How Monte Hellman Beat the Devil: An Appreciation Variety 2 hrs ago
On the release of what was to be the late Monte Hellman’s final feature film in 2011, critic Steve Erickson noted “Monte Hellman is the ultimate outlaw filmmaker.”
A decade earlier, filmmaker-critic Kent Jones wrote that “anything written in America about Monte Hellman … cinema’s most under-appreciated great director … must be a defense.”
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Decades before Jones’ astute assessment, film critic David Thomson had noted, “No system could digest the willful arbitrariness of Monte Hellman’s best films,” which is probably as clear an explanation of why Hellman made only one Hollywood Studio film in a directing career that stretched from 1959 to 2011 and included stints as Jack Nicholson’s filmmaking partner and Quentin Tarantino’s directorial debut enabler-producer.
Late last year, amid the usual mix of dance videos and audio memes found on TikTok, a new viral sensation emerged: the
If Anything Happens I Love You challenge. The rules were simpleâto participate, TikTokers had to film themselves before and after watching an animated short on Netflix. The âchallengeâ was trying to make it through without crying.Â
But even the most hardened cynics were moved by the 12-minute animated short, which follows two parents as they grieve the loss of their daughter. Later itâs revealed she was killed during a school shooting. Her final text to her mom and dad: âIf anything happens, I love you.âÂ
How Monte Hellman Beat the Devil: An Appreciation Variety 3 hrs ago
On the release of what was to be the late Monte Hellman’s final feature film in 2011, critic Steve Erickson noted “Monte Hellman is the ultimate outlaw filmmaker.”
A decade earlier, filmmaker-critic Kent Jones wrote that “anything written in America about Monte Hellman … cinema’s most under-appreciated great director … must be a defense.”
More from Variety
Decades before Jones’ astute assessment, film critic David Thomson had noted, “No system could digest the willful arbitrariness of Monte Hellman’s best films,” which is probably as clear an explanation of why Hellman made only one Hollywood Studio film in a directing career that stretched from 1959 to 2011 and included stints as Jack Nicholson’s filmmaking partner and Quentin Tarantino’s directorial debut enabler-producer.
Monte Hellman
He also helmed The Shooting and Ride in the Whirlwind, two sparse Westerns starring a young Jack Nicholson.
Monte Hellman, the maverick director and protege of Roger Corman who helmed the existential cult classics
The Shooting and
Two-Lane Blacktop, died Tuesday. He was 91.
Hellman died at Eisenhower Health hospital in Palm Desert a week after he had fallen in his home, his daughter, Melissa Hellman, a producer, told
The Hollywood Reporter. He was my best friend, she said.
Cahiers du Cinema, the influential French magazine, once called Hellman the most gifted American filmmaker of his generation, and critics likened the idiosyncratic director to Michelangelo Antonioni and Sam Fuller.
Monte Hellman, Two-Lane Blacktop Director, Dies at 91
Tim Gray, provided by
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Monte Hellman, the maverick director of such films as “Two-Lane Blacktop,” “The Shooting” and “Road to Nowhere,” died April 20 at Eisenhower Medical Center in Palm Desert, Calif., following a fall in his home on April 19. He was 91.
Hellman was a cult director who was widely admired within the industry, earning such fans as Quentin Tarantino; they liked his down-and-dirty storytelling, which featured poetic flourishes amid his genre films.
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After working as an editor’s apprentice at ABC, he made his directing debut with the 1959 “Beast From Haunted Cave,” produced by Roger Corman. He became part of the Corman stable of veterans who learned how to get maximum impact on minimum budget. Other Corman alumni include Martin Scorsese and Ron Howard.