Hal (2018)

[Winston T. Boogie]

Title: Hal

Tagline: Believe In Cinema.

Genre: Documentary

Director: Amy Scott

Cast: Hal Ashby, Jane Fonda, Jon Voight, Lee Grant, Dustin Hoffman, Rosanna Arquette, Jeff Bridges, Allison Anders, John C. Reilly, Judd Apatow, David O. Russell, Adam McKay, Beau Bridges, Alexander Payne, Caleb Deschanel, Norman Jewison, Lisa Cholodenko, Buddy Joe Hooker, Haskell Wexler, Lynn Stalmaster, Pablo Ferro, Jeff Wexler, Bruce Gilbert, Charles Mulvehill, Robert C. Jones, Grif Griffis, Dianne Schroeder, Al Schwartz, Yusuf Islam, Louis Gossett Jr.

Release: 2018-01-22

Runtime: 90

Plot: Hal Ashby's obsessive genius led to an unprecedented string of Oscar®-winning classics, including Harold and Maude, Shampoo and Being There. But as contemporaries Coppola, Scorsese and Spielberg rose to blockbuster stardom in the 1980s, Ashby's uncompromising nature played out as a cautionary tale of art versus commerce.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

 

[Colin Jacobson]

I thought this was gonna be a "2001" spinoff movie!

 

[Malcolm R]

I figured it was a sequel to Shallow Hal. He's not shallow anymore, he's just Hal.

 

[Angelo Colombus]

Saw most of his films so i will see this documentary for sure. Rogerebert.com gave it 3 1/2 stars.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

To me Hal Ashby was one of the great filmmakers of the 1970s. His films always were full of heart and his love for humanity...all our faults and quirks.

It's funny, as the world turned crueler as we drifted into the 1980s he fell out fashion and then sadly passed away. It would be interesting if Ashby were around now to hear what he thought of the world today. I think he could have made a great film about how people act and interact on the internet...or maybe he would have avoided that because it is where people are the most rude, vicious, judgmental, and openly cruel.

Anyway, there are a couple films I missed of his and I am doing a month of Ashby in my home cinema based around the release of Shampoo...a long awaited film on blu-ray for me. So, I have both Second Hand Hearts and The Slugger's Wife (the two I missed) and now just need to track down a copy of The Landlord to complete my Hal Ashby collection.

 

[PMF]

The influence of Hal Ashby was found even within his lobby posters and trailers;
as I wanted to see "The Last Detail" (1973) and "Shampoo" (1975);
but was not permitted access to "R" rated films at the age of 13 and 15.

Finally, along came "Bound for Glory" (1976) where no such issues had mattered.
By the time of "Coming Home" (1978) and "Being There" (1979), I was on an Ashby roll.

Now, factor in this key and connective tissue towards his influence.
All cited films had caught my attentions without - at that time - my being fully aware of his name.
Just the individual films, alone, had drawn me into their quirky eccentric callings.

Eventually, I had tracked down both "The Last Detail" and "Shampoo";
not to mention "Harold and Maude" (1971);
at a city revival house around the age of 19.

And that, my friends, is where the name of Hal Ashby had added up and fully taken hold.

Thanks for bringing this "must-have" documentary to our attentions.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

Thanks for bringing this "must-have" documentary to our attentions.

It is supposed to be getting a blu-ray release with extended versions of the interviews and some interesting features.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

Link to the official site with listing of where this is playing if there is a desire to catch it in a cinema.

http://hal.oscilloscope.net/

 

[Walter Kittel]

Watched this documentary this morning on Amazon Prime. Really, really enjoyed it. Definitely recommended for fans of this talented director and his films. I'm not sure I learned much about Ashby that wasn't recorded elsewhere, but I certainly enjoyed the 'time capsule' aspect of the documentary and it sort of makes me want to revisit his '70s output.

I did have to laugh over the sequence in the documentary about how much profanity was appropriate in "The Last Detail".

- Walter..

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

His string of 1970s pictures puts him right there with the greatest directors. They are all truly amazing films and should be seen by any lover of cinema.

 

[Walter Kittel]

His string of 1970s pictures puts him right there with the greatest directors. They are all truly amazing films and should be seen by any lover of cinema.

In complete agreement.

One other thing I meant to comment upon was the prescient nature of Being There. Admittedly this was all brought into clearer focus at the time of the making of the documentary (in 2018) by the current state of affairs in the world. Still though, the treatment of celebrity and the willingness of the public to not perform critical thinking was strikingly prophetic.

The comments about how Being There was shot were interesting - it was shot like a straight drama and the film certainly has that appearance when viewed as a series of stills, outside the comedic context of the scenes. Also I didn't know that the umbrella was only added on the third take of the iconic scene that closes the film. I can't imagine the scene being as effective without that prop.

There is a lot to like in the documentary and once again I highly recommend it for fans of cinema in general.

- Walter.