Sorry for being late with this one, but I wanted to weigh in on director John Irvin, who has died at the age of 86.
Irvin directed the original Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy BBC Miniseries in 1979, as well as the awesome 1980s triple bill of Raw Deal, Hamburger Hill and Next of Kin.
John Irvin’s career was incredibly varied. In 1985 he directed The Turtle Diary, a relationship drama written by Harold Pinter and starring acting heavyweights Glenda Jackson, Ben Kingsley and Michael Gambon.
A year later he was directing Arnold Schwarzenegger shooting people in the face. Check out Stark’s review here.
Arnold only made Raw Deal because of a contractual commitment to Dino De Laurentiis, but he was eager to make the most of it and create a character we hadn’t seen from him before: slick and stoic, with minimal muscle flexing (until the end, when the vest appeared).
Irvin worked around Arnold’s limited acting range by surrounding him with proper actors and having him react with looks and one liners. It worked. Raw Deal may be a turd, but it’s a somewhat polished turd with great action choreography. Or, as Irvin himself put it in an interview with Filmhounds:
“If they want a hamburger, I’ll give them a deluxe hamburger.”
Hamburger Hill (1987), released a year after Platoon, continued Hollywood’s Vietnam movie momentum. Irvin experienced the war up-close, having worked on a documentary about Vietnam war photographers. He wanted to make a movie that captured his experience.
Hamburger Hill is brutal and uncompromising, but a touch melodramatic in parts. Nevertheless, it remains a worthy and memorable Vietnam war film.
Next of Kin came next. Stark recently reviewed it here. Hillbillies versus the mafia. I have nothing to add.
The Other Robin Hood
Irvin went on to direct the other 1991 Robin Hood movie, called, er, Robin Hood, starring Patrick Bergin and Uma Thurman.
You know how Hollywood sometimes releases two very similar movies in the same year, such as 1998’s Deep Impact and Armageddon and 1997’s Dante’s Peak and Volcano? Well, 1991 had Robin Hood and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.
I naively assumed this phenomenon was largely coincidental, or the work of cosmic forces beyond our understanding. But now, thanks to John Irvin, I know differently.
In a recent interview with The Guardian, Irvin confirmed that Robin Hood was 20th Century Fox’s attempt to deliberately screw over Kevin Costner’s Warner Bros version. It failed, but you’ve got to appreciate the attempt. Irvin had this to say:
“The studio wanted to go immediately because they wanted to pre-empt the Costner… I didn’t get involved in that mess, I just put my head down. Politics were left to the producers and executives.”
Weirdly, the two Robin Hood movies, being filmed at the same time in the UK, ended up sharing crew and resources to ensure both films stayed on schedule. See this article on Film Stories for full details.
So long, Mr Irvin. You grabbed the opportunity when Hollywood came calling and carved out a small but worthy legacy. At the end of the day, it’s what we all dream of.
