Jerry Schatzberg Movies

In the late '60s, American culture experienced a period of change as the youth movement challenged conventional attitudes about politics, sex, drugs, and gender issues, while the advancement of the Vietnam War found many citizens questioning the actions and wisdom of their government for the first time. As American attitudes continued to evolve, so did the American film industry; as costly big-budget blockbusters nearly brought the major studios to the brink of collapse, smaller and more personal films such as Bonnie and Clyde, Easy Rider, and Five Easy Pieces demonstrated there was a ready audience for bold and challenging entertainment. As the '60s faded into the 1970s, American cinema moved into an exciting period of creativity and stylistic innovation, which led to such landmark films as The Godfather, MASH, The Last Picture Show, Shampoo, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Chinatown, and Taxi Driver, and new freedom for directors and screenwriters. Ironically, however, it was another pair of big-budget blockbusters directed by students of the new wave of filmmaking -- Jaws and Star Wars -- which brought the studios back to power and put an end to Hollywood's flirtation with offbeat creativity. A Decade Under the Influence is a documentary which explores the rise and fall of new American filmmaking in the 1970s, and features interviews with many of the key directors, screenwriters, and actors whose work typified the movement, including Francis Ford Coppola, Robert Altman, Martin Scorsese, Paul Schrader, Roger Corman, Dennis Hopper, Jon Voight, and Julie Christie. A Decade Under the Influence received its world premier at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival, and an expanded version of the film was later shown on the premium cable outlet The Independent Film Channel; the documentary was the final work of co-director Ted Demme, who died shortly before the film was completed. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Sweet Revenge was originally shipped out as Dandy, the All-American Girl. The multitalented Stockard Channing plays a car thief with a penchant for elaborate disguises. She hopes to trade in her stolen goods and purchase a snazzy sports model for herself. Sam Waterston costars as a public defender who, much against his will, falls in love with the charming thief. Producer/director Jerry Schatzberg seems so certain of Channing's considerable talents that he feels a coherent story is unecessary. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In Misunderstood, Henry Thomas ("Elliot" in E.T.) co-stars with Gene Hackman as a son-and-father duo who through no fault of their own fail to communicate their mutual affection. Ned (Hackman) is a shipping magnate living with his family in a villa in Tunisia when he suffers through the death of his wife Lilly (Susan Anspach). It is an agony for him to tell his older son Andrew (Thomas) that his mother has died, and from that moment on, he is so overcome by his own grief -- drowning it in work -- that he unwittingly hurts the feelings of the two boys. He was always inept in relating to them, and now it is even more difficult. The two brothers compensate by inventing their own pastimes, though a visiting relative chides Ned for expecting his sons to handle themselves like adults. So just as Ned begins to realize what he has been doing, the sons try harder to keep up a good facade -- and then Andrew has a serious accident, causing all the undercurrents to suddenly emerge on the surface. Loosely based on a 1967 Italian film, Incompreso, this story first emerged as a turn-of-the-20th-century novel by Florence Montgomery and is here told by director Jerry Schatzberg, but the dialogue and plot do not reach the level set by the good interpretations of the lead actors, who transform a predictable story into an emotional experience. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

The debut of writer and director Jerry Schatzberg, this cinema verite drama won accolades for the Golden Globe-nominated performance of lead actress Faye Dunaway. Dunaway stars as Lou Andreas Sand, a former fashion model who has retreated to her seaside cottage and is being interviewed by Aaron Reinhardt (Barry Primus), a photographer and filmmaker who helped make her famous and with whom she was once involved. Aaron wants to make a movie about Lou's rise from rags to riches but as Lou recalls it, her seemingly glamorous existence was anything but a Horatio Alger tale. In an addled fog, Lou struggles to recite a shocking litany of casual sex and rape, drug and alcohol abuse, and the anger of her lesbian mentor Paula Galba (Viveca Lindfors) when her romance with wealthy boyfriend Mark (Roy Scheider) nearly led to marriage. Her career deteriorating, Lou even attempted suicide. A former fashion photographer himself, Schatzberg was an apt choice for director of this melodramatic portrait of the industry's ugly underbelly. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

An ex-con learns the value of friendship in Jerry Schatzberg's picaresque road movie. Trying to hitch a ride on a desolate California road, fresh-out-of-prison Max (Gene Hackman) meets ex-sailor Lion (Al Pacino). They are both headed east, as Max dreams of opening a deluxe car wash in Pittsburgh and Lion believes that the wife and child he left behind will still welcome him home. The two decide to journey together, forging an increasingly deep yet uncertain friendship, as Lion teaches Max how not to be so pugnacious and Max senses Lion's fragility. When the pair hits Detroit, Lion finally gets in touch with his wife and discovers how she really feels. When Lion is shattered by the revelation, Max must decide if he should forge on alone or sacrifice his carefully guarded savings to help his friend. One of a cycle of late 1960s-early 1970s buddy movies that included Midnight Cowboy (1969) and California Split (1974), Scarecrow suggests how alienated men had become from such traditional institutions as marriage and family. Max's and Lion's salvation comes from being on the road with each other, rather than settling down with jobs and families. Pacino's first film after his triumph in The Godfather (1972), and Hackman's follow-up to The Poseidon Adventure (1972) and his Oscar for The French Connection (1971), Scarecrow won the 1973 Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, but the two stars were not enough to make it a hit. Even so, their nuanced performances enhance this moody study of contemporary dislocation. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi

A young Frenchman's search for his American father provides the thematic center of this drama by septuagenarian director Jerry Schatzberg. Daniel (Guillaume Canet) repairs brass instruments for a living, and when he journeys to New York to work on some French horns for Paul (Tony Lo Bianco), a business friend, he brings with him a scrap of paper bearing the identity of his father, whom he has never met. Upon his arrival in New York, Daniel is introduced to Paul's family, which includes his daughter Tilly (Monica Trombetta) and Joey (Nick Sandow), her abusive lout of a husband. Daniel receives a tough introduction to the South Bronx neighborhood where he looks for his father, getting robbed and witnessing a drive-by shooting in the space of a few minutes. Fortunately, he's befriended by William (Jay Rivera), a streetwise kid, and his grandfather, Cecil (Norman Matlock). The two help Daniel navigate life in the 'hood, and he is gradually led to a disreputable landlord (Burt Young) who may have vital information about Daniel's father. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi

Alan Alda wrote and starred in this tale about a big-time politician's struggles with his own morality and the corruption he finds surrounding him. He plays a U.S. Senator, Joe Tynan, who falls for a lovely lady attorney and has an affair that jeopardizes his marriage, and possibly, his career. ~ Rovi