Dan Wakefield, a prolific author and journalist who made television history when he created and wrote the controversial late-1970s drama James at 15 only to resign when NBC executives bristled over an episode’s depiction of teenage sexuality, died yesterday at a hospice facility in Miami. He was 91, and had been in declining health in recent months.
His death was announced by his attorney, Ken Bennett, to the Indianapolis Star. Wakefield was born and raised in Indianapolis.
In addition to James at 15 and various novels, Wakefield’s credits include the screenplay for the 1997 film Going All The Way, starring Ben Affleck and Jeremy Davies, based on his 1970 novel of the same name. The 1979 divorce drama Starting Over starring Burt Reynolds, Jill Clayburgh and Candice Bergen, written by James L. Brooks and directed by Alan J. Pakula, was based on Wakefield’s 1973 novel.
Born May 21, 1932, in Indianapolis, Wakefield began...
His death was announced by his attorney, Ken Bennett, to the Indianapolis Star. Wakefield was born and raised in Indianapolis.
In addition to James at 15 and various novels, Wakefield’s credits include the screenplay for the 1997 film Going All The Way, starring Ben Affleck and Jeremy Davies, based on his 1970 novel of the same name. The 1979 divorce drama Starting Over starring Burt Reynolds, Jill Clayburgh and Candice Bergen, written by James L. Brooks and directed by Alan J. Pakula, was based on Wakefield’s 1973 novel.
Born May 21, 1932, in Indianapolis, Wakefield began...
- 3/14/2024
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Lance Kerwin, the former child actor who shot to fame in the late 1970s as the star of the sometimes controversial NBC teen drama series James at 15, died Tuesday of undetermined causes in San Clemente, CA. He was 62.
His death was announced by his daughter Savanah in a Facebook post today.
Related Story Hollywood & Media Deaths In 2023: Photo Gallery & Obituaries Related Story Sal Piro Dies: Original 'Rocky Horror' Role-Playing Superfan And Subject Of Upcoming Movie Was 71 Related Story Lloyd N. Morrisett Dies: 'Sesame Street' Co-Creator Was 93
Kerwin, who was a busy child actor throughout the ’70s, also starred in the 1979 TV miniseries Salem’s Lot, based on the novel by Stephen King. He played the central character of Mark Petrie, the young horror film buff-turned-vampire hunter. In the film’s most chilling and memorable scene, he is visited by a schoolmate who has become a vampire and...
His death was announced by his daughter Savanah in a Facebook post today.
Related Story Hollywood & Media Deaths In 2023: Photo Gallery & Obituaries Related Story Sal Piro Dies: Original 'Rocky Horror' Role-Playing Superfan And Subject Of Upcoming Movie Was 71 Related Story Lloyd N. Morrisett Dies: 'Sesame Street' Co-Creator Was 93
Kerwin, who was a busy child actor throughout the ’70s, also starred in the 1979 TV miniseries Salem’s Lot, based on the novel by Stephen King. He played the central character of Mark Petrie, the young horror film buff-turned-vampire hunter. In the film’s most chilling and memorable scene, he is visited by a schoolmate who has become a vampire and...
- 1/25/2023
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Ahead of its opening weekend at NYC’s Quad Cinema, Filmmaker shares an exclusive clip of Mark Pellington‘s Going All the Way: The Director’s Edit. This re-edit and 4K restoration of Pellington’s feature debut includes a new title sequence created by Sergio Pinheiro as well as 50 additional minutes of previously unseen footage accompanied by new music from composer Pete Adams. Based on the 1970 novel by Dan Wakefield (who also penned the script), the film stars Jeremy Davies and an early-career Ben Affleck as Sonny and Gunner, two young men who return home to Indianapolis after serving in the Korean […]
The post Exclusive Clip: Mark Pellington’s Going All the Way: The Director’s Edit first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post Exclusive Clip: Mark Pellington’s Going All the Way: The Director’s Edit first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 12/16/2022
- by Natalia Keogan
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Ahead of its opening weekend at NYC’s Quad Cinema, Filmmaker shares an exclusive clip of Mark Pellington‘s Going All the Way: The Director’s Edit. This re-edit and 4K restoration of Pellington’s feature debut includes a new title sequence created by Sergio Pinheiro as well as 50 additional minutes of previously unseen footage accompanied by new music from composer Pete Adams. Based on the 1970 novel by Dan Wakefield (who also penned the script), the film stars Jeremy Davies and an early-career Ben Affleck as Sonny and Gunner, two young men who return home to Indianapolis after serving in the Korean […]
The post Exclusive Clip: Mark Pellington’s Going All the Way: The Director’s Edit first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post Exclusive Clip: Mark Pellington’s Going All the Way: The Director’s Edit first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 12/16/2022
- by Natalia Keogan
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
In 1997, Mark Pellington made his feature directorial debut with “Going All the Way,” based on Dan Wakefield’s novel of the same name. Telling the story of two Korean War veterans returning to their hometown of Indianapolis in the 1950s, the film featured an impressive cast of then-unknowns — Ben Affleck, Jeremy Davies, Rachel Weisz, Rose McGowan, and Nick Offerman among them. The film screened at Sundance, got solid reviews and a distribution deal… and then disappeared for 25 years. Pellington, while proud of the film, never felt like he quite captured what he had loved about Wakefield’s book, and the various edits the movie went through — from a three-hour-plus rough cut to the 112-minute Sundance version to the 97-minute movie that was ultimately released in theaters — left him feeling like he had taken the guts out of the story.
