Happy 84th Birthday, Philip Kaufman! Born today in 1936, this American screenwriter, producer and director has made fifteen films over a career spanning more than six decades. He has been described as a "maverick" and an "iconoclast," notable for his versatility and independence.
Born in Chicago, Illinois, Kaufman was an only son. He was also the grandson of German Jewish immigrants.
Years later, one of Kaufman's grammar and high school friends was William Friedkin, of whom would later go onto direct 'The French Connection' (1971) and 'The Exorcist' (1973).
Kaufman eventually developed an early love of films, and during his youth, would often attend double features.
Kaufman later attended the University of Chicago, where he received a degree in history. Afterwards, he then enrolled at Harvard Law School where he spent a year. He would eventually return to Chicago for a postgraduate degree, hoping to become a professor of history.
In 1958, Kaufman met American screenwriter and actress Rose Fisher. Two years later, they had one son together named Peter, of whom would become a film producer for his father.
Before graduating, however, Kaufman became involved in the counterculture movement. In 1960, he moved to San Francisco, California.
While there, he took on various jobs, including postal worker, and also befriended a number of influential people, such as American writer Henry Miller.
Later, Kaufman and Rose then decided to travel and live in Europe for a while where he would teach. After spending time working on a kibbutz (lit. "gathering, clustering") in Israel, he afterwards taught English and math for two years in Greece and Italy.
After backpacking in Europe with Rose and their young son Peter, they returned to the United States.
Philip's time in Europe heavily influenced his decision to become a filmmaker, when he and his wife would wander into small movie theaters showcasing the works of experimental new filmmakers.
Most notably, these included John Cassavetes ('Shadows', 'Faces', 'A Woman Under the Influence', 'The Killing of a Chinese Bookie') and Shirley Clarke ('The Cool World'), among others.
Kaufman recalls the effect of being exposed to those filmmakers as the "start of something new" which would later inspire the European flavor of many of his films.
He recalled: "I could feel the cry of America, the sense of jazz ... So I came back to Chicago in 1962 and set about trying to learn as much as I could, seeing every foreign movie I could."
During the late 1970s, Kaufman wrote and began directing the 1976 American revisionist Western action/adventure film 'The Outlaw Josey Wales'.
However, he was fired as director after disagreements with its star, Clint Eastwood, of whom then directed the film himself.
Before shooting began, Eastwood felt that the screenplay needed more suspense and hired Kaufman back to polish the story.
He also thought that Kaufman would be a good choice to direct. This was after being impressed by the realism he created in his 1974 Canadian-American adventure/adaptation drama film 'The White Dawn'.
American-based British critic and historian David Thomson explains that Eastwood was later bothered by the number of takes Kaufman wanted, which Eastwood considered a waste of time and expense.
Two years later, Kaufman directed the 1978 American science fiction horror thriller/fantasy film 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers', which became his first box office hit.
On a budget of $3.5 million, the film grossed $24.9 million at the North American box office.
'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' initially received varied reviews from critics, though its critical reception has significantly improved in subsequent years, it was also hailed as one of the greatest remakes ever as well as one of the best science-fiction horror films of all time.
The film was a remake of American film director and producer Don Siegal's ('Dirty Harry') 1956 American black and white sci-fi/horror film of the same name.
In Kaufman's version, he moved the setting to San Francisco rather than in Santa Mira, and recreated the alien threat as more a horror film than science fiction. Kaufman also did this in a way that was disturbing, humorous, and believable.
Then-American film critic for The New Yorker Pauline Kael wrote, "It may be the best movie of its kind ever made."
Kaufman is credited for co-conceiving the story for Steven Spielberg's 1981 American adventure/action film 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'. This was along with George Lucas. Kaufman had also come up with the story about the pursuit of the Ark of the Covenant.
Two years later, Kaufman wrote and directed the film of which he is best known. This was the epic 1983 American historical drama/adventure film 'The Right Stuff'.
Kaufman had hired American novelist, playwright and screenwriter William Goldman to write the script. However, after a number of disputes about the focus of the story, Goldman quit and Kaufman wrote it himself.
Goldman wanted the story to portray patriotism and center mostly on the astronauts, whereas Kaufman wanted much of the story to focus on United States Air Force officer, flying ace and record-setting test pilot Chuck Yeager (Sam Shepard), of whom Goldman's script left out completely.
