Sydney Pollack dead of cancer at 73

[Equipoise]

@ArchiveGuy

David Edelstein writes a terrific tribute about how it’s the actor, and not the director, that we’re likely to miss the most.

From that (otherwise excellent) piece:

he preferred leading men like the Über-Wasp Robert Redford, whom he met in the early sixties and who’d go on to star in seven of his films.

DAMN! No mention of War Hunt, where Pollack and Redford met! A perfect opportunity missed! Why the HELL isn’t War Hunt better-known enough to be mentioned at a time like this? I just don’t understand it.

1. It’s a GOOD movie.
2. It’s Sydney Pollack’s first film as an actor.
3. It’s Robert Redford’s first film as an actor.
4. It’s Tom Skerritt’s first film as an actor.
5. It’s Charles Aidman’s first feature film speaking role.
6. It also stars Gavin MacLeod, and a very creepy John Saxon.
7. Hell, Francis Ford Coppola is even in it (as an uncredited truck driver).
8. Did I mention that it’s a DAMNED good movie? Slow, haunting, character-driven, fascinating. Perhaps not without flaws (though not to me) but it was made on a miniscule, shoe-string budget and they did the best with what they could.

It was a tiny indie movie starring a lot of future stars. In that vein it was 1962’s American Graffiti (meaning, full of future stars), for heaven sakes. WHY has it been ignored? If Redford croaked tomorrow it’d STILL be ignored I’ll bet. How frustrating.