Decades later, while he was digging around in his office during the Covid lockdown,...
Decades later, while he was digging around in his office during the Covid lockdown,...
- 11/16/2022
- by Jim Hemphill
- Indiewire
Welcome to The B-Side, from The Film Stage. Here we talk about movie stars! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between.
Today we get to talk to the immensely-talented Mark Pellington, the filmmaker behind hits like Arlington Road and The Mothman Prophecies, some of the best music videos ever made, some of the weirdest, coolest stuff ever on MTV, and a slew of other interesting, powerful pieces of work.
He’s re-cut (and really remade) his directorial debut Going All The Way, starring Jeremy Davies and Ben Affleck, adapted from the Dan Wakefield novel of the same name. Going All The Way: The Director’s Edit is currently screening at Brain Dead Studios & Laemmle Glendale in Los Angeles, and will open on Dec. 16th at Quad Cinema in New York with a rollout to follow. Visit this link for more info.
Today we get to talk to the immensely-talented Mark Pellington, the filmmaker behind hits like Arlington Road and The Mothman Prophecies, some of the best music videos ever made, some of the weirdest, coolest stuff ever on MTV, and a slew of other interesting, powerful pieces of work.
He’s re-cut (and really remade) his directorial debut Going All The Way, starring Jeremy Davies and Ben Affleck, adapted from the Dan Wakefield novel of the same name. Going All The Way: The Director’s Edit is currently screening at Brain Dead Studios & Laemmle Glendale in Los Angeles, and will open on Dec. 16th at Quad Cinema in New York with a rollout to follow. Visit this link for more info.
- 11/11/2022
- by Dan Mecca
- The Film Stage
It’s been a hot minute since we heard from filmmaker Mark Pellington, known for “The Mothman Prophecies” and “Arlington Road.” Pellington famously got his start in MTV-era music videos directing Pearl Jam’s “Jeremy” video to great acclaim, including winning four MTV awards in 1993, including Best Director and Video of the Year. Pellington used that success to move into dramatic live-action features, which segues nicely into his latest (re) release. Oscilloscope Laboratories has teamed with the director to present the never-before-seen 4K re-edit of his vibrant Sundance Film Festival hit and directorial debut, “Going All The Way: The Director’s Edit.”
Read More: ‘Nostalgia’ Trailer: Jon Hamm & Catherine Keener Face Love And Loss For Director Mark Pellington
Originally released in 1997, Pellington’s debut was based on Dan Wakefield’s best-selling novel about two young men facing an uncertain future in 1950s Indiana after their return from the Korean War.
Read More: ‘Nostalgia’ Trailer: Jon Hamm & Catherine Keener Face Love And Loss For Director Mark Pellington
Originally released in 1997, Pellington’s debut was based on Dan Wakefield’s best-selling novel about two young men facing an uncertain future in 1950s Indiana after their return from the Korean War.
- 10/27/2022
- by Edward Davis
- The Playlist
"He never even had a beard ’till he got mixed up with your son." Oscilloscope Labs has revealed the new trailer for a re-release of the 1997 indie coming-of-age film Going All The Way. It first premiered at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival years ago. Mark Pelllngton’s adaptation of Dan Wakefield's novel about young men coming of age in the 1950s is a timeless story of freedom and repression, friendship and family, sex and love, and the psychological & spiritual struggle to be true to one’s self. Pellington constructs an elegant and morally complex tale about two young Korean war veterans returning to their sheltered Indianapolis lives, only to find they no longer fit in. Starring a young Ben Affleck and Jeremy Davies, plus Jill Clayburgh, Lesley Ann Warren, Amy Locane, Nick Offerman, Rachel Weisz, and Rose McGowan. The newly re-edited & restored version of the film, dubbed "The Director's Edit", completely "upends the original cut,...