Goldman writes in his memoirs, "Phil's heart was with Yeager." And Shepard's biographer, Don Shewey, explains that "though its chief subject is the astronauts, Yeager is the apple of Kaufman's heroic eye."
Thomson agreed, saying: "I think Kaufman picked Shepard for the way he represents the movie star as real man and existentialist ... a man in a leather jacket on a horse meeting a jet plane in the desert. That is an arresting image, and Shepard is all that Kaufman wanted in The Right Stuff."
Upon release, the film was a box office failure. On a budget of $27 million, 'The Right Stuff' only grossed $21.1 million at the box office. Despite this, it received widespread critical acclaim.
With a runtime of three hours, the epic feature was an adaptation of the eponymous best-selling 1979 biographical non-fiction book by American author and journalist Tom Wolfe.
The following year, 'The Right Stuff' won four Oscars for Best Music (Original Score), Best Film Editing, Best Sound Editing, and Best Sound Mixing. This occurred at the 56th Academy Awards in early April 1984.
Roger Ebert said the film was "impressive," noting that the way Kaufman had organized the material into one of the "best recent American movies, is astonishing."
He wrote, "it joins a short list of recent American movies that might be called experimental epics: movies that have an ambitious reach through time and subject matter, that spend freely for locations or special effects, but that consider each scene as intently as an art film".
Ebert later named it one of the best films of the decade and wrote, "The Right Stuff is a greater film because it is not a straightforward historical account but pulls back to chronicle the transition from Yeager and other test pilots to a mighty public relations enterprise".
Ebert later put 'The Right Stuff' at #2 on his 10 Best Films of the 1980s. This was behind Martin Scorsese's 'Raging Bull' (1980).
Gene Siskel, Ebert's co-host of At the Movies, also named 'The Right Stuff' the best film of 1983, and said "It's a great film, and I hope everyone sees it."
Siskel also went on to include 'The Right Stuff' at #3 on his list of the best films of the 1980s, behind 'Raging Bull' and French filmmaker Claude Lanzmann's ten-hour 1985 French epic drama/history documentary film 'Shoah'.
In his review for The New York Times, American film and theatre critic Vincent Canby praised Shepard's performance.
He wrote:"Both as the character he plays and as an iconic screen presence, Mr. Shepard gives the film much well-needed heft. He is the center of gravity".
Pauline Kael wrote, "The movie has the happy, excited spirit of a fanfare, and it's astonishingly entertaining, considering what a screw-up it is".
Even Yeager himself said of 'The Right Stuff': "Sam [Shepard] is not a real flamboyant actor, and I'm not a real flamboyant-type individual ... he played his role the way I fly airplanes".
Yeager even had a cameo in 'The Right Stuff', credited as Fred, the bartender at Pancho's Saloon.
American actor, film historian, television presenter, and author Robert Osborne, of whom introduced showings of the film on Turner Classic Movies, was quite enthusiastic about the film. The cameo appearance by the real Chuck Yeager in the film was a particular "treat" which Osborne cited.
Osborne's recounting of many of the legendary aspects of Yeager's life was left in place, including the naming of the X-1, "Glamorous Glennis" after his wife and his superstitious preflight ritual of asking for a stick of Beemans chewing gum from his best friend, Jack Ridley.
When the film came out, John Glenn was running for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States.
In the weeks before the film's premiere, media pundits as well as people in the Democratic Party wondered that if the film became a big success, it could give Glenn an advantage in the upcoming primaries, a speculation that eventually proved groundless.
Kaufman later earned the Writers Guild and Directors Guild nomination for his satiric adaptation of the astronaut program. "It may be the last movie of the heroic 1970s," writes Thomson.
In the credits of 'Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade' (1989) and 'Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull' (2008), Kaufman was acknowledged for those films being based on characters that he and Lucas had created.
In 2008, Peter married American journalist strategist Christine Pelosi. She is the daughter of American politician and Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi.
In 2013, 'The Right Stuff' was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
According to Kaufman's personal life, he currently resides in San Francisco, where he also runs his production company, Walrus and Associates.
Kauffman has been active from 1964–present.
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