George Roy Hill was born in Minneapolis on 20 December 1921.
Most people don’t know who he was. But he was an icon of my youth. For the decade starting in 1967, he directed nothing but hits. Two of them were huge hits: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) and The Sting (1973). He isn’t really a psychotronic filmmaker, although one of them qualifies (see below).
But Hill makes me think of my older sister. Whenever I tell her about a great film, she always says, “Is it new?” And I usually say something like, “Yes! It came out in 1973!” That, of course, is not what she means.
The weird thing is that when my sister was a teenager, she loved old films. She was always watching old musicals on TV. Now she mostly watches new comedies — usually ones I hate like Grown Ups (2010). Not that I’m judging. Whatever someone likes is fine by me. But I like idiosyncratic people and I wish she were binging Busby Berkeley.
But I’m an annoying guy. When everyone had iPods, I noted that I’d long had my own MP3 player. What’s more, I had atransistor radio as a child, and it just ain’t that different.
And today, we could ban filmmaking for the next century, and it wouldn’t much matter. There’s a ton of great films that no one watches because there aren’t multi-million-dollar ad campaigns selling them.
My point is: George Roy Hill made a lot of great films that are just as fun today as they were then.
So let’s celebrate the birth of George Roy Hill by watching his only film that clearly qualifies as psychotronic: Slaughterhouse-Five. Of course, it also won the Jury Prize at the 1972 Cannes. I’m not big on awards. But David Cronenberg got it for his exceptional Crash in 1996, so I’ll allow it.
George Roy Hill by Steelehill12 under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Dude looks like Gary Oldman playing Mank…
It is funny what people consider “old.” Not long ago, I was driving an older lady for my occasional job, and she asked what I did the rest of the time. I told her I wrote about movies, mostly old ones. And she said she loved old movies! And then started mentioning the old movies she liked — such as Terminator II. Nothing against T2, but I have a different idea of what’s old!
People can surprise you, though. A few weeks ago, we did Damn Yankees for Baseball Movie Night, and TWO people — who I know for a fact are about 30 — noticed a scene where a married couple had separate beds, and said “stupid Hays code.” I didn’t think anybody other than geezers like us knew what the Hays code was! So there’s hope for humanity!
(There’s not, but some people are still surprising & interesting.)
That is surprising! Since I deal with a lot of early horror, I’m always struck that films took a step back in the mid-1930s. And it’s not like producers weren’t careful before Hays. But the studios were the same then as now. It’s the same with all the business interests rolling over for Trump. When money is all you care about, money is all you care about. So no thought for quality or creativity or morality.
As for the T2 woman… Yeah. It makes me sad. I love the film (especially the director’s cut). But it ain’t old! You really have to get into the 1950s before I start thinking films are old. But as you note: we are geezers!