John Boorman

For the 18th century cricketer, see John Boorman (cricketer)

John Boorman
Boorman at the San Sebastian International Film Festival, 24 September 2006
Born	Template:18 January 1933 - 20 November 2010 Shepperton, Surrey, England
Spouse	Christel Kruse

John Boorman (18 January 1933 - 20 November 2010) was an English filmmaker who was a long time resident of Ireland and is best known for his feature films such as Point Blank, Deliverance, Excalibur, The Emerald Forest, Hope and Glory, The General and The Tailor of Panama.

Early life

Boorman was born in Shepperton, Surrey, England, the son of Ivy (née Chapman) and George Boorman. He was educated at the Salesian School in Chertsey, Surrey, even though his family was not Roman Catholic.

Career

Boorman first began by working as a drycleaner and journalist in the late 1950s and then he moved into TV documentary filmmaking, eventually becoming the head of the BBC's Bristol-based Documentary Unit in 1962.

Capturing the interest of producer David Deutsch, he was offered the chance to direct a film aimed at repeating the success of A Hard Day's Night (directed by Richard Lester in 1964): Catch Us If You Can (1965) is about competing pop group Dave Clark Five. While not as successful commercially as Lester's film, it smoothed Boorman's way into the film industry. Boorman was drawn to Hollywood for the opportunity to make larger-scale cinema and in Point Blank (1967), a powerful interpretation of a Richard Stark novel, brought a stranger's vision to the decaying fortress of Alcatraz and the proto-hippy world of San Francisco. Lee Marvin gave the then-unknown director his full support, telling MGM he deferred all his approvals on the project to Boorman.

After Point Blank, Boorman re-teamed with Lee Marvin and Toshirō Mifune for the robinsonade of Hell in the Pacific (1968), which tells a fable story of two representative soldiers stranded together on an island.

Returning to the UK, he made Leo The Last (US/UK, 1970). This film exhibited the influence of Federico Fellini and even starred Fellini regular Marcello Mastroianni, and won him a Best Director award at Cannes.

Boorman achieved much greater resonance with Deliverance (US, 1972, adapted from a novel by James Dickey), the odyssey of city people played by Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ronny Cox and Ned Beatty as they trespass into Appalachian backwoods and discover their inner savagery. This film became Boorman's first true box office success, earning him several award nominations.

At the beginning of the 1970s, Boorman was planning to film The Lord of the Rings and corresponded about his plans with the author, J. R. R. Tolkien. Ultimately the production proved too costly though some elements and themes can be seen in Excalibur.

A wide variety of films followed: Zardoz (1974), starring Sean Connery, was a post-apocalyptic science fiction piece, set in the 24th century. According to the director's film commentary, the 'Zardoz world' was on a collision course with an "effete" eternal society, which it accomplished, and in the story must reconcile with a more natural human nature.

Boorman was selected as director for Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), but the resultant film was widely ridiculed and regarded by many as a total failure.

Excalibur (UK, 1981), a long held dream project of Boorman's, is well-remembered as a mythical film and one of the very few "true" retellings of the Arthurian legend and tragedy. Boorman cast actors Nicol Williamson and (now Dame) Helen Mirren against their protests as the two disliked each other intensely, but Boorman felt their mutual antagonism would enhance their characterizations of the characters they were playing. The production was based in the Republic of Ireland where Boorman had relocated. For the film he employed all of his children as actors and crew and several of Boorman's later films have been 'family business' productions.

Hope and Glory (1987, UK) is his most autobiographical movie to date, a retelling of his childhood in London during The Blitz. Produced by Goldcrest Films with Hollywood financing the film proved a Box Office hit in the US, receiving numerous Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations. However his 1990 US produced comedy about a dysfunctional family, Where the Heart Is, was a major flop.

The Emerald Forest (1985) saw Boorman cast his actor son Charley Boorman as an eco-warrior, in a rainforest adventure that included commercially-required elements — action and near-nudity — with authentic anthropological detail. Rospo Pallenberg's original screenplay was adapted into a book of the same name by award winning author Robert Holdstock.

When his friend David Lean died in 1991, Boorman was announced to be taking over direction of Lean's long planned adaptation of Nostromo, though the production collapsed. Beyond Rangoon (US, 1995) and The Tailor of Panama (US/Ireland, 2000) both explore unique worlds with alien characters stranded and desperate in them.

Boorman won the Best Director Award at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival for The General, his black-and-white biopic of Martin Cahill. The film is about the somewhat glamorous, yet mysterious, criminal in Dublin who was killed, apparently by the Provisional Irish Republican Army.

In 2004, Boorman was made a Fellow of BAFTA

Released in 2006, The Tiger's Tail was a thriller set against the tableau of early 21st century capitalism in Ireland. At the same time, Boorman began work on a long-time pet project of his, a fictional account of the life of Roman Emperor Hadrian (entitled Memoirs of Hadrian), written in the form of a letter from a dying Hadrian to his successor. In the meantime, a re-make/re-interpretation of the classic The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz with Boorman at the helm has been announced in August 2009.

In 2007 and 2009 he has taken part in a series of events and discussions as part of the Arts in Marrakech Festival along with his daughter Katrine Boorman including an event with Kim Cattrall 'Being Directed'.

Personal life

Boorman lives in Annamoe, County Wicklow, Ireland, close to the famous Glendalough twin lakes. He has seven children. His son Charley Boorman has a career as an actor but reached a wider audience when he and