Richard Donner

There are certain filmmakers that looking back have had repeated significant impacts on my appreciation and love of film. One of those filmmakers was without a doubt Richard Donner. I was planning on doing a series of retrospective reviews of his films much like I did a couple years ago with Spielberg because damn if I didn't love just about everything he made. I may still at some point, but I had wanted to do it before he passed. He was a such a fun-loving, big-hearted guy whose personality shone brightly through every movie he made. He also had an enviably eclectic filmography, showing he could transition from frightening horror to superhero fantasy to buddy cop action to intimate drama with ease. 

Richard Donner started his directing career in television, carving out a niche for himself working on a number of popular and iconic series, including a number of well know Twilight Zone episodes with the most popular being Nightmare at 20,000 Feet. He made a few feature films during this time as well, such as the Charles Bronson starring X-15, which also marked the screen debut of Mary Tyler Moore and the Sammy Davis Jr. starring Salt & Pepper. 

His first big break as a cinematic filmmaker came with the Gregory Peck starring horror film The Omen. The film was a box office smash focusing on an American ambassador (played by Peck) and his wife (played by Lee Remick) who unwittingly adopt a child that turns out to be the Anti-Christ. It was a fantastically frightening film punctuated by some genuinely shocking death scenes including an infamous decapitation that Donner took gleeful delight in editing in such a way that audience members who looked away would look back thinking it was over only to find it was still happening.  The film proved to be a box office hit and would go on to spawn three sequels, Damien: Omen II, The Final Conflict, and the T.V movie Omen IV: The Awakening. Of those sequels, Donner was only involved with The Final Conflict in an Executive Producer capacity. 

For his follow-up to The Omen, Donner was brought in by producers Ilya and Alexander Salkind to direct their planned cinematic epic, Superman: The Movie as well as a sequel that would be shot back to back. In what would become one of Donner's most beloved films, he approached the material with a perfect degree of reverence and seriousness, but also was not afraid to have some fun with the material, especially with Gene Hackman's Lex Luthor dealing with his nincompoop henchman Otis (played by Ned Beatty), which provided many of the film's biggest moments of levity. Yet, at the same time he approached the character of Clark Kent and Superman with a balance of reverence and sincerity that really worked for the film, with a fantastic performance by Christopher Reeve. Donner in fact insisted they went with a then unknown actor, rightly fearing that a known star would overshadow the character and the film therefore wouldn't work. Richard Donner was a fan of Superman and his legacy, something that is clear in every frame of the film. His instincts proved right and the film proved to be one of the biggest hits of his career and continues to be a cherished film today. His impact on the Superman mythos continues to reverberate throughout, influencing future incarnations of the character, including Zack Snyder's Man of Steel up to the most recent iteration with the CW's Superman & Lois T.V show. It also set the gold standard for what Superhero movies could be going forward. 

Unfortunately, conflicts with Producers Ilya and Alexander Salkind reached a boiling point and he was fired off the project before he could complete Superman II and was replaced by Richard Lester, who reshot a bunch of Donner's footage. Donner's footage in a stitched together, but still superior, cut of Superman II would not see the light of day until 2006 when a the footage was found while a DVD remastering of the film was being prepped. Still, they were able to remaster the deleted footage and create an all new cut, complete with John Williams score and new effects to create as close as possible what Richard Donner intended his cut of Superman II to be. I go into more detail about this whole thing in my Superman II review on this page, if you're curious. 

After the blow of being fired off Superman II, Donner nonetheless bounced back with a couple of smaller films, the disabled basketball drama Inside Moves and the Richard Pryor comedy The Toy. One of his pet projects was a medieval set fantasy romance picture, Ladyhawke, that would be one of my favorites of his. It would turn out to hold a surprising significance for Donner as well, as he met and fell in love with his future wife, film producer Lauren Shuler, as they made the movie together. They would marry not long after and continue to produce many other movies together. Ultimately, the film would prove to be a box office disappointment but like many other 80's fantasy films it would garner a cult following on home video. It's certainly one that I've always admired. It's a beautifully shot film that was clearly made by a man falling in love. 