- 10/26/2022
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
One of the major rediscoveries of the year is a never-before-seen 4K re-edit of Mark Pellington’s Going All the Way, his directorial debut which premiered back at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival. Featuring early performances from then-mostly-unknown Jeremy Davies, Ben Affleck, Rachel Weisz, Rose McGowan, and Nick Offerman, Oscilloscope Laboratories will release Going All the Way: The Director’s Edit beginning with an exclusive theatrical run starting in Los Angeles at Brain Dead Studios on November 7th with national rollout to follow.
An adaptation of Dan Wakefield’s seminal novel about a young man coming of age in the 1950s, we follow two young high school alumni and Korean war veterans returning to their sheltered Indianapolis community, only to find they no longer fit in. As classmates, shy, artistic Sonny (Jeremy Davies) and charming, popular Gunner (Ben Affleck in his first lead role) had nothing to do with one another,...
An adaptation of Dan Wakefield’s seminal novel about a young man coming of age in the 1950s, we follow two young high school alumni and Korean war veterans returning to their sheltered Indianapolis community, only to find they no longer fit in. As classmates, shy, artistic Sonny (Jeremy Davies) and charming, popular Gunner (Ben Affleck in his first lead role) had nothing to do with one another,...
- 10/26/2022
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Oscilloscope Laboratories is set to release a 4K re-edit of Mark Pellington’s “Going All the Way: The Director’s Edit,” starring Ben Affleck, Rachel Weisz, Rose McGowan, Jeremy Davies and Nick Offerman.
The new cut of the 1997 film was rescanned for 4K and features 50 additional minutes of never-before-seen footage. A new title sequence was also created by Sergio Pinheiro, along with 50 minutes of music from composer Pete Adams.
Dan Berger, president of Oscilloscope, said, “Though shot 25 years ago, ‘Going All the Way’ is as fresh, revelatory, and ahead of its time today as it would have been then. I couldn’t be more thrilled that O-Scope will be able to reintroduce this important gem of independent cinema in a way no one has ever experienced before and to collaborate closely with the entire, impassioned filmmaking team to do so.”
Based on Dan Wakefield’s novel of the same name,...
The new cut of the 1997 film was rescanned for 4K and features 50 additional minutes of never-before-seen footage. A new title sequence was also created by Sergio Pinheiro, along with 50 minutes of music from composer Pete Adams.
Dan Berger, president of Oscilloscope, said, “Though shot 25 years ago, ‘Going All the Way’ is as fresh, revelatory, and ahead of its time today as it would have been then. I couldn’t be more thrilled that O-Scope will be able to reintroduce this important gem of independent cinema in a way no one has ever experienced before and to collaborate closely with the entire, impassioned filmmaking team to do so.”
Based on Dan Wakefield’s novel of the same name,...
- 10/25/2022
- by Michaela Zee
- Variety Film + TV
Updated, 1:30 Pm: Michelle Obama and rapper-actor-producer Common will appear on Let the World See, a companion docuseries to ABC’s limited series Women of the Movement, ABC News announced Wednesday. Both natives of Chicago, Obama and Common each will add their personal insights into the life and legacy of Mamie Till-Mobley, according to the network.
Let The World See chronicles Till-Mobley’s quest for justice that sparked the civil rights movement after her son Emmett Till’s brutal murder.
Previous, Dec. 2: ABC News today unveiled Let The World See, a limited docuseries produced in association with Shawn Carter’s Roc Nation, Will Smith’s Westbrook Studios, Aaron Kaplan’s Kapital Entertainment and Cobble Hill Films, which will premiere on ABC on January 6 at 10:01 p.m. Est. The companion piece to upcoming limited series Women of the Movement—also produced by Roc Nation, Westbrook Studios and Kapital Entertainment...
Let The World See chronicles Till-Mobley’s quest for justice that sparked the civil rights movement after her son Emmett Till’s brutal murder.
Previous, Dec. 2: ABC News today unveiled Let The World See, a limited docuseries produced in association with Shawn Carter’s Roc Nation, Will Smith’s Westbrook Studios, Aaron Kaplan’s Kapital Entertainment and Cobble Hill Films, which will premiere on ABC on January 6 at 10:01 p.m. Est. The companion piece to upcoming limited series Women of the Movement—also produced by Roc Nation, Westbrook Studios and Kapital Entertainment...
- 12/15/2021
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
Netflix announced the comedy event “Death to 2021” will premiere Dec. 27.
The special tells the story of yet another dreadful year through a documentary style, mixing archival footage gathered over the year with commentary from fictitious characters played by Hugh Grant, Lucy Liu, Tracey Ullman, Samson Kayo, Joe Keery, William Jackson Harper, Stockard Channing, Cristin Milioti, Diane Morgan, Nick Mohammed and more.
