Joel Schumacher (1939-2020)
Monday, June 22, 2020 at 9:00PM by Nathaniel R
Joel Schumacher and the star he made, Colin FarrellI once walked across the street in the East Village with Joel Schumacher. I didn't say anything though I immediately recognized him; as directors go he was hard to miss -- very tall with long silver hair. Anything I might have wanted to say would surely have been too belabored in a street crossing. "I love your work," is rote and in this case untrue though I loved some of his work enthusiastically in a formative (St Elmo's Fire) or camp (Batman & Robin) or moment-in-time (Flatliners, Tigerland).
Sometimes I loved his work in all of those ways at once -- Love you, Lost Boys!
It's been curious to see so much appreciation spring up on the internet today, particularly because Schumacher was never a director to inspire reverence in the masses though he made several popular pictures...
on the set of Batman & Robin
on the set of The Lost Boys
on the set of Dying Young
His aesthetic was often too kitsch or fun or, okay, GAY, for the kind of critical praise that more sober directors with prestige ambitions collect.
The openly gay directors broke into the movies as a costume director on famous pictures like Sleeper, Interiors, and The Last of Sheila and as a screenwriter of musicals (Sparkle, Car Wash, The Wiz) in the 1970s. But it's as a director beginning with 1981's Lily Tomlin vehicle The Incredible Shrinking Woman through to 2011's misbegotten Trespass starring Nicolas Cage and Nicole Kidman that he found fame and fortune. The director made 23 films in his 80 years and among his accomplishments that he'll be remembered for, he...
- gave Matthew McConaughey (A Time to Kill), Colin Farrell (Tigerland) and Mare Winningham (St Elmo's Fire) their breakout roles.
- was the very first director to cast Shea Wigham (Tigerland), Octavia Spencer (A Time to Kill), Daniel Sunjata (Bad Company), Hope Davis (Flatliners), Brad Renfro (The Client) and Phillip Ettinger (Twelve) who all went on to prove he had a greateye for fresh talent.
- directed Susan Sarandon to an Oscar nomination (The Client).
- nurtured Julia Roberts and Colin Farrell in their earliest years of stardom with two of their first leading roles.
- ...and, yes, put nipples on Batman.
That's a good legacy. Rest in peace.
Reader Comments (22)
I feel that we don't get (and won't get in the near future) directors with such a diverse filmography. Now we only have auteurs or franchise directors.
Peggy Sue: I mean, to an extent, I'd almost argue Schumacher was maybe too diverse. Personal highlight, though: Falling Down. Not quite a masterpiece, and it absolutely plays differently today than it did in 1993 (In 1993: The centre-right angry guy kills the Nazi. Because of course he would! In 2019/2020: The centre-right angry guy kills the Nazi? Lol! How naive we were in 1993?)
Too diverse? Probably, but now I almost see it as a good thing. Ozon is also this way.
Having said that, how did he missed The Phantom of the Opera? It was THE movie for him.
Batman and Robin is better than any Christopher Nolan movie. It’s fun, colourful and has personality as opposed to Nolan’s dour, pretentious, self serious, boring movie bro nonsense. RIP.
Loved Tigerland. May he RIP.
St. Elmo's Fire, Tigerland, and his Batman movies were my favorites.
Also Chris O'Donnell as Robin in UP THERE with Ryan Phillippe in Cruel Intentions as awakening my gay within. So thanks Joel. RIP.
He wasn't a great director, but he made some nice films:
Falling down (1993)
Flawless (1999)
Phone booth (2002)
@Owen-BLASPHEMY!!!!!!
Falling down - Michael Douglas
Phone booth - Colin Farrell/ Kiefer Sutherland, Forest Whitaker
Tigerland - Colin Farrell
The Phantom of the Opera - Gerard Butler, Emmy Rossum
8MM - Nicolas Cage
A Time to Kill - McConaughey, Bullock, Jackson
Batman and Robin - Clooney/ Schwarzenegger/ Supermodels
Batman Forever - Kilmer/ Lee Jones/ Carey/Kidman
The Client - Susan Sarandon/ Brad Renfro
Veronica Guerin - Cate Blanchett/ Billy Crudup
I was surprised of how much of mister Schumacher filmography I have actually seen. My favs are Phone Booth and Tigerland with A Time to Kill and Veronica Guerin as close seconds. I loved parts of Phantom. And with his diverse filmography, he attracted a bunch of stars in their youth.
Is Schumacher the director who "discovered" and or attracted young and talented up and coming stars in the industry?
I loved very much THE LOST BOYS, he wasn't a critical darling but he worked very well with his actors and he was enough courageous to bet on newcomers. Yep, a very good legacy
He made very popular entertainment and I enjoyed all his films.
thevoid99: Especially since there's an even more dour, even more pretentious, even more boring, even broier...Zack Snyder, is where I was going with that.
He wasn't a master but he had an unique vision, in my opinion. Batman & Robin (*** 1/2 , C+) isn't by any means the worst Batman film (that "honor" goes to The Dark Knight Rises, which is a piece of fascist propaganda, horrificly written... and you just have to compare Nolan's Bane to Schumacher's Freeze to understand why Schumacher's film was unique, fearless, and had a clear objective to make a tribute / reimagination of Adam West's magical TV series and film, but in his unique, unapologetic, campy and trashy queer vision. It is a film that was completely misunderstood (I admit it! I used to hate it!) but earned bonus points with every repeated viewing and realizing every decision was made with that clear vision to be fulfilled... why did it fail so spectacularly? Analizing it, I think that the biggest flaws were some tonal inconsistencies, specially with Elliot Goldenthal's score being too serious for the goofiness and ridiculousness portrayed in the screen... and also that while Clooney played it gay, and Thurman and Arnie went EXACTLY for the trashy, drag-queen look and characterization with over the top performances and unfunny puns... otherwise we would be talking of the 90's "The Rocky Horror Picture Show"... and given that Schumacher already made a less daring version with the fun, on point "Batman Forever" (which is - oh, sacrilege - better and funnier and more daring than any of Burton's films), I can only guess that he had total freedom at the beginning but studio interfernce at post-production... and you only have to notice how now and then, there is some cartoony slapstick sound effect but it does not become consistent throughout the film, or the lack of those titles with "Boom!" and so on that were made iconic by Adam West's run.
My top 3 Schumachers...
1. The Lost Boys
2. Falling Down
3. Phone Booth
He had a great eye for visual spectacle and good looking male stars
His little remembered movie Cousins, with a luminous Isabella Rosselini and a hilarious Sean Young, is a personal favorite of mine.
He also wrote or co-wrote Sparkle, Car Wash, and The Wiz.
Troy -- that's in the article!
Can we talk about his costumes in Interiors? Beige has never looked so great.
Falling Down is a film I'd revisit with dread if I remember the racial politics correctly.
He was also an excellent art director
Alfred: Do you mean the character's racial politics, or the film's racial politics? The film's racial politics are slightly dated, but only in ONE scene pretty late where our central "centre-right white angry guy" is bouncing off a Nazi and the movie assumes "even this kind of guy would kill a Nazi". The CHARACTER's racial politics, meanwhile, are bad, but remember: He's not the hero. D-Fens...is an ass. Duvall (as the kind of "movie cop" that SHOULD be the real life norm/expectation), is the hero.
I haven't seen all of his films, but I do have a soft spot for COUSINS. I know the argument: "Just read the subtitles and watch the original," but the cast is first rate and they're used very well. It has some lovely moments.