A Look Back at Curtis Hanson’s Impressive and Eclectic Filmmaking Career
On Sept. 20, award-winning filmmaker Curtis Hanson died of natural causes in his Los Angeles home at the age of 71. Born in 1945 to an elementary school teacher and real estate agent, Hanson, who was raised in Los Angeles, didn’t start his career in a prestigious film school. Instead, he got his start as a photojournalist, covering the movie business. Doing so put him in the orbit of two people who would help start his career, producer Roger Corman and director Sam Fuller.
Throughout the ’70s and ’80s, Hanson directed and wrote several suspense films. His first writing credit was on The Dunwich Horror in 1970, and his directorial debut came two years later with Sweet Kill.
He was a lesson in sticking with it. Despite writing well-received movies such as The Silent Partner, White Dog, and Never Cry Wolf, and directing Tom Cruise in one of his earliest films, Losin’ It, Hanson didn’t really get much recognition until his 1992 movie, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle.
Opening at No. 1 at the box office in its first week, Cradle was a hit with audiences, and was among the year’s highest-grossing films. Its success put Hanson in charge of The River Wild, a 1994 thriller starring Meryl Streep and Kevin Bacon. It’s a project he was fond of, he told the New York Times. “I was blessed with two natural wonders on this movie: the river and Meryl Streep,” he said.
Hanson made his finest movie, L.A. Confidential, in 1997. The neo-noir film received nine Academy Award nominations. Hanson won his first and only Oscar, for best adapted screenplay.
His career then took a surprising turn. Having directed so many thrillers and suspense movies, he made Wonder Boys, a movie about a legendary writer and his promising protégé, starring Michael Douglas and Tobey Maguire. And in what has to be one of the more eclectic runs from one director, Hanson followed with his most commercially successful film, 8 Mile. Through weeks of rehearsal and his steady hand, Hanson was able to take an inexperienced actor in Eminem and make one of the finest movies about a rapper ever made.
He followed with the critically popular In Her Shoes in 2005, Lucky You in 2007, and the HBO movie Too Big to Fail in 2011. Sadly, in 2011, while directing Chasing Mavericks, Hanson fell ill and was unable to complete the movie. It was his last film.
Hanson had a deep and abiding love for cinema, and became a great filmmaker himself. “I love storytellers,” Hanson told Charlie Rose in 1997 while promoting L.A. Confidential. “As a kid I read as much as I saw movies; you know, I love the great novelists and I love the great moviemakers. The ones that I like the most, novelist or filmmaker, were the ones that were the entertainers who entertained you and at the same time gave you something, something else.”
Rest in peace, Curtis Hanson.
Tell us what you think! Hit us up on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram or leave your comments below. And check out our host, Khail Anonymous, on Twitter.