In a first-look clip from the special, which you can watch below, an “average British citizen,” played by Morgan, shares her experience with online dating during the pandemic. “I got on quite well with one of them,” says the character. “We even had a cuddle.” The scene then cuts to the pair on a virtual date over Zoom, awkwardly leaning towards their computers.
“Death to 2021” is executive produced by Annabel Jones and Ben Caudell. Nick Vaughan-Smith produces, and Jack Clough and Josh Ruben direct. The special was written by Caudell.
The special tells the story of yet another dreadful year through a documentary style, mixing archival footage gathered over the year with commentary from fictitious characters played by Hugh Grant, Lucy Liu, Tracey Ullman, Samson Kayo, Joe Keery, William Jackson Harper, Stockard Channing, Cristin Milioti, Diane Morgan, Nick Mohammed and more.
In a first-look clip from the special, which you can watch below, an “average British citizen,” played by Morgan, shares her experience with online dating during the pandemic. “I got on quite well with one of them,” says the character. “We even had a cuddle.” The scene then cuts to the pair on a virtual date over Zoom, awkwardly leaning towards their computers.
“Death to 2021” is executive produced by Annabel Jones and Ben Caudell. Nick Vaughan-Smith produces, and Jack Clough and Josh Ruben direct. The special was written by Caudell.
- 12/2/2021
- by Katie Song and Selome Hailu
- Variety Film + TV
The director of Arlington Road, The Mothman Prophecies, Pearl Jam’s Jeremy and many more reflects on his career and some of the movies that made him.
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Arlington Road (1999)
The Mothman Prophecies (2002)
Firewall (2006)
The Orphanage (2007)
Nostalgia (2018)
Avatar (2009)
Titanic (1997)
Chef (2014)
The Laundromat (2019)
Honeymoon In Vegas (1992)
Demonlover (2003)
Under The Sand (2000)
Mulholland Dr. (2001)
Under The Skin (2013)
The Great Beauty (2013)
Slap Shot (1977)
Network (1976)
Straw Dogs (1971)
The Pawnbroker (1964)
Star Wars (1977)
The Exorcist (1973)
Jaws (1975)
The World’s Greatest Athlete (1973)
All The President’s Men (1976)
Liquid Sky (1982)
The Brother From Another Planet (1984)
City Of Hope (1991)
Stop Making Sense (1984)
Snowpiercer (2013)
The Flintstones (1994)
Matinee (1993)
Batman (1989)
Transformers (2007)
A History Of Violence (2005)
Heaven Can Wait (1978)
Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941)
Psycho (1960)
Psycho (1998)
Mandy (2018)
Phantom Thread (2017)
Magnolia (1999)
Boogie Nights (1997)
The Master (2012)
There Will Be Blood (2007)
The Mustang (2019)
Inherent Vice (2014)
The New World (2005)
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)
The Last Word (2017)
Cocaine Cowboys (2006)
The Burglar (1957)
What Lies Beneath...
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Arlington Road (1999)
The Mothman Prophecies (2002)
Firewall (2006)
The Orphanage (2007)
Nostalgia (2018)
Avatar (2009)
Titanic (1997)
Chef (2014)
The Laundromat (2019)
Honeymoon In Vegas (1992)
Demonlover (2003)
Under The Sand (2000)
Mulholland Dr. (2001)
Under The Skin (2013)
The Great Beauty (2013)
Slap Shot (1977)
Network (1976)
Straw Dogs (1971)
The Pawnbroker (1964)
Star Wars (1977)
The Exorcist (1973)
Jaws (1975)
The World’s Greatest Athlete (1973)
All The President’s Men (1976)
Liquid Sky (1982)
The Brother From Another Planet (1984)
City Of Hope (1991)
Stop Making Sense (1984)
Snowpiercer (2013)
The Flintstones (1994)
Matinee (1993)
Batman (1989)
Transformers (2007)
A History Of Violence (2005)
Heaven Can Wait (1978)
Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941)
Psycho (1960)
Psycho (1998)
Mandy (2018)
Phantom Thread (2017)
Magnolia (1999)
Boogie Nights (1997)
The Master (2012)
There Will Be Blood (2007)
The Mustang (2019)
Inherent Vice (2014)
The New World (2005)
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)
The Last Word (2017)
Cocaine Cowboys (2006)
The Burglar (1957)
What Lies Beneath...
- 4/21/2020
- by Kris Millsap
- Trailers from Hell
After the hugely successful ’12 Film Characters Whose Deaths Came Out Of Nowhere’ article by Dan Wakefield (check it out here), I have been asked to bring to the table another round of hugely unfortunate, unsuspecting or down-right kamikaze saps who prematurely ‘snuffed it’.
