RON HOWARD

                                                                 Part 2

This is the second of three articles about the incredible directorial career of Ron Howard. Not only was he Andy Griffith’s son Opie, as a teenager he was Richie Cunningham on Happy Days. Then he went behind the camera.

Howard’s expertise as a documentary director was evident in last year’s Pavoratti. The film  documents the career of Luciano Pavorotti, perhaps the world’s greatest tenor. Even if you don’t like opera much (me neither!) you will love this film. The singing is just super and he was one heck of a guy. Generous almost to a fault, he spread his talent and money freely. And Lord, what a voice!  Howard does a super job highlighting the personal and the profound about this iconic artist. 

Another really good documentary helmed by Ron Howard is The Beatles: 8 Days A Week (2016). From their beginnings in a smoky Liverpool dive to international stars at the absolute pinnacle of the music world is well chronicled here. Howard again successfully mixes the personal and the public face of the Fab Four. 

Frost/Nixon (2008) isn’t really a documentary but plays like one. It recreates the famous confrontational interviews between disgraced ex-President Richard Nixon and British reporter David Frost. The gloves are off in this one. Actually, Nixon comes across pretty well considering. Younger viewers won’t remember much of this, which is fine. Those near my age will find some deja vu here. Both the movie and Howard were nominated for Oscar, but neither won. 

Perhaps the movie that best captures the newspaper business is The Paper (1994). Michael Keaton, Glenn Close, Robert Duvall and Randy Quaid lead a brilliant cast in this Ron Howard-directed vehicle about the problems on a big-city daily. About midway through the press run a terrible mistake is discovered. This film is way over the top, but somewhat accurate on the newspaper details and fun to watch if you don’t stop to think. As an old newspaper guy, I greatly admire this film.

In Ransom (1996) Ron Howard displays his directing chops in an action-packed thriller. Mel Gibson plays Tom Mullen, a millionaire whose son, Sean, is kidnaped. Mullen turns the tables on the kidnapers by offering the ransom amount of two million dollars as a bounty on the heads of the kidnapers, and that he will withdraw the bounty and drop all charges if the bad guys release Sean unharmed. Then it gets complicated. 

The true story of the U.S. whaler Essex, which was attacked by a sperm whale in 1820, is the subject of In The Heart Of The Sea (2015) a spectacular film about men against the sea and its creatures. As the ship loses all means of locomotion, starvation and sickness sets in and death seems inevitable. It is fairly well established that Herman Melville based Moby Dick on this incident. 

All of the films in this article are available on DVD. All are for adults. Coming soon: Part 3 of the films of Ron Howard.