Taylor Hackford Movies
American producer/director Taylor Hackford was hired by a Los Angeles TV station after his two-year hitch in the Peace Corps. On his own, he created New Visions Productions, which he eventually merged into the New Century Company before giving up producing to concentrate on directing. He won an Academy Award in 1978 for Teenage Father, a short-subject elaboration of a TV news story on which he'd previously worked. Hackford's first feature was The Idolmaker (1980), a jaundiced recreation of the "Philadelphia school" of '50s rock & roll; he later returned to the rarefied world of vintage rock in his Ritchie Valens biopic La Bamba and his revelatory documentary Chuck Berry: Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll (both 1987). He also directed Dolores Claiborne (1995), the Al Pacino vehicle The Devil's Advocate (1997), and edited the boxing documentary When We Were Kings (1996). Though Hackford has toted up some impressive credits over his career, few of his films have matched the audience appeal or box-office bankability of his biggest hit, 1982's An Officer and a Gentleman. Hackford married British actress Helen Mirren in 1997, whom he had lived with since 1986. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
The story of Philadelphia-based rock 'n' roll starmaker Bob Marcucci is given a pointed a clef treatment in The Idolmaker. Ray Sharkey plays Vincent Vacarri, who takes a couple of raw young kids (Peter Gallagher and Paul Land) and molds them into teen idols. If Gallagher and Land seem at times to be clones of Fabian and Frankie Avalon, then you've gotten the point. As played by Sharkey, Vacarri comes off as both maven and monster: he gives his boys everything they need professionally and everything they want personally, but it's subliminally clear that his interest is purely mercenary (incredibly, Bob Marcucci is the film's technical advisor). An excellent, clear-eyed view of show biz mechanics, The Idolmaker falters only in its anachronisms, notably the style of music performed by Vacarri's proteges. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ray Sharkey, Paul Land, (more)
This concert release captures the popular sixties band Traffic, fronted by Steve Winwood, performing a number of songs including "Freedom Rider," "The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys," and "John Barleycorn Must Die." ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
