I'm very sad that Sydney Pollack died, and died so suddenly. I knew he was ill but this went down in lightning time. I and a colleague had lunch with Pollack at his Universal Studios offices back in the late 80s to discuss violence in film. We wanted him to be on a panel to discuss media and violence at the mini-conference the Association for Media Psychology was having. My colleague and I were chairing the conference.
Throughout the lunch and over some rather heated remarks from our side of the table, Pollack was unflappable and unpretentious, unusual for most directors I had had the occasion to meet. To the bargain, he was a first rate thinker. He ate steadily and listened quietly. In reply to the opinions we voiced that not enough consideration is given by Hollywood about the potential impact of screen violence on real life violence, he finally put down his fork, looked at the two of us for amoment, smiled and offered this advice. Obviously I'm paraphrasing here.
It's a waste of time to rail against Hollywood. There is really no Hollywood; it's a state of mind. Hollywood is all over the world, wherever filmmakers gather to make films. If violence concerns you, if you think it's too excessive, too gratuitous, then you must contact the individual directors, writers, producers, even actors.
But when you talk to them, don't just tell them that they're wrong or insensitive. See if you can get them to think differently about what they're doing with their creative choices in the films they're making. Question whether they could make different creative or commercial choices when it comes to whether or not to include or pump up the violence. Pose the question of whether or not the point being made in a scene or sequence or even character construction can be made just as well with less violence and if it can, to at least consider trying the non-violent route. If they're not at all interested in toning down the violence or sympathetic to your issues, I can assure you they won't take a meeting.
Pollack then listened to our take on filmmaking and gently chided us further with the advice that, if we're going to criticize films and their use of violence, at least know something about the film process we're criticizing.
Know about the pressures, financial, commercial, artistic, and creative, under which the filmmakers operate. Make sure that our objections and suggestions don't castrate the through line of the story or its dramatic structure or, worse, can be dismissed as completely naive. In other words, criticize knowledgeably and constructively. And don't be surprised if a filmmaker knows a lot more about psychology than you know about filmmaking.
In more other words: Sydney Pollack was saying it's not enough to have God on your side. God should know something about filmmaking.
The lunch was a sobering but eye-opening experience. At the conference about a month later, Pollack shared the panel table with two other directors, the Canadian director of First Blood and Duddy Kravitz, Ted Kotcheff, and the documentary filmmaker Alan Meyerson. Pollack was as relaxed and quietly eloquent on the panel as he was during lunch. The audience of psychologists was most impressed.
About Pollack's advice to focus on the individual not the industry, my own experience in getting a film made a few years later confirmed Pollack's point about the importance of the individual. My writing partner and I spent months pitching the idea for a film we had scripted. It revolved around a woman trying to find a replacement for herself for her family after she discovers she has terminal cancer. We wrote it during the hey day of what TV producers used to call the "disease of the week" genre.
We were convinced the script would sell. Fast. It sputtered and stalled instead. By chance, though, after we'd been turned down a dozen times at production companies around town (not funny enough, too funny, too close to the bone, etc.) a Canadian producer got the script and, to our complete shock quickly said "yes."
Why he said yes? Because his sister had cancer and was trying to get her life in order. Personal. Very personal. Personal made him interested. Personal sensitized him to the importance of the script's beats, style and message. "I have to do it," he openly stated. For her. For him. Who knows? But he made the deal at CBS.
Pollack's advice was pitch-perfect in its grasp of the movie game. It was all about individuals. Studios or networks don't make it happen. People at studios and networks do.
The last work of Sydney Pollack's I saw was the documentary Sketches of Frank Gehry. Shortly after I saw it, it was announced that Pollack was diagnosed with cancer. The timeline from that announcement to the announcement of his death was terribly swift.
Thanks again Mr. Pollack. Knowing you however briefly was a privilege.