I can only imagine all you by-the-book movie goers must hate it when a death comes out of the blue because nothing sparks a chorus of excited chatter among the rest of us, through the cinema, quite like it. The audacity of the scriptwriter to wave goodbye to our beloved protagonist is enough to give even the blandest, exposition-est (is that a word?) 150 minute dramas an injection of pure thrill.
Whilst keeping clear of those featured in Dan’s close on perfect Part I, I have scoured my bank of move knowledge to bring together 12 more film characters (In. No. Particular. Order.) we hardly had the chance to enjoy!
I can only imagine all you by-the-book movie goers must hate it when a death comes out of the blue because nothing sparks a chorus of excited chatter among the rest of us, through the cinema, quite like it. The audacity of the scriptwriter to wave goodbye to our beloved protagonist is enough to give even the blandest, exposition-est (is that a word?) 150 minute dramas an injection of pure thrill.
Whilst keeping clear of those featured in Dan’s close on perfect Part I, I have scoured my bank of move knowledge to bring together 12 more film characters (In. No. Particular. Order.) we hardly had the chance to enjoy!
- 3/23/2013
- by Toby McShane
- Obsessed with Film
Films often use voyeurs for their subjects, as they’re a perfect link to the audience. While the protagonist watches someone, we watch the protagonist. Pretty deep, right?
The actual act of spying on people – invading their private lives and dissecting every movement they make – is a disgusting habit usually reserved for perverts and people who read that idiot Perez Hilton’s site. But in movies, it can be great. In addition to this list, make sure you check out Dan Wakefield’s top 10 list of the same subject. So grab your binoculars and let’s peep at 5 more great movies about voyeurism.
5. Animal House (1978)
In National Lampoon’s classic college romp Animal House, we meet a vulgar and irresponsible group of students who’ve tested the Dean’s patience for too long. What follows is a collage of hilarious scenarios involving dead horses, toga parties and impressions of acne.
The actual act of spying on people – invading their private lives and dissecting every movement they make – is a disgusting habit usually reserved for perverts and people who read that idiot Perez Hilton’s site. But in movies, it can be great. In addition to this list, make sure you check out Dan Wakefield’s top 10 list of the same subject. So grab your binoculars and let’s peep at 5 more great movies about voyeurism.
5. Animal House (1978)
In National Lampoon’s classic college romp Animal House, we meet a vulgar and irresponsible group of students who’ve tested the Dean’s patience for too long. What follows is a collage of hilarious scenarios involving dead horses, toga parties and impressions of acne.
- 2/25/2013
- by Nick F
- Obsessed with Film
Jd Salinger, Saul Bellow and Norman Mailer were all devotees of the orgone energy accumulator, nicknamed by Woody Allen the 'Orgasmatron'. Its inventor, Wilhelm Reich, claimed that better orgasms could cure society's ills
When Wilhelm Reich, the most brilliant of the second generation of psychoanalysts who had been Freud's pupils, arrived in New York in August 1939, only a few days before the outbreak of war, he was optimistic that his ideas fusing sex and politics would be better received there than they had been in fascist Europe. Despite its veneer of puritanism, America was a country already much preoccupied with sex – as Alfred Kinsey's renowned investigations, which he had begun the year before, were to show. However, it was only after the second world war that the idea of sexual liberation would permeate the culture at large. Reich could be said to have invented this "sexual revolution"; a Marxist analyst,...
When Wilhelm Reich, the most brilliant of the second generation of psychoanalysts who had been Freud's pupils, arrived in New York in August 1939, only a few days before the outbreak of war, he was optimistic that his ideas fusing sex and politics would be better received there than they had been in fascist Europe. Despite its veneer of puritanism, America was a country already much preoccupied with sex – as Alfred Kinsey's renowned investigations, which he had begun the year before, were to show. However, it was only after the second world war that the idea of sexual liberation would permeate the culture at large. Reich could be said to have invented this "sexual revolution"; a Marxist analyst,...
- 7/8/2011
- The Guardian - Film News
Jd Salinger, Saul Bellow and Norman Mailer were all devotees of the orgone energy accumulator, nicknamed by Woody Allen the 'Orgasmatron'. Its inventor, Wilhelm Reich, claimed that better orgasms could cure society's ills
When Wilhelm Reich, the most brilliant of the second generation of psychoanalysts who had been Freud's pupils, arrived in New York in August 1939, only a few days before the outbreak of war, he was optimistic that his ideas fusing sex and politics would be better received there than they had been in fascist Europe. Despite its veneer of puritanism, America was a country already much preoccupied with sex – as Alfred Kinsey's renowned investigations, which he had begun the year before, were to show. However, it was only after the second world war that the idea of sexual liberation would permeate the culture at large. Reich could be said to have invented this "sexual revolution"; a Marxist analyst,...
