Richard Donner

DIRECTOR & PRODUCER
USA

Born in 1930 in New York City, Richard Donner tried out stage acting before moving into directing, working for television with icons such as Sidney Lumet or Arthur Penn.

He moved to Los Angeles and directed several episodes of renowned and popular television series like Wanted : Dead or Alive starring Steve McQueen, The Streets of San Francisco starring Karl Malden and Michael Douglas, The Wild Wild West, The Twilight Zone or The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

In 1961 he moved into directing feature films starting with X-15, a sci-fi movie with Charles Bronson. However, his real breakthrough came in 1976 with supernatural thriller hit The Omen, starring Gregory Peck. In 1978, he gave lustre to the superhero film genre by directing Superman, with dream cast and crew : Mario Puzo, screenwriter of The Godfather ; Geoffrey Unsworth, cinematographer of 2001 : A Space Odyssey ; John Williams, composer of the Star Wars score ; as well as actors Christopher Reeve, Gene Hackman and Marlon Brando. Superman remains a highly praised reference today, and its influence is felt in recent superhero movies, from Batman to Spiderman.

In 1985, he directed The Goonies, a smash hit that left its mark on a whole generation of directors who were only teenagers at the time.

But Richard Donner also popularized the buddy cop action film, a full-fledged genre in US cinema, with the Lethal Weapon tetralogy and its mix of comedy and action, which made Mel Gibson and Danny Glover tremendously popular.

He worked again with Mel Gibson in 1994 in the western comedy Maverick, and in the thriller Conspiracy Theory in 1997. In 2006, he directed Bruce Willis in 16 Blocks, his last film to date, acclaimed by the critics.

A respected film director, valued director of actors and prolific producer, Richard Donner has managed throughout his career to diversify the styles and genres he took on, from thriller to fantasy, with unvarying popular success.

 

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FILMOGRAPHY
 

1961
X-15

1968
SEL, POIVRE ET DYNAMITE (Salt and Pepper)

1969
L’ANGE ET LE DÉMON (Twinky)

1976
LA MALÉDICTION (The Omen)

1978
SUPERMAN

1980
RENDEZ-VOUS CHEZ MAX (Inside Moves)

1982
LE JOUET (The Toy)

1985
LADYHAWKE, LA FEMME DE LA NUIT (Ladyhawke)
LES GOONIES (The Goonies)

1987
L’ARME FATALE (Lethal Weapon)

1988
FANTÔMES EN FÊTE (Scrooged)

1989
L’ARME FATALE 2 (Lethal Weapon 2)

1992
L’ARME FATALE 3 (Lethal Weapon 3)
RADIO FLYER

1994
MAVERICK

1995
ASSASSINS

1997
COMPLOTS (Conspiracy Theory)

1998
L’ARME FATALE 4 (Lethal Weapon 4)

2003
PRISONNIERS DU TEMPS (Timeline)

2006
16 BLOCS (16 Blocks)
 

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RICHARD DONNER, THE ENTERTAINER

From his debut as a television director (Wanted : Dead or Alive with Steve McQueen) to the thriller 16 Blocks, his latest film, Richard Donner has gone through a great many genres in Hollywood cinema. Comfortable with western, comedy or fantasy (The Omen in 1976 and the amazing Ladyhawke in 1985), inventor of the modern superhero film (the wonderful Superman in 1978), Donner is above all a great entertainer who has managed, whatever the genres, to find exceptional balance between the spirit of the times, the laid-down rules and his personality as an author. Such alchemy makes him one of the soundest masters of the last forty years, and it has found in a specific genre – action thriller – its most sophisticated expression.

Notwithstanding the resonance of his Goonies (1985) for a whole generation, Richard Donner remains forever linked to the franchise that made him a successful and wealthy man : the Lethal Weapon tetralogy and its legendary duet (Mel Gibson / Danny Glover) which, from 1987 to 1998, have drawn a path that is particularly representative of the evolution of American action cinema. A peak was reached from the first instalment, which found in a mix of dryness and fun a kind of quintessence of the spirit of the eighties. The film is both a commercial product exploiting to the maximum the formulas of the decade (it is the slickest example of buddy cop movie, a genre that was then prevalent) and a genuine anachronistic film, displaying a slightly dented manhood that seems to owe a lot to the disillusioned spirit of the seventies. If the subsequent episodes express in their own way the more ironical, not to say cynical or preposterous spirit of the 1990s (the fourth episode and its use of parody), Donner’s particular connection with the thriller genre kept manifesting itself in other ways. The lovely Conspiracy Theory (1997) doesn’t shrink from faking lightness, thus initiating a subtle trend in 2000s thrillers, with paranoia as favoured topic. Mel Gibson portrays a manic taxi driver who sees the world through a huge network of organised manipulation and deception. When reality catches up with his logics, the film reaches new heights. Donner is in tune with his times, but he is also a veteran director who doesn’t forget, notably through the sentimental substance of Julia Roberts’ character, to bring modern thriller back to more classical emotions.

Finally, 16 Blocks is really representative of this visceral and mischievous connection to the genre. Bruce Willis, a burned-out cop (and actor), teams with a young black gangster in a kind of real-time urban survival tale. The film is an amazing synthesis of the decades its director has gone through : a rereading of The Gauntlet by Clint Eastwood, it conjures up at once the naivety of the 1980s (a genuine old-style buddy movie in the handling of emotions), the extravagant violence of the 1990s (the hand-held filming is obviously a tribute to John McTiernan’s masterpiece Die Hard : With a Vengeance) and the volatility of the 2000s – with this idea of using real time as a device, not unlike the television series 24. Above all, the film provides Richard Donner with an opportunity to prove, by mixing the humility of a man just doing his job and the wisdom of a Hollywood veteran, that he is indeed one of the last classic masters of his time.
 

Vincent Malausa, Cahiers du cinéma