RICHARD ATTENBOROUGH

                                                         Part 4

This is the final installment of four columns about the amazing career of Sir Richard Attenborough, who lived to be 90 and worked in seven decades. Today’s deals with his final films as a director.

Though Sir Richard never reached the heights he did with Gandhi (1982), he did direct other very good films. That A Chorus Line (1985) isn’t as good as the stage play is really to be expected. After all, it’s one of the stagiest plays ever. But the film is quite entertaining and an A for effort for a most difficult job of directing. 

Cry Freedom (1987) is a true story about the horrors of apartheid in South Africa. Denzel Washington is excellent as activist Steve Biko. Kevin Cline is quite good as  journalist Donald Woods who gradually buys in to Biko’s struggle for freedom. It is fairly well accepted that Biko was murdered by the enforcement police and that Woods was banished from the country. But the story was soon told to the world when Woods reached the UK. Sir Richard’s direction is restrained but telling. 

Shadowlands (1993) is based on the May-December romance between British author C.S. Lewis and American poet Joy Gresham. He’s about 30 years older, a stuffy English don and she’s a feisty young American. Sir Anthony Hopkins and Deborah Winger are good as the principals. She is diagnosed with terminal cancer and Lewis’ caring for her final days is quite moving. 

Continuing with his penchant for directing films about real people, but straying noticeably from the facts, Richard Attenborough made In Love And War (1996). It is about an early romance of author Ernest Hemingway and a nurse who cared for him after he was injured in World War I. A very young Sandra Bullock plays the nurse and unknown Chris O’Donnell plays Hemingway. The movie makes much more of the affair than what actually happened, which is fine because the true story wasn’t as interesting. 

Here the good stuff ends. Despite a noble effort by Robert Downey, Chaplin (1992) just isn’t very good. And I’m afraid we have to blame the screenwriter and Sir Richards’s direction for focusing too much on Chaplin’s dreary personal life and not enough on his cinematic magic. Grey Owl (1995) features the dreadfully miscast Pierce Brosnan as a legendary Brit who came to America and became a famous trapper and conservationist. Sir Richard’s last film, Closing The Ring (2007) is just an unfortunate mess, with a convoluted and confusing plot about the troubles in Northern Ireland and a plane crash involving three friends from the UK. Miss it if you can.

All of the movies in this column are available on DVD. All are really for grown-ups.

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                                                   RICHARD ATTENBOROUGH

                                                           Part 3

Continuing on with the fantastic career of the late Sir Richard Attenborough who died recently at 90. This week we’ll begin looking at his career as a director.

His first effort behind the camera was a biting musical satire entitled Oh What A Lovely War (1969). This is not the easiest genre on which to cut your directorial teeth! To move things along, Attenborough enlisted almost every notable actor in the UK, including Dirk Bogarde, Sir John Gielgud, Jack Hawkins, Kenneth More, Sir Lawrence Olivier, Maggie Smith, and many others. I have to say it works only intermittently, consisting of numerous musical numbers satirizing various parts of World War I. But when it works, it is both hilarious and telling. 

Young Winston (1972) is a rather good biopic about the early career of Britain’s most famous Prime Minister. It covers the period up to his election to Parliament at age 26. Attenborough gambled on unknown Simon Ward in the title role, and it paid off. He used old pros Anne Bancroft and Robert Shaw as Churchill’s parents. Churchill’s early life is almost as incredible as his time as a statesman. He fought in and reported on the Boer War, fought in India and the Sudan, was captured and escaped from a POW camp. 

A Bridge Too Far (1977) is the aptly titled story of how the Allies launched Operation Market Garden, designed to penetrate deep into Germany and take all its bridges on the way. Again there is a who’s who of participating actors, this time including Americans. James Caan, Dirk Bogarde, Sean Connery, Gene Hackman and Robert Redford are only a few members of the star-studded cast. The attack works well for a while, then stalls out when the Germans offer more resistance than was thought possible. And General Patton sums it up by saying “I think we went a bridge too far.”

1982 marked the peak of Richard Attenborough’s directing career. For years he had tried without success to get this one made. He finally succeeded, and how! Gandhi is a towering epic, with Ben Kingsley sublime as the peaceable little man who invented non-violence and brought down the world’s biggest empire. Candace Bergen, Edward Fox, Martin Sheen, Trevor Howard and Sir John Mills are just some of the familiar names. The many Indian actors are largely unknown in the West. The film covers the saintly Gandhi’s career up to and through his assassination in 1948. This movie virtually swept the Oscars that year, winning Best Picture, Best Actor for Kingsley, and a golden statue for Richard Attenborough as Best Director. 

All of the films in this column are available on DVD. All are OK for 10 and up, factoring in the adult plotlines. 

                                                    RICHARD ATTENBOROUGH

                                                          Part 2

This is the second column in a series about the incredible career of Sir Richard Attenborough, a multi-talented Englishman who lived to be 90 and had credits in seven different decades. This week we take up his later acting roles.

