the pain is over. In finality, serenity. And yet it feels...I don't know, like I've lost a favorite uncle or something. I'm feeling that fluttery thing inside.
But if you had told me 18 months ago that Pollack and Anthony Minghella, partners in Mirage Enterprises who worked together on The English Patient, Cold Mountain, The Quiet American and several other quality films...if you had told me then that both of these guys would be lights-out by May 2008, I would've said "what...?" Both of them were too active and alive. They had too much talent and know-how, too many miles to go.
People always bring up the Oscar-winning Out of Africa ('85) and Tootsie ('82), the hugely successful comedy with Dustin Hoffman as a straight cross-dressing actor, as Pollack's finest, best-known films. They're both solid and accomplished (Tootsie especially), but the Pollack pics that I've most enjoyed are the genre thrillers -- Three Days of the Condor, particularly, and The Firm -- because they exceed their boundaries and then some. They're about Pollack adding shrewd and surprising things rather than just meeting expectations.
Both have melancholy emotional currents -- feelings of loss and regret -- and some graceful resignations, courtesy of the wry and understated dialogue by David Rayfiel, Pollack's pinch-hit rewrite guy for decades. Plus they're both driven by character as much as plot.
Gene Hackman's confession to Jeanne Tripplehorn in The Firm that he plays around "because my wife understands me." (Too well, he meant.) European Condor assassin Max Von Sydow working with miniature models in his New York hotel room. Condor CIA guy Cliff Robertson asking his superior, played by John Houseman, if he misses the "action" he encountered during the World War II years, and Houseman responding, "No -- I miss that kind of clarity." Both films teem with this kind of stuff.
After these my favorites are (a) Sketches of Frank Gehry (Pollack's wise, affectionate, layman-level appreciation of our greatest architect), (b) Jeremiah Johnson, (c) the final voice-over moment in Havana, (d) the first half of Random Hearts, (e) all of The Yakuza, They Shoot Horses, Don't They? and Castle Keep, (f) the bomb-on-the-bus scene in The Interpreter and (g) portions of The Way We Were, particularly the final scene.
And, of course, there were Sydney's first-rate performances -- the divorcee in Husbands and Wives, that red-felt pool table scene with Tom Cruise in Eyes Wide Shut, a pair of cynical and corroded seen-it-alls in Changing Lanes and Michael Clayton.
Here's an mp3 of a chat I did with Pollack about the Gehry doc.
The last contact I had with Pollack was four or five months ago, sometime around Christmas. I e-mailed him and asked if he'd seen 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days. When he said no I asked him if he wanted a DVD to look at and he said sure. A few hours later I drove over to his Pacific Palisades home -- a sprawling, well-fortified Cape Cod-like place with tall trees and beautiful grounds -- and dropped it off with his wife. I didn't ask to see him. He was pretty sick at that point.
I first got to know Sydney a little bit in the summer of '82. He'd heard I was writing a couple of stories about how Tootsie had been a chaotic shoot (which it was) and had cost an astronomical $21 or $22 million -- this at a time when a typical mainstream studio film cost $10 to $12 million to make. I hadn't yet tried to reach him -- he'd heard I was calling around and so he called me. He was pissed off but enough of an adult and a strategic player to get right into it and try to spin things his way.
Pollack and Robert Redford during the 1972 Cannes Film Festival.
We became friendly in the mid '90s when I wrote an L.A. Times Syndicate piece about Rayfiel, whose lamenting and soulful dialgoue had always moved me. Pollack thereafter helped me with an article I did about Mike Arick's restoration of They Shoot Horses, Don't They? I sent him a note when he busted his hip after a bicycle-riding accident. I once gave him a heads-up about the poor quality of a digital master of On The Waterfront that was shown on TCM's "The Essentials," which he hosted for a season or two. He talked to me a bit about the making of Eyes Wide Shut, and laughed when I told him the Lars von Trier story about why Harvey Keitel left the film (i.e., the Legend of Mr. White, "an honest misfire," etc.).
Four years ago Sydney gave me an admiring quote to use when I started Hollywood Elsewhere. He brought me in and showed me a cut of The Interpreter before it had gotten around, and then did a guest appearance up at my UCLA class when I screened it. And we did that phoner about Sketches of Frank Gehry, etc. A steady guy, dependable...about as adult and un-flaky as they come.
He was one of the best DVD voice-over and making-of commentary guys in the business. Sydney was a fretter, a kvetcher. Anxiety-ridden when he was working on something. Always very concerned about fucking up or falling short. Being this kind of person myself, I obviously related.
This quality comes through, in any event, in his commentary tracks -- a tone that says, "Look, I don't know everything but I do know this much, and I've been around enough to understand what tends to work and what doesn't, and I tried to make this particular aspect work. I don't know if I succeeded or not but people have told me I did so okay, maybe. But what I really love is the process -- the shaping and refining -- even though it gives me gray hairs. And I believe in having a sense of humor, or at least a sense of irony."
He was a Paris lover, so we had that in common. He was a pilot (or so I recall him saying), and told me once about flying to Paris once in a private jet of some sort.