When Wilhelm Reich, the most brilliant of the second generation of psychoanalysts who had been Freud's pupils, arrived in New York in August 1939, only a few days before the outbreak of war, he was optimistic that his ideas fusing sex and politics would be better received there than they had been in fascist Europe. Despite its veneer of puritanism, America was a country already much preoccupied with sex – as Alfred Kinsey's renowned investigations, which he had begun the year before, were to show. However, it was only after the second world war that the idea of sexual liberation would permeate the culture at large. Reich could be said to have invented this "sexual revolution"; a Marxist analyst,...
- 7/7/2011
- The Guardian - Film News
The 1960s are generally thought of as the primary period of social ferment in this country, but the seeds for that cultural uprising were sown in the previous decade. That is the thesis of Betsy Blankenbaker's intelligent if standard talking heads/archival footage documentary, based on the autobiographical book by Dan Wakefield, and she makes the case in clear, convincing fashion.
Running a mere 72 minutes, the film doesn't offer much in the way of depth. Despite its title, it mainly focuses on the denizens of Greenwich Village, where people from all over the country congregated to avoid the stifling conformism of the Eisenhower era. Included are interviews with some of the writers and artists who were part of the scene, including -- besides Wakefield -- Gay Talese, Joan Didion, Nat Hentoff, Calvin Trillin, Norman Mailer, Ed Fancher (the founder of the Village Voice), and, representing the film's coup in terms of marquee value, Robert Redford. Archival footage presents other seminal figures of the era, including Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Mailer and James Baldwin.
The film contains several distinct segments, including ones devoted to Baldwin, depicted as torn between his concern about civil rights and his desire to write; the prevalence of alcohol among the literary set; and the subordinate roles afforded women. Mainly, though, it deals with reminiscences: novelist Lynn Sharon Schwartz's recollection about how people came to New York to have sex, Wakefield's description of a botched suicide attempt the night before an important interview for a scholarship and Talese's amusing account of how the editorial offices of the New York Times were a hotbed of illicit affairs.
NEW YORK IN THE FIFTIES
Avatar Films
Director: Betsy Blankenbaker
Producers: Betsy Blankenbaker, Dorka Keehn
Directors of photography: Bobby Shepard, Dustin Teel, Jeff Watt
Editor: Steve Marra
Music: Steve Allee
Color/stereo
Running time -- 72 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Running a mere 72 minutes, the film doesn't offer much in the way of depth. Despite its title, it mainly focuses on the denizens of Greenwich Village, where people from all over the country congregated to avoid the stifling conformism of the Eisenhower era. Included are interviews with some of the writers and artists who were part of the scene, including -- besides Wakefield -- Gay Talese, Joan Didion, Nat Hentoff, Calvin Trillin, Norman Mailer, Ed Fancher (the founder of the Village Voice), and, representing the film's coup in terms of marquee value, Robert Redford. Archival footage presents other seminal figures of the era, including Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Mailer and James Baldwin.
The film contains several distinct segments, including ones devoted to Baldwin, depicted as torn between his concern about civil rights and his desire to write; the prevalence of alcohol among the literary set; and the subordinate roles afforded women. Mainly, though, it deals with reminiscences: novelist Lynn Sharon Schwartz's recollection about how people came to New York to have sex, Wakefield's description of a botched suicide attempt the night before an important interview for a scholarship and Talese's amusing account of how the editorial offices of the New York Times were a hotbed of illicit affairs.
NEW YORK IN THE FIFTIES
Avatar Films
Director: Betsy Blankenbaker
Producers: Betsy Blankenbaker, Dorka Keehn
Directors of photography: Bobby Shepard, Dustin Teel, Jeff Watt
Editor: Steve Marra
Music: Steve Allee
Color/stereo
Running time -- 72 minutes
No MPAA rating...
The 1960s are generally thought of as the primary period of social ferment in this country, but the seeds for that cultural uprising were sown in the previous decade. That is the thesis of Betsy Blankenbaker's intelligent if standard talking heads/archival footage documentary, based on the autobiographical book by Dan Wakefield, and she makes the case in clear, convincing fashion.
Running a mere 72 minutes, the film doesn't offer much in the way of depth. Despite its title, it mainly focuses on the denizens of Greenwich Village, where people from all over the country congregated to avoid the stifling conformism of the Eisenhower era. Included are interviews with some of the writers and artists who were part of the scene, including -- besides Wakefield -- Gay Talese, Joan Didion, Nat Hentoff, Calvin Trillin, Norman Mailer, Ed Fancher (the founder of the Village Voice), and, representing the film's coup in terms of marquee value, Robert Redford. Archival footage presents other seminal figures of the era, including Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Mailer and James Baldwin.
