Brianland

I’ve been on a James Mangold deep-dive recently and this guy needs to be in any conversation about the greatest directors working today.

He’s averaged a new film roughly every two years since his first low-budget indie (Heavy) in 1995, which won a Special Jury Recognition for Directing at Sundance and kind-of jump-started his career.  He wrote it under the tutelage of the great Miloš Forman who took the young prodigy under his wing at Columbia.  In a way it set the template for what his film oeuvre would be — namely, about relationships — not so much plot, and certainly not special effects.  His films are about how people react to each other and interact with one another.

His Best Picture-nominated Ford v Ferrari wasn’t so much about race cars and an historic development in design history, but rather the relationship between driver and designer.  A Complete Unknown wasn’t so much a biopic of Dylan’s young life, but his relationship with those around him at the time. 3:10 to Yuma wasn’t a conventional Western with cookie-cutter good guys and bad guys, but rather about how a ruthless killer and an honorable ranchman could find commonality.

Another thing that puts him high on the ranking of not only contemporary filmmakers but of all-time is how he doesn’t limit himself to one genre over the 13 films he’s helmed.  He’s made a couple music biopics (Walk The Line and A Complete Unknown), a men-centric story (Cop Land) followed by a women-centric film (Girl, Interrupted), a Western (3:10 to Yuma) followed by a comedy action picture (Knight and Day), a romantic comedy (Kate & Leopold) followed by a Hitchcockian thriller (Identity), a Marvel superhero movie (The Wolverine) followed by a straight sci-fi film (Logan) followed by a docudrama (Ford v Ferrari) followed by an Indiana Jones movie — and following his hit Dylan biopic he’s in pre-production to write & helm the next Star Wars movie, and is also developing a romantic film (Juliet) about a modern woman who may be related to Shakespeare’s legendary protagonist.  There aren’t many directors in history who have that many genres covered in their whole career, let alone their first dozen pictures.

He was recognized in the film world as something of a prodigy early on.  He had a development deal with Disney at age 22, Miloš Foreman took him on as his mentor, and his first script of a virtually no-budget indie film about a non-sexy subject (a heavyset insecure chef in a Nowheresville diner) attracted no less than Shelley Winters, Liv Tyler and Debbie Harry.

That led to his first real-budget film ($15 mil), Cop Land, attracting Sylvester Stallone in the lead trying to break out of his pigeon-holed Rocky/Rambo mold, and a supporting cast of no less than Robert De Niro, Harvey Keitel, Ray Liotta, Michael Rapaport, John Spencer, Frank Vincent, Cathy Moriarty, Edie Falco and Janeane Garofalo all signing on to an essentially first-time-director’s script and movie — because they all realized this guy was happening.

As Mangold has shared, when he first met Bob Dylan while developing what would become A Complete Unknown, the first sentence to him out of Bob’s mouth was, “I loved Cop Land.”

The film turned a profit at the box office (unusual for a first-time director’s work) and paved the way for his next picture, Girl, Interrupted, where he went from essentially an all-male film to an all-female story.  Again he attracted a kind-of unheard-of cast for a young director, including Vanessa Redgrave, Whoopi Goldberg, Winona Ryder, Elisabeth Moss, Britney Murphy, Mary Kay Place, Jared Leto, Jeffrey Tambor, and directed Angelina Jolie to an Oscar-winning performance.

After the success of Girl, Interrupted, he co-wrote and directed a time-travel romantic comedy, Kate and Leopold, with Hugh Jackman & Meg Ryan, but also Liev Schreiber, Spalding Grey, Bradley Whitford, Philip Bosco, Viola Davis, with an Oscar-nominated song by Sting.

I’m writing about Mangold because I recently rewatched his Oscar-nominated 8-times-over A Complete Unknown on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of Dylan going electric at Newport and was reminded again what a cinematic masterpiece that film is.  When I first saw an advance screening and everyone was raving (or bitching) about Timothée Chalamet and the story & songs of Bob Dylan coming to the biopic screen, my takeaway, as I shared that night on social media and to friends, was that James Mangold was the story of this movie.

Mangold is a true auteur in that he writes (or co-writes) most of the films he directs, and has a cinematic vision that is present in every genre of movies he makes, from westerns and sci-fi to rom-coms and biopics — and that is character.  Early on he developed a beyond-his-years wisdom about editing and cinematic storytelling that has served audiences well.  He’s shared one of his early cinematic life-lessons with young screenwriters/filmmakers:  “Write like you’re sitting next to a blind person at the movie theater, and you’re describing the movie, and if you take too long to describe what’s happening, you’ll fall behind because the movie’s still moving.”  You can hear the whole (highly recommended) 5-minute riff here  —

Film lovers are living through a time with a master in our midst who is rarely talked about as such — but certainly deserves to be in any conversation of whoever you think are the greatest living directors.  I hope this little riff turns some people onto him because, boy, you’re missing out if you’re not there already.

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This scene-by-scene time-coded breakdown of A Complete Unknown full of quotes and links to every song has proven to be one of the most popular pieces on my site in recent years with scores of people from all over the world still reading it every single day.

“A Complete Unknown” Scene Breakdown – Time Codes, Song Titles, Quotes & Context

I also reviewed the film after it first came out . . .

A Complete Unknown movie review

Or here’s my main movie page with over 900 films, including jump links at the beginning so you can go straight to dramas, comedies, biopics, documentaries, music movies, trippy movies, or auteurs to explore the filmmakers themselves.

Brian’s “Hot 300” movie list

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by Brian Hassett

karmacoupon@gmail.com   —  BrianHassett.com

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