Howard Hawks

Paper Summary:

Championed by directors Jean Luc Godard and Fran ois Truffaut, the French directors were seeking to justify their own individualism as an answer to the lifting of the quota on American Films after World War II, which led to a flood of big budget Hollywood films into French movie houses. The paper shows that the French directors, unable to compete with the flash and panache of Hollywood, pointed out that individualism made their films stronger. They therefore anointed John Ford, Alfred Hitchcock and Hawks as the patron saints of the auteurs. This paper examines how Hawks' films, use of actors and apolitical emotions made him worthy of the French title.

From the Paper:

"Hawks refused to be limited by labels, he refused to succumb to functional fixity. His most serious films have bits of humor and he was not adverse to turning a drama into a comedy or for that matter into a musical. During his career, though he got a "feel-good" award for lifetime achievement, he received few nominations and no Oscars during his career. Yet, he was one of the few directors who, productive and successful before the Second World War, remained commercially and artistically successful after the war. And when it comes to crossing genres his success to date is unparalleled. He was equally at home in comedy, westerns, aviation films and war dramas."

More papers on Howard Hawks:

• Film Review # 84195 : "Film Noir and 'The Big Sleep' "
• Essay # 34177 : "Only Angels Have Wings" and "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes"
• Essay # 63852 : "Existential Films"

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