The film contains several distinct segments, including ones devoted to Baldwin, depicted as torn between his concern about civil rights and his desire to write; the prevalence of alcohol among the literary set; and the subordinate roles afforded women. Mainly, though, it deals with reminiscences: novelist Lynn Sharon Schwartz's recollection about how people came to New York to have sex, Wakefield's description of a botched suicide attempt the night before an important interview for a scholarship and Talese's amusing account of how the editorial offices of the New York Times were a hotbed of illicit affairs.
NEW YORK IN THE FIFTIES
Avatar Films
Director: Betsy Blankenbaker
Producers: Betsy Blankenbaker, Dorka Keehn
Directors of photography: Bobby Shepard, Dustin Teel, Jeff Watt
Editor: Steve Marra
Music: Steve Allee
Color/stereo
Running time -- 72 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Running a mere 72 minutes, the film doesn't offer much in the way of depth. Despite its title, it mainly focuses on the denizens of Greenwich Village, where people from all over the country congregated to avoid the stifling conformism of the Eisenhower era. Included are interviews with some of the writers and artists who were part of the scene, including -- besides Wakefield -- Gay Talese, Joan Didion, Nat Hentoff, Calvin Trillin, Norman Mailer, Ed Fancher (the founder of the Village Voice), and, representing the film's coup in terms of marquee value, Robert Redford. Archival footage presents other seminal figures of the era, including Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Mailer and James Baldwin.
The film contains several distinct segments, including ones devoted to Baldwin, depicted as torn between his concern about civil rights and his desire to write; the prevalence of alcohol among the literary set; and the subordinate roles afforded women. Mainly, though, it deals with reminiscences: novelist Lynn Sharon Schwartz's recollection about how people came to New York to have sex, Wakefield's description of a botched suicide attempt the night before an important interview for a scholarship and Talese's amusing account of how the editorial offices of the New York Times were a hotbed of illicit affairs.
NEW YORK IN THE FIFTIES
Avatar Films
Director: Betsy Blankenbaker
Producers: Betsy Blankenbaker, Dorka Keehn
Directors of photography: Bobby Shepard, Dustin Teel, Jeff Watt
Editor: Steve Marra
Music: Steve Allee
Color/stereo
Running time -- 72 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 2/22/2001
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
A solid feature directing debut by award-winning music videomaker Mark Pellington and an excellent showcase for several up-and-coming actors, "Going All the Way" has only a few awkward moments as it illuminates the dilemma of a decidedly awkward Midwestern protagonist on the threshold of manhood in the transitional early 1950s.
Shown in competition at the Sundance Film Festival, the Gramercy Pictures release is a high-profile independent that will probably struggle to find the audience it deserves in the jammed theatrical market. Over time, though, it will go far with discerning viewers who don't mind a little hot-and-heavy sex with a probing character study.
Advertised as an ensemble comedy-drama in the same league as "Inventing the Abbotts", "Going All the Way" is a different kettle of Americana. Based on screenwriter Dan Wakefield's popular 1970 novel of the same name, the story centers on Korean War-era veteran Sonny Burns (Jeremy Davies) in Indianapolis.
Although surrounded by a perfect supporting cast - including Ben Affleck, Amy Locane, Rachel Weisz, Rose McGowan, Jill Clayburgh and Lesley Ann Warren - Davies ("Spanking the Monkey", "The Locusts") delivers a knockout performance as introverted Sonny, who never got further than Kansas City in the Army and struggles with depression upon his return home. It's his good fortune to cross paths with former schoolmate Gunner (Affleck), who drinks sake and has no trouble attracting girls.
One is immediately sympathetic toward Sonny when he's smothered by the attentions of his religious mother (Clayburgh) and high school sweetheart (Locane), while he clearly longs for an ideal female that he initially encounters in the curvaceous form of Gunner's wild bachelorette mother (Warren). Unable to look anyone in the eye for long and barely able to form sentences, Sonny is so nerdish on the surface that one is caught by surprise when he proves to be sexually voracious and not at all unliberated.
But he has a dark, scattered interior dialogue that we are privy to in heated moments, and he lacks the confidence that keeps Gunner on course to escaping the doldrums of Middle America. As the pair go drinking and looking for the next "fuckathon," Gunner's macho persona is shown to be a front for his desire to be taken seriously, while Sonny seems to be quietly working on his approach to life.
