Episode Nine: Stillwell listens..

A regular customer on the same wavelength.

Stillwell read the cover of the DVD box. He remembered going to the cinema to see the movie. The title alone had been enough to raise an eyebrow! The director had announced in a subsequent interview it was the only one of his films that was released entirely as he had intended it. The cinema had been half empty and quite a few patrons had shuffled out before the end. It had been a commercial failure, but now had garnered a cult following and scratching his chin he thought it worthy of forming part of a new promotional display. Once again, the idea expanded to be a series of films by the irascible director.

Some research into the director was required. A figure who courted controversy with his films. A man with a confrontational personality, suffering from both alcohol and drug abuse during his short life. This led to battles with his cast and crew, which may have rather tarnished his legacy. Stillwell had always been a fan of the films. Dealing with the values, some of the corruption and violence in society, using characters who are either on their own or considered underdogs, who have to sometimes compromise their own moral code to survive in a brutal world. The violence of his movies, had been, at the time, heavily criticised. Now it can be seen through the works of others, like Walter Hill, John Woo or Quentin Tarantino.

Stillwell found an article in the Washington Post defining the film that he had gone to the cinema to see as. “For better or worse, no other filmmaker on earth could have conjured up this strange, obsessive, uniquely flawed yet uniquely fascinating picture”, Stillwell smiled as he read the piece, remembering the film from his youth.

Now to search his own database to see how many of the films he had in stock. He would centre the entire display on the first idea. It may not have been the best of the director’s films, but it was the one he thought was almost a definition of his work. As he read, he came to understand how this maverick director had also suffered from some mental illness, with bouts of depression. He may have been an undiagnosed schizophrenic, his personality swinging from being a quiet, sensitive man, with an artistic persuasion to violent outbursts of violence, which included incidents of verbal and physical abuse to himself and others. Reading on, Stillwell noted that he was an experienced hunter and had a fascination with firearms. One strand of a story told of him shooting the mirrors in his house, while under the influence of alcohol, something that Stillwell recalled from scenes in several of his films.

There were a number of copies of an early western (1965) starring Charlton Heston. The director stated that the release was a very different film from the original vision he had created. He obviously had a number of copies of the directors most celebrated work, another western from 1969, that tried to change some of the formulaic Western themes. Stillwell knew of the complaints at the time for the violence in the movie, but some in the industry were complimentary about the style of editing, which became a signature of this feisty director.

Another film from the early 1970’s was made as an action film vehicle for Steve McQueen. It was a quieter and less violent film, with critics remarking on a more sympathetic piece and noting Steve McQueen’s performance. It didn’t do well at the box office and Stillwell smiled when he read a quote from the director. “I made a film where nobody got shot and nobody went to see it!”

He had a copy of another of the director’s films starring Steve McQueen. A return to form for the director, which gave him his biggest financial success to date. It wasn’t even a western, but a chase movie after an armed robbery goes horribly wrong.

Stillwell marvelled at how the director, during a long period of alcoholic depression, brought on by a divorce from his then wife, was offered a chance to make another Western. A copy of which was certainly on the database and, Stillwell noted, it was a director’s cut, so much more complete than the truncated version originally released in movie theatres. The film had now garnered more favourable comments from when it was released. It was seen by some as a classic and one of the best films of the era.

The last film that Stillwell had a copy of was a 1977 war film. Stillwell thought the film was one of the director’s best, perhaps a last hurrah before his premature death in 1984. He knew he had several copies available, including several 4K versions. He had read somewhere that the director had been drinking very heavily throughout the production. Despite a huge success in Europe, it did badly in America, something to do with an obscure sci-fi film called Star Wars opening in America at the same time. Stillwell had always considered that the film had a massive impact as an anti-war film, with excellent performances from a stellar cast. He remembered the first time he had seen the intense battle sequences and the clever use of documentary footage in the opening sequence.

He was reading about how due to the director’s alcoholic absence that second unit directors had been obliged to help complete the over budget picture. An ending was cobbled together from the cutting room floor because the written version was never filmed. As he continued to read the door opened and a regular client shuffled in. This customer was a rare commodity. He was polite, respectful and actually understood movies. Stillwell had come to grudgingly admit that he may well have more knowledge than himself, which might normally bring on a bout of jealous anger, but from this gentle person it made Stillwell cautious and interested in his opinion.

“Good morning Cornelius”, one of perhaps six people who knew and used Stillwell’s first name. The man spoke with a soft educated voice and his demeanour was calm and thoughtful. He was dressed in a pair of loose-fitting jeans and a clean navy polo shirt. The leather shoes had been polished and his hair was combed.

“Morning”, Stillwell was as effusive as ever.

“What are you working on?” an enquiry that from anyone else might elicit a brusque response to mind their own business, but this frequent visitor could get under Stillwell’s armour.

“I am researching a piece about another director. I found myself reading about his work and feel that he was misunderstood at the time and that now it might be interesting to create a display to re-evaluate his films and style of film making. Here, this is the title I started with”, Stillwell handed a copy of the film to the customer, that had started that morning’s research.

“Ah! Yes, I know this film. Definitely misunderstood. I have always been a fan of this director, since I was a young man. He had many demons, I suspect from his time in China during the Second World war. What else have you been able to put together?” the man handed the box back to Stillwell, who smiled and handed him a printout list of the director’s films he had in stock.

It was going to be an enjoyable morning!