One of the many delights of the 1978 Hal Ashby film Coming Home is the soundtrack. Among the legends featured are Aretha Franklin, the Stones, the Beatles, Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix, Richie Havens--and Dylan.
Although "The Times They Are A-Changin", written by Dylan in 1963, is not one of the featured songs, it feels like it should have been. Dylan's song became sort of an anthem for the protest movement that swept our nation and the world throughout the 60's and early 70's. It was part call to action, part wake up call to those who weren't paying attention. (http://www.bobdylanlyrics.net/timchang.html)
So, what does Dylan's song mean today? I've asked my students to create an "Art as Protest" project for their final in our class. I'm curious: What is their protest about? And I'm greatly looking forward to seeing how they express it. I hope that like the work we've been watching and discussing, they share something of themselves and create a piece of work that is about something.
I recently had the pleasure of talking to Haskell Wexler, the Chicago-born director and cinematographer, who at 84 is still a passionate filmmaker working on projects that mean something to him. Wexler began his filmmaking career as a cinematographer in the late 50's. Among the films he shot were Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, which earned him an Oscar, In the Heat of the Night, American Graffiti, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and Coming Home, the film we screened in class last week. Wexler has also produced, written and directed numerous documentary films and was one of several DP's featured in the "Visions of Light: The Art of Cinematography" documentary. His ground-breaking film Medium Cool (1969), set during the '68 Chicago Democratic Convention, is considered one of the seminal films of political cinema. You can read more about Wexler's work, including his most recent doc Who Needs Sleep?, at whoneedssleep.net and haskellwexler.com.
Wexler generously agreed to share a few thoughts with me and my 70's students. Here was his response to my questions:
Dear Francine:
You ask "As a cinematographer and filmmaker, what is important to you?"
Answer: Developing the professional skills to be able to communicate moving pictures in ways that engage people with a story I want to tell. Another answer could be: What's important to me is: getting a job, decent pay, and have a life and be able to buy things to make me happy. Hopefully your students, as artists, will struggle between those real world extremes.
I believe our discussions about the making of COMING HOME will afford insights into the 70s, period. The wider philosophic base to Art, Politics and Commerce may emerge.
When I received an Academy Award for VIRGINIA WOOLF I said: "I hope we can use our art for Peace and Love." 2010 still working on it.
Take it easy but take it,
Haskell
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I did notice a lot of Rolling Stones music in the movie and in the readings of Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, they talk about the the incident in December 1969 at the Altamont Speedway where a man was killed by the Hell's Angels. Truly a sign of an end of an era and change of how things had been to what they would be in the 70's. Maybe that's why they were included so much in Coming Home.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like Haskell Wexler really has a passion for what he is doing. To be able to do what he loves at that age is amazing. I would maybe still like to be working at that age at a job I can be happy with. Who knows where the future brings with film and music.
ReplyDeleteI find it very interesting that while Haskell Wexler does say he does this for a passion he also mentions the reality of the job - the money and the ability to be financially stable. It connects with the reality theme that is what the 70s movies were all about. And takes a way the rose tinted look to see that you can't always survive out of a cardboard box.
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