Tag: They Shoot Horses Don’t They

A roundtable chat with producers Irwin and David Winkler of “The Mechanic”

Irwin and David WinklerHealthy father and son relationships are certainly more the exception than the rule at the movies. Even so, the murderous biological and surrogate father and son pairings in the original film “The Mechanic” and its action-packed update with Jason Statham and Ben Foster, are unusually problematic. It’s a tale, after all, about a junior hit-man learning from an older paid killer who has, in turn, killed the younger killer’s dad.

That, of course has pretty much nothing to do with two of the new version’s real-life father and son producers, Irwin and David Winkler. For the remake of the 1971 actioner, the pair have teamed up with another parent-and-offspring team, Irwin Winkler’s long-time producing partner, Bill Chartoff and his son, Robert. (For the record, there are a total of ten producers and five executive producers credited on the film.) Both individually and with Bill Chartoff, the elder Winkler has been involved with a remarkable number of good movies and a few genuine classics, starting with Sydney Pollack’s pitch-black Oscar winner, “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?” and also including two of Martin Scorsese‘s signature works, “Raging Bull” and “Goodfellas.” Winkler and Chartoff also, of course, produced “The Mechanic,” the first time around when it was as much of a chilling look at sociopathy as it was an action flick.

Like any great producer, Irwin Winkler has had his share of interesting financial failures.  There was the ultra-culty early John Boorman film, “Leo the Last” and Martin Scorsese’s big budget 1977 disappointment “New York, New York.” Fortunately, there was also the occasional modest but high quality success like Bertrand Tavernier’s great 1986 love letter to jazz and jazz fandom, “‘Round Midnight.” He and Bill Chartoff were also key players in one of the most enduring franchises in film history, the one that started with a low-budget boxing drama called “Rocky.” Since 1991’s “Guilty by Suspicion,” Winkler has also occasionally directed. His most recent films include the musical Cole Porter biopic, “De-Lovely,” and the Iraq war drama “Home of the Brave,” which received a speedy burial.

For his part, son David Winkler has worked on a number of television movies as well as with his father on 2006’s “Rocky Balboa.” He also directed the 1998 drama, “Finding Graceland” starring Harvey Keitel.

I was personally anxious to talk to Winklers during a recent L.A. press junket for “The Mechanic” because of an oddball “only in L.A.” family anecdote. I was nevertheless beaten to the punch by an Italian reporter with a rather distinctive interviewing style who tended to dominate the discussion.

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RIP Susannah York

Susannah YorkThe English actress Susannah York has left us too soon at age 72, another loss to cancer. She never stopped working but her best known film roles were probably 1966’s “A Man for All Seasons,” an Oscar-nominated turn in Sydney Pollack’s pitch-black 1968 drama, “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?,” and a film I have no clue why I’ve never seen, Robert Aldrich’s 1969 “The Killing of Sister George.” That production was dogged by controversy around the depiction of lesbian sex, a huge taboo just a few years after the abolition of the movie production code.

She was also an anti-nuclear activist back when the topic was truly a matter of planetary life and death and vastly more controversial than it is now.  Notably, she championed jailed Israeli nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu, whose opposition to nuclear proliferation caused him to expose his nation’s nuclear weapons program. Also, for you geeks out there, she played Superman’s mom in the 1970s films and wrote a pair of fantasy novels as well.

I strongly suggest you read the entire fascinating and informative summary of the ‘net reaction to York’s passing at MUBI.

I stumbled over this film festival tribute online. It’s a little heavy on the music, but it gives us some sense of the woman — who I gather was a real trooper in every sense of the word — and of her work.

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