Story here. Vry impressive credits.
Here’s his IMDB page. Just as the director of Bonnie and Clyde, Little Big Man (one of my all-time favorite movies), and The Miracle Worker, he’d be considered one of the greats, but I also have a big soft spot for Mickey One, an interesting little movie that I haven’t seen for decades, and only saw on late night television, but I’d love to see again on the big screen. I’m sure 90% of it went waaay over my head as a kid, but I loved looking at Warren Beatty, and it did prepare me to accept other bizarre movies as I got older. RIP Mr. Penn.
Two of his lesser known films are Alice’s Restaurant and Penn & Teller Get Killed, both of which are very interesting to watch.
He had some great movies to be sure, but he also had one of the most notorious stinkers of all time, The Missouri Breaks.
It just happened to be on tonight, and I watched it for the first time since I saw it when it first came out. It might have had potential, but Brando’s bizarre performance turned it into a virtual farce.
So what was up with that? Was Penn simply not able to control Brando?
Despite his previous track record, Penn didn’t make another movie for five years.
I…I kinda like this one :). The female lead was awful, but Harry Dean Stanton was awesome as always, Nicholson was fine and Brando was so over the top I was entertained.
ETA: Forgot to add that it is sad to see Penn go, but at least he had a good long life and some awesome work to remember him by.
Roger Ebert’s obituary for Arthur Penn is here.
Ironically, we just watched Bonnie and Clyde on Sunday night. I’d seen it before of course, but it was the first time for the wife.
The day before, we watched Robert Rodriguez’s Machete, and although I did not spot it at the time, watching Bonnie and Clyde again I spotted Rodriguez’s nod to that film. Jessica Alba says Machete must have been a good cop, he says, “The best!” And she says, “And modest, too.” That’s almost the exact dialogue when Bonnie comments on Clyde’s shooting skills.
Like I said, it had potential, and bits of it were quite good. But Brando’s performance belonged in another movie. Penn mixed comedy and violence to great effect in Bonny and Clyde and (IMO) Little Big Man, but Brando ended up being just a cartoon. If the whole movie had been more farcical, it might have been OK, but I found it to just be distracting. Brando didn’t steal the movie, he tied it up and took it hostage.