Alan Parker (1944-2020)
Sunday, August 2, 2020 at 8:39PM by Nathaniel R
Alan Parker and Madonna on the set of "Evita"
We were remiss Friday in sharing the news that we've lost another fine talent. The director Alan Parker who brought us gangster comedies, oddball indies, multiple musicals, and prestige literary adaptations has died at 76 years of age of an undisclosed lengthy illness. His 14 films netted a combined 27 Oscar nominations and 6 wins, and he himself received two Best Director nominations (1978's Midnight Express and 1988's Mississippi Burning).
Parker burst onto the scene as a scrappy young British director with 1976's playful gangster musical spoof Bugsy Malone and its all kid cast (Scott Baio and Jodie Foster headlined)...
Jodie Foster in her breakout year and Scott Baio in Bugsy Malone (1976)
Though comedy and gangsters wouldn't be regular features of his work, his irreverent sense of humor and musical inclinations would be. With only his second film, Midnight Express he became a big Oscar deal and would regularly chase golden statues thereafter whether by intent (prestige adaptations) or quality -- 1980's Fame, for example, probably didn't have awards hopes in its inception but it hit the zeitgeist, became a huge hit, got a spin-off TV series and won two Oscars. Three more musicals followed Bugys Malone and Fame into theaters despite the genre's scarcity at the time: Pink Floyd the Wall (1982), The Commitments (1991) and Evita (1996, containing Madonna's best performance) and all but The Wall were nominated for Best Picture at the Golden Globes.
Parker on the set of the controversial Angel Heart (1987) with Mickey Rourke
Not that it was all success and awards.
Bugsy Malone flopped in the US despite being a hit in the UK, Angel Heart (1987) was too controversial for its time, there was a critical disaster (hello The Road to Wellville) and some of the Oscar plays fizzled (hello Angela's Ashes). Still the bulk of the filmography was good stuff. From his less celebrated pictures we're particularly fond of Birdy (1984), a peculiar but affecting drama about two Vietnam vets (Nicolas Cage and Matthew Modine), one of whom wishes to become a bird. Both of those then-rising stars did memorable work.
Matthew Modine in "Birdy"
Parker retired too early. He may have left us on an off note (2003's The Life of David Gale), but he gave so many good notes (often with musical accompaniment) along the way. Many of his best tuneful movies are worth watching and listening to all over again with newly appreciative eyes and ears.
Reader Comments (20)
Fame-Committments-EVITA. Respect.
Rewatched "Fame" last night and it's still just fantastic - such energy. I especially love that he made it right after "Midnight Express", cashing in on his Oscar respectability to make something that on the surface sounded more frivolous and like a possible step back, only to imbue it with a lot of substance.
LOVE The Commitments
For me, Angel Heart is his best film as I just love the dark tone of it and the twist toward the end. That is followed by Midnight Express, Birdy, Mississippi Burning, and Pink Floyd: The Wall to round out the top 5.
As a Floyd fan, I prefer the original album more than the film version in terms of the narrative with the live album being second. Fortunately, I went to see Roger Waters' live show version nearly a decade ago as that was a hell of a concert.
I did like the The Commitments and Evita (the latter of which is a surprise though for me, Madonna's best acting performance is in Who's That Girl? (I liked that film a lot, it's fucking hilarious)). The Road to Wellville is OK but a total mess. The less said about The Life of David Gale the better. That film fucking sucked.
He was very talented, my top 5 would be:
-Midnight express
-Burning Mississippi
-Shoot the moon
-The commitments
-Birdy
Fame is also very entertaining, and the music is great.
midnight express, fame, shoot the moon, birdy - that's a phenomenal run
tangent: madonna's best performance is surely desperately seeking susan - it's her only film where she doesn't try to act
Midnight Express and Evita were fantastic. RIP.
SHOOT THE MOON > THE COMMITMENTS > FAME > ANGEL HEART > PINK FLOYD THE WALL > BIRDY > BUGSY MALONE. All deeply impressive films with SHOOT THE MOON absolutely an unsung classic, and certainly my favorite of the contemporary American "relationship dramas" of that era. Better than KRAMER VS KRAMER, ORDINARY PEOPLE (a close second, maybe), TERMS OF ENDEARMENT, AN UNMARRIED WOMAN... The most realistic by a long shot. It's not interested in showing how mature people can be. It shows the raw, almost murderous anger people can feel when relationships fall apart. I think Pauline Kael said it was the most honest film of its era, something like that. It's Keaton and Finney's best work.
I was totally impressed by Alan Parker when I saw "Bugsy Malone" which was an audacious gangster film. That he could pull that off was amazing.
"Shoot the Moon" was a masterpiece of domestic dysfunction, both Diane Keaton and Albert Finney were sublime.
"The Commitments" is a film I absolutely love. I felt as if I had lived in Dublin after watching that film. What a unique and varied talent Alan Parker was.
I always thought Madonna gave the best perf in Abel Ferrara’s Snake Eyes, but no noubt EVITA is her most acclaimed film work (with a Golden Globe win and genuine Oscar buzz back then). It’s a pity Parker didn’t make any other films after Life of David Gale.
Besides Evita, I will always cherish Bugsy Malone, Midnight, Mississippi, Birdy, The Commitment and my personal cult Angel Heart. Rip
He only made 14 films? And boy some of them were fantastic. Mississippi Burning, Fame, Midnight Express, The Commitments..... ALL TERRIFIC FILMS.
Can anyone still differentiate between “it’s” and “its”?
Alas, RIP Alan Parker.
Glad to see a few mentions of Shoot The Moon — such a strangely forgotten masterpiece with titanic performances by Diane Keaton, Albert Finney and Dana Hill, and fine supporting performances by Karen Allen and Peter Weller. I’d love to see The Film Experience revisit it. To see Diane Keaton dive into this immediately after filming Reds is to see an artist at the peak of her creative powers. Go to it please Film Experience!
Fadhil: "it's" can only mean one of two things: "it is" or "it has". Everything else should be "its".
I think Alan Parker made a lot of very good films and was a somewhat underrated director (despite Oscar nominations, BAFTAs and Golden Globes and so on). And over a third of the movies he made were musicals. He really understood how to shoot song and dance and how to integrate musical numbers into the flow of the narrative. Bugsy Malone is especially good at that. Parker also had a powerful visual style that could sometimes be heavy-handed but which could also often be very effective indeed. R.I.P.
Now if he could have done Chicago that would have been something,He definitely got the very best out of Madonna,He had no bull**** way about him.
He was very good with actors Hurt,Foster,Keaton,Rourke,Linney,Banderas,Hackman,Modine,Cage,McDormand,Finney & Brad Davis
I consider SHOOT THE MOON to easily be his finest hour - he managed to draw career-best turns out of Keaton and Finney (and the devastating Dana Hill).
An impressively eclectic body of work im eager to revisit, Angel Heart especially (don’t remember it at all, but it sounds interesting). However in terms of his best work, EASILY Shoot the Moon, a small masterpiece which has IMO extraordinary work from Finney and Keaton and one of the very best child performances on film from Dana Hill.
Small shoutout to Come See The Paradise which I would definitely put in the "good" list of his movies, though it's far from perfect. Actually, looking at these films that people have called out, Alan Parker had a very good track record, with more hits than misses, even if the hits didn't all score at the box office.
He seems to have been exceptional with actors, getting really good performances out of people who are often "stiff" in other projects. Looking at you Matthew Modine and Madonna.
This is the perfect place to say that the performance of Matthew Modine in Birdy is one of my all time favorites.
My life-long commitments to The Commitments. What an all-timer this film is!