Both are in for major changes and challenges when Gunner hooks up with East Coast collegiate beauty Marty (Weisz), his match in sex appeal and a cultural liberator. At a fateful dance, her friend Gail (McGowan) brings out the lion in mousy Sonny, but he experiences manic highs and lows that reveal the depths of his problems.
Not at all catering to the MTV crowd but with a hot soundtrack of vintage tunes, "Going" is a well-realized adaptation that takes time out for wickedly funny details and interludes with colorful secondary characters. But it convincingly moves into potent drama and captures the sometimes dreadful confusion and conflicts of the era.
GOING ALL THE WAY
Gramercy Pictures
PolyGram Filmed Entertainment presents
a Tom Gorai/Lakeshore Entertainment production
A film by Mark Pellington
Director Mark Pellington
Screenwriter Dan Wakefield
Producers Tom Gorai, Sigurjon Sighvatsson
Executive producers Tom Rosenberg,
Ted Tannebaum, Michael Mendelsohn
Director of photography Bobby Bukowski
Editor Leo Trombetta
Production designer Therese DePrez
Costume designer Arianne Phillips
Music tomandandy
Casting Ellen Chenoweth
Color/stereo
Cast:
Sonny Burns Jeremy Davies
Gunner Casselman Ben Affleck
Buddy Porter Amy Locane
Gale Rose McGowan
Marty Rachel Weisz
Alma Burns Jill Clayburgh
Nina Casselman Lesley Ann Warren
Running time -- 102 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
Shown in competition at the Sundance Film Festival, the Gramercy Pictures release is a high-profile independent that will probably struggle to find the audience it deserves in the jammed theatrical market. Over time, though, it will go far with discerning viewers who don't mind a little hot-and-heavy sex with a probing character study.
Advertised as an ensemble comedy-drama in the same league as "Inventing the Abbotts", "Going All the Way" is a different kettle of Americana. Based on screenwriter Dan Wakefield's popular 1970 novel of the same name, the story centers on Korean War-era veteran Sonny Burns (Jeremy Davies) in Indianapolis.
Although surrounded by a perfect supporting cast - including Ben Affleck, Amy Locane, Rachel Weisz, Rose McGowan, Jill Clayburgh and Lesley Ann Warren - Davies ("Spanking the Monkey", "The Locusts") delivers a knockout performance as introverted Sonny, who never got further than Kansas City in the Army and struggles with depression upon his return home. It's his good fortune to cross paths with former schoolmate Gunner (Affleck), who drinks sake and has no trouble attracting girls.
One is immediately sympathetic toward Sonny when he's smothered by the attentions of his religious mother (Clayburgh) and high school sweetheart (Locane), while he clearly longs for an ideal female that he initially encounters in the curvaceous form of Gunner's wild bachelorette mother (Warren). Unable to look anyone in the eye for long and barely able to form sentences, Sonny is so nerdish on the surface that one is caught by surprise when he proves to be sexually voracious and not at all unliberated.
But he has a dark, scattered interior dialogue that we are privy to in heated moments, and he lacks the confidence that keeps Gunner on course to escaping the doldrums of Middle America. As the pair go drinking and looking for the next "fuckathon," Gunner's macho persona is shown to be a front for his desire to be taken seriously, while Sonny seems to be quietly working on his approach to life.
Both are in for major changes and challenges when Gunner hooks up with East Coast collegiate beauty Marty (Weisz), his match in sex appeal and a cultural liberator. At a fateful dance, her friend Gail (McGowan) brings out the lion in mousy Sonny, but he experiences manic highs and lows that reveal the depths of his problems.
Not at all catering to the MTV crowd but with a hot soundtrack of vintage tunes, "Going" is a well-realized adaptation that takes time out for wickedly funny details and interludes with colorful secondary characters. But it convincingly moves into potent drama and captures the sometimes dreadful confusion and conflicts of the era.
GOING ALL THE WAY
Gramercy Pictures
PolyGram Filmed Entertainment presents
a Tom Gorai/Lakeshore Entertainment production
A film by Mark Pellington
Director Mark Pellington
Screenwriter Dan Wakefield
Producers Tom Gorai, Sigurjon Sighvatsson
Executive producers Tom Rosenberg,
Ted Tannebaum, Michael Mendelsohn
Director of photography Bobby Bukowski
Editor Leo Trombetta
Production designer Therese DePrez
Costume designer Arianne Phillips
Music tomandandy
Casting Ellen Chenoweth
Color/stereo
Cast:
Sonny Burns Jeremy Davies
Gunner Casselman Ben Affleck
Buddy Porter Amy Locane
Gale Rose McGowan
Marty Rachel Weisz
Alma Burns Jill Clayburgh
Nina Casselman Lesley Ann Warren
Running time -- 102 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 9/17/1997
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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