Pollack was healthy all his life, I've been told by his friends. He ate well, cooked well, didn't drink much, hadn't smoked for decades. I don't know where the cancer came from or why it took him when he had a good 10 or 15 years to go, at the very least. Death knocks on the door when it damn well wants to, whether you're ready or not.
As Woody Allen said during the just-finished Cannes Film Festival, "We're hard-wired to resist it. Unfortunately, it doesn't resist us."
Posted by Jeffrey Wells on May 27, 2008 at 1:06 AM
comment #1
Deschain
says ...
That was good Jeff. Thx.
Favorite Pollack movies over here are Three Days of the Condor, Sketches of Frank Gehry and well... the Interpreter.
As an actor he was really really great in Husbands and Wives. Love that film! And his cameos in The Sporanos and Entourage are notable as well I guess.
May he rest in peace. He will be missed.
Posted by Deschain
at May 27, 2008 4:59 AM
comment #2
vansmith
says ...
i saw the yakuza and there's a commentary on it and there's big pollack orchestrating and moving everything along but in a cool non stressful way. he looked like the guy in charge all the time. thats why husbands and wives was so good, when he drags that girl out of that party into the car! and the scene with liam and judy, he was losing it and it was coool, he should have been nominated easily..and then michael clayton and then...shit... what a way to start the day..
Posted by vansmith
at May 27, 2008 5:12 AM
comment #3
Doug Pratt
says ...
Sydney Pollack's final director report card:
Sketches of Frank Gehry (2005) A
The Interpreter (2005) B-
Random Hearts (1999) First two-thirds: A Final third: C
Sabrina (1995) B+
The Firm (1993) A
Havana (1990/I) D
Out of Africa (1985) C
Tootsie (1982) A
Absence of Malice (1981) A-
The Electric Horseman (1979) B
Bobby Deerfield (1977) D-
Three Days of the Condor (1975) B+
The Yakuza (1974) B+
The Way We Were (1973) B-
Jeremiah Johnson (1972) A+
They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969) A
Castle Keep (1969) A-
The Scalphunters (1968) B+
This Property Is Condemned (1966) A
The Slender Thread (1965) B+
Posted by Doug Pratt
at May 27, 2008 5:14 AM
comment #4
Rich S.
says ...
Recently, I've been missing his commentary on TCM's The Essentials. Since he worked so well in so many genres, he was well-qualified to comment on a very wide variety of films. I really enjoyed his insights.
Posted by Rich S.
at May 27, 2008 5:20 AM
comment #5
renorambler
says ...
Sad news. Condor was one of my favorite films for many years. Haven't seen it recently but obviously I need to go back to it. Strange to call it a comfort film but for some reason it was.
I'll miss his little supporting roles.
Posted by renorambler
at May 27, 2008 5:37 AM
comment #6
corey3rd
says ...
what I really liked about Frank Gehry was that he showed the various people who had to take Frank's napkin sketches and figure out how to make them work as buildings. He didn't want us to think that one man does it all.
He should have done more documentaries.
Posted by corey3rd
at May 27, 2008 5:37 AM
comment #7
nola
says ...
I'm just sad.
He will be missed.
Posted by nola
at May 27, 2008 5:44 AM
comment #8
dcc77
says ...
I think Pratt gets it pretty much right, although I would elevate Condor to an A as it's a consistently diverting and surprising thriller that's almost devoid of pat action sequences.
In our post-auteur world, rarely does a filmmaker's body of work have a thematic or stylistic signature (Woody Allen, like him or not, is an exception) and in this respect Pollack is no different. However, his films never pander to the audience. They're made for adults and as an adult I always appreciated Pollack's subtleties.
Finally, can anyone recall another Oscar-winning director who scored in as many supporting roles as Pollack? He wasn't just an amazing prick in Michael Clayton and Eyes Wide Shut, he was a hilarious straight man in Tootsie. His line "I begged you to get some therapy" is perhaps the funniest in a film known for its giant laughs.
What American filmmaker is poised to inherit Pollack's mantel as a studio-backed director of adult dramas? Can this spot be filled at this stage in film's evolution? I miss him already.
Posted by dcc77
at May 27, 2008 6:31 AM
comment #9
Breedlove
says ...
Really nice piece, Jeff. Sorry for the loss of your friend.
I was never a huge fan of Mr. Pollack's work as a director, but he had really become one of the most interesting character actors in the business. Wouldn't have surprised me in the least if he won an Oscar for Best Supporting in the next 5 years.
I guess he was in his 70s, but in 'Michael Clayton' he looked like he was in his 50s. Very healthy and robust. It is very starnge about he and his buddy Minghella being gone so suddenly one right after the other. Another big loss for film lovers.
I'll try and go back and watch some of his movies.
It's funny, I'm only 30, so I'm not too too attached to some of these olders folks who are passing on, but I can think of a whole bunch of actors and filmmakers who, when they pass, it will feel like the loss of a good friend.
Posted by Breedlove
at May 27, 2008 6:41 AM
comment #10
George Prager
says ...
"She brought home some kind of a video...some dopey thing that Sally wouldn't even allow in the house and you know what? I laughed like hell...I had a really good time!"
Posted by George Prager
at May 27, 2008 6:42 AM
comment #11
westegg
says ...
Well, for what it's worth I'll give OUT OF AFRICA a solid "A."
Posted by westegg
at May 27, 2008 7:14 AM
comment #12
Ray
says ...
TOOTSIE is almost so slickly made that some of the comedy bits are missing their edge, but it's still a masterpiece.
The truth is, I always admired Pollack's performance in TOOTSIE as my favorite of the movie; he's just perfect. Of course, I remember being so shocked at the time that a director could turn in such an accomplished acting performance ... maybe that's why it stuck with me.
Posted by Ray
at May 27, 2008 7:19 AM
comment #13
TerryKeefe
says ...
Great article, Jeff. We've just reposted a earlier interview we did with Sydney. He was a class act all the way.
http://thehollywoodinterview.blogspot.com/2008/01/sydney-pollack-hollywood-interview.html
Posted by TerryKeefe
at May 27, 2008 8:38 AM
comment #14
Don Murphy
says ...
I met him for lunch at Sony over a project like 6 years ago. Very nice. I got the chance to ask about his great UNCREDITED directing job, THE SWIMMER. He was a gent thru and thru.
Posted by Don Murphy
at May 27, 2008 8:47 AM
comment #15
T. Holly
says ...
A good story and no doubt a classy good guy, but why didn't he have his office call a messenger to pick it up from you and then not sit with you?
Posted by T. Holly
at May 27, 2008 9:02 AM
comment #16
CinemaPhreek
says ...
I dealt with him twice in a professional capacity and both times he was such a class act it made me really resent the preening egotist assholes who can't act like him. Such an affable guy who spoke about his past work as shif it just opened last week instead of 2 decades ago.
**************** ************** ******************
I do have to take exception to the grades people are giving to jaw-dropping misfire that was RANDOM HEARTS. Only because it was in focus and had a coherent storyline would I give it a D, because beyond that it is just an implausible mess of a compound story you had to recheck the poster on the way out to confirm that Pollack did indeed direct it.
Posted by CinemaPhreek
at May 27, 2008 10:13 AM
comment #17
BurmaShave
says ...
Go damn CONDOR is good. It's been hard for me to watch since 9/11 because so much of it revolves around the WTC, but it's going to be melancholy for a different reason now.
Posted by BurmaShave
at May 27, 2008 10:24 AM
comment #18
p.Vice
says ...
I love it... there were 80+ comments in the 12 hours following Jeff posting about Bob Clark's death... and Pollack warrants a mere 17.
Shame considering Pollack always was, in old Clooner's words, a class act... although never a particularly interesting filmmaker. I never knew until reading his obituaries that he learned from Frankenheimer and Lancaster, but that explains both the attention to craftsmanship and lack of risk in his work. If it weren't for Tootsie (both its success and his performance) he probably would never have made it out of the early 80s.
Posted by p.Vice
at May 27, 2008 1:10 PM
comment #19
bfm
says ...
"Feeling like you've lost a favorite uncle" sums up how I'm feeling very well.
Posted by bfm
at May 27, 2008 3:14 PM
comment #20
James
says ...
Do you all remember that great story of how Pollack ended up with that agent role in Tootsie?
Hoffman--psycho method man that he is--insisted on it. He couldn't imagine believing anyone else in the role. And according to Pollack, he'd never really acted before. And he really was great. And without that performance, you'd never have all those other great turns (especially Husbands and Wives) mentioned here. So his acting career was begun when his lead actor cast him in the role.
I think that's what I've always liked about him--you can sense his humility in every frame of his movies. Someone mentioned this earlier but he's definitely not an "auteur" and in the best possible sense. His work is truly in service of the story. Maybe it's that authentic humility that enabled him to play such arrogant pricks so effectively. Most actors aren't willing to let themselves look so believably lame on camera.
Posted by James
at May 27, 2008 4:15 PM
comment #21
filmfestivalgeek
says ...
Wished he had acted more...a great, natural and believable guy to watch.
Wish he had made a few more films as of late...a few more with the bitchiness of Three Days Of The Condor or the-I-don't-care-if-I-wear-my-heart-on-my-sleeve politics that you see in The Way We Were.
Wish he had just stuck around a little longer...a lot longer...that friendly smile and genuine warmth were nice things to see in this world.
Nice piece, Jeff. Very nice.
Posted by filmfestivalgeek
at May 27, 2008 7:26 PM
comment #22
topbroker
says ...
Quick, name an actor who has worked with Stanley Kubrick, Woody Allen, and Robert Altman.
That would be Pollack. Although there are many actors who have worked with two of those directors, I can't think of another who worked with all three. I think that speaks to the respect that his directorial peers felt for him. He was a darn good actor as well as a solid director and producer -- an exceptional presence in the world of movies.
Posted by topbroker
at June 1, 2008 7:07 AM
comment #23
air nike shoes
says ...
Go damn CONDOR is good. It's been hard for me to watch since 9/11 because so much of it revolves around the WTC, but it's going to be melancholy for a different reason now.
Posted by air nike shoes
at October 10, 2009 5:48 AM
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