Donner would follow-up Ladyhawke with another one of his most beloved films, The Goonies. Collaborating with producer Steven Spielberg and screenwriter Chris Columbus, Donner crafted a fantastic, family friendly adventure about a group of kids who go hunting for Pirate treasure after they find an old treasure map in one of the kid's attics. In hot pursuit of the kids is a trio of robbers who want the treasure for themselves. Filled with impressive action set-pieces and just the right amount of humor, The Goonies continues to live on as timeless family entertainment. It's one that has been frequently re-released to theatres as well as fan gatherings. There was even an online reunion last year with all the cast members, Steven Spielberg and even Richard Donner himself. Out of all of his films, this is probably the one whose popularity has endured the most. It is certainly a film I loved when I was younger as well as one I continue to love today.

As if having Superman and The Goonies as part of his cinematic legacy wasn't enough, Richard Donner also directed all four of the Lethal Weapon movies, carrying a certain level of quality from one entry to another. The films made huge mark in re-vitalizing the buddy cop formula and continued to work largely on the remarkable chemistry between stars Danny Glover and Mel Gibson as Los Angeles Police Detectives Roger Murtaugh and Martin Riggs. The recurring cast would grow as the series progressed, with Lethal Weapon 2 adding Joe Pesci (as a wiseguy known as Leo Getz, who Donner frequently stated was basically the third Stooge to Riggs and Murtaugh). Lethal Weapon 3 would add Rene Russo as Lorna Cole, a love interest for Riggs and every bit the adept fighter and daredevil he is. Lethal Weapon 4 added Chris Rock as a new detective working with Riggs and Murtaugh. Throughout the entire series, Donner managed to deftly balance large scale, explosive action sequences with genuine and hearty laughs making all four films irresistible entertainment. But further than that, he, along with series screenwriters that included Shane Black, Jeffrey Boam and Channing Gibson, crafted a group of characters that felt real, familiar and relatable. It was a group of characters I couldn't help but want to revisit again and again. I think it was that aspect that, along with the spectacle and the comedy of course, that made those four films one of the most cherished franchises for me.  

In between the first two Lethal Weapon movies, Donner pivoted again to a contemporary, comedic take on A Christmas Carol starring Bill Murray and Karen Allen, Scrooged. Although it perhaps was not as warmly received when it was first released during the Holiday season of 1988, it has grown over the years as a cherished Christmas film for many people, myself included. The film juxtaposes wacky humor with some genuinely dark scenes that may or may not work depending on the person but I always felt like Donner managed to balance the two well throughout the film. Even though Murray and Donner famously did not get along during the making of the film, it still worked quite well and Murray does make for a great contemporary Scrooge as selfish, narcissistic Network Executive Frank Cross.     

Other notable films he directed included the dark family drama Radio Flyer, the thriller Assassins with Sylvester Stallone and Antonio Banderas, the Julia Roberts and Mel Gibson action thriller Conspiracy Theory, the time travel adventure Timeline and the Bruce Willis thriller 16 Blocks as his last film as a director. Yet, he also was a prolific producer both solo and alongside his wife Lauren Shuler-Donner, producing such hits as The Lost Boys, Free Willy, and the original X-Men. He also co-produced the HBO Horror Anthology series Tales from the Crypt, along with it's two big screen spin-offs. 

But even beyond his impressive and varied cinematic accomplishments, Richard Donner had long established himself as being a smart but kind, warm and generous man with an big, boisterous laugh that was unmistakable. Stories abound of his sets, filled with laughter and fun. He remarked in an interview that he always loved making movies because he'd always come out the other end with a new friend. That personality shines through his films too, never passing up the chance to go for a laugh when he could get one. There are also so many stories I've read from people who got their start working for Dick Donner and then moving on to bigger and better things. He was one of those filmmakers who I loved so many of their movies and would have loved to have met. But at least I still have his films to enjoy, which I have been re-visiting lately and I'm sure will re-visit many, many more times to come. If the outpouring of tributes I've seen online to him as both a filmmaker and an individual, I know I won't be alone there either.