Flight Of The Phoenix (1965) is about a plane that crash lands in the desert, far off the regular flight paths. It is based on actual events. The radio is out and there’s little food and water left. German engineer Heinrich Dorfmann (Hardy Kruger) believes they can re-construct the airplane well enough to fly them out, using what is left of it. James Stewart is the pilot and Richard Attenborough plays Lew Moran, the co-pilot and ex officio leader and morale-keeper-upper. Will this work? Watch and find out! The 2004 re-make is, of course, inferior to this version. 

The Sand Pebbles (1966) is a long (182 minutes) sprawling story of an American gunboat patrolling the Yangtse River in 1926. Steve McQueen plays the rebellious sailor who knows how to repair engines and Richard Attenborough is Frenchy Burgoyne, his only friend on the boat. There’s lots of gunplay and subplots, including Frenchy’s marriage to a Chinese woman. It’s an enjoyable trip if you can stick with it. The film was nominated for eight Oscars, winning exactly none!

Richard Attenborough is a thoroughly bad guy in 10 Rillington Place (1971). He plays John Christie, a serial killer who manages to cast suspicion on his not-too-bright neighbor, Timothy Evans (John Hurt). I would say the story beggars belief except for the fact that it’s based on actual events. 

Richard Attenborough stars as John Hammond (no relation) in the first Jurassic Park (1993). He is the scientist who has cloned dinosaurs and created a park featuring  big and small creatures. He plays the single-minded Hammond to the hilt. The plot of the film is actually rather silly, but the dinosaurs are worth the trip! Thirty years ago the imagery was ground-breaking and still features scenes that take your breath away. The several sequels tail off quite a bit. 

Miracle On 34th Street was first made in 1947 with Maureen O’Hara, John Payne, Natalie Wood and Edmund Gwenn as, perhaps, Santa Claus. The film was re-made in 1994 with Richard Attenborough as, perhaps (?), Kris Kringle.  The jolly old elf has been institutionalized as nuts, but a young lawyer decides to prove in a courtroom setting that he really is who he says is he is. 

Elizabeth (1998) is one of the best films about the long-serving British monarch. Cate Blanchett plays the queen, and Richard Attenborough is Sir William Cecil, a trusted member of her court. Geoffrey Rush, Joseph Fiennes and Sir John Gielgud also appear in this sterling historical drama about the early period of Elizabeth’s reign.

All of the movies in this column are available on DVD. All are fine for 12 and up.

                                                 RICHARD ATTENBOROUGH

                                                           Part 1

It’s hard to know where to start in detailing the incredible career of the late Sir Richard Attenborough. His career spans seven decades! He was in the very first production of Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap in 1952- and it is still running! I’m going to start with his early acting parts in films, and go from there.

His first appearance of note is in Brighton Rock (1947) as Pinkie Brown, leader of a gang of criminals and a consummate murderer. He plays this psychopathic killer to the hilt. At the end, he tells his wife Rose (Carol Marsh) they should each kill themselves and she should go first. No spoiler here!

Then in 1951 Mr. Attenborough is Jack Carter in the marvelous The Magic Box. It is the more or less true story of the invention of the movie camera by William Friese-Greene (Robert Donat) and includes a who’s who list of British actors in addition to Attenborough. Maria Schell, Eric Portman, Glynis Johns, and Margaret Rutherford are on board in this very under-appreciated movie. 

Richard Attenborough is Sidney Cox in I’m All Right, Jack (1959) one of a series of comedies directed by the Boulting brothers. In this one, British industry is heartlessly and hilariously pilloried by Peter Sellers, Terry-Thomas, Ian Carmichael, et al. 60+ years later, this is still a really funny film!

In The Angry Silence (1960) Mr. Attenborough is Tom Curtis, a factory worker who refuses to go along with a strike. While not faced with actual violence, he is given the silent treatment, hence the title. The film is a good study of what it means to stand up for what you believe, even when it is very unpopular. 

The League Of Gentlemen (1960) is a very funny heist movie. Disgruntled Army veteran Colonel Hyde (Jack Hawkins) recruits a gang of military buddies to pull off a daring robbery. Richard Attenborough is on board as Lexy, one of the rag-tag band of ex-soldiers trying to get even with a government they feel has deserted them. 

The Great Escape (1963) is one of the greatest war movies ever made. It takes place in a German POW camp populated by British, American and Australian prisoners who have all tried to escape at least once. Richard Attenborough is Bartlett, known as “Big X” and is the leader of these men. The commandant informs him that if he tries to escape again, he will be shot. He then immediately begins planning the biggest escape ever from a Nazi prison camp. Steve McQueen, James Garner, and Charles Bronson are part of a crackerjack cast in a crackerjack movie. McQueen's motorcycle ride alone is worth a look.

All of the movies in this column are available on DVD. And actually all are fine for all ages, though younger viewers probably wouldn’t get a lot of the story lines.