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Low-budget movie experts react to Corman Oscar (exclusive!)
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Roger Corman, Lauren Bacall, Gordon Willis hold Oscars
(AP/Chris Pizzello)
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"An Oscar for the often unsung but quite significant Roger Corman is long overdue. Not only did his own thrilling movies influence contemporary cinema, but the countless writers, directors, and actors whom Corman mentored ARE comtemporary cinema."—Dr. Jeff Thompson, Professor at Tennessee State University and author of The Television Horrors of Dan Curtis.
It's official. Last night, low-budget movie producer and director Roger Corman took home the Oscar statuette. As blogger Russ Fischer wryly observed, this award affects the packaging on "literally hundreds of DVDs." They will now come "From Academy Award Winning Filmmaker Roger Corman." (Technically, these are the Governors Awards, but who will notice?)
Corman received the Oscar for "his rich engendering of films and filmmakers." And rightly so. Without Corman, we might not have Coppola's Godfather, Scorsese's Taxi Driver, Cameron's Terminator, or any of the A-list movies featuring Jack Nicholson or Robert De Niro. Corman was their teacher. They learned at what is jokingly called "The Roger Corman School of Filmmaking." In Kung Fu cinema, he would be called "Sifu"—"Master."
"Corman put the 'I' in independent and the 'Cs' in 'cult classic,' long before we knew what independent films were all about or how you could actually define a film as a 'cult classic' without associating such a term with some sort of immoral religious group," says movie memorabilia collector Gary Dorst. "He simply knew what the kids wanted to see on the screen and produced these films using unknown but talented artists.... along with a bit of spit, gum, wire, and the change in his pocket."
Independent filmmaker Robert Tinell, director of Frankenstein and Me and author of several graphic novels for Image Comics, notes that "Where other producers looked and saw only actors who were past their prime or young filmmakers too green to gamble on or sets ready for the scrap heap, Corman saw potential. With Roger Corman, nothing was wasted. Corman succeeded where so many other low budget filmmakers failed in large part due to the fact that he applied smart logistical principles to everything he attempted. For instance, when he would recycle expensive sets from larger films or reuse his own sets—sometimes practically shooting two movies at the same time. He adopted the same Henry-Ford-inspired assembly-line approach to filmmaking that the studios employed—only he did it on a budget."
Responses pour in:
Asking experts on low-budget movies to comment on Roger Corman taking home an Oscar is like sitting in the jungle during monsoon season and asking it to rain. The responses quickly, and enthusiastically, come pouring in:
Bryan Senn, author of Golden Horrors:
"Well, it's about time. The Merchant-Ivory/Serious-Issue Brigade that is the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has finally honored a man who's done more for their industry than many of the more "legitimate" (read: pretentious) filmmakers so honored over the years. Not only has Roger Corman nurtured the talents of the likes of Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, and Jack Nicholson, he brought the cinematic world everything from giant crabs and biker flicks to LSD freakouts and Edgar Allan Poe. He even made a socially-conscious movie "ripped from today's headlines" in which William Shatner did NOT overact (The Intruder)! Here's to the long-overdue kudos, Mr. Corman."
Mark Clark, author of Smirk, Sneer and Scream: Great Acting in the Horror Film:
"It's about time. That was my initial reaction. Those of us who love horror and science fiction films revere Corman for his Edgar Allan Poe films with Vincent Price, not to mention such esoteric delights as A Bucket of Blood, Not of This Earth, and X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes. But the reason this honor is so richly deserved is for his work as a producer. Corman was always willing to give a break to talented young directors (as long as they were willing to work cheap). Several Oscar winners—not to mention Joe Dante and countless others—got their first big breaks from Corman. Factor in his role as a pioneering independent filmmaker and you have someone whose contribution to cinema history is towering."
Dr. Jonathan Malcolm Lampley, author of The Amazing, Colossal Book of Horror Trivia:
"I am very pleased to hear that Corman is getting an honorary Oscar for many reasons. For one thing, he is a true Hollywood legend, the maker of many films in many different genres, many of which are [genre] classics. Of course The Little Shop of Horrors comes to mind, but the best of the Poe films are among the best horror films of the Silver Age, period. Then there are things like The Intruder, which contains a marvelous performance from William Shatner, but which never made Roger a dime. Then there is his career as a distriubtor of foreign films via New World Cinema. All of these things are enough to make Corman Oscar-worthy. But look at all the talent he mentored! With names like Coppola, Cameron, Dante, Demme behind the camera, and Nicholson, De Niro, and Hopper in front of it, Roger Corman really taught a generation how to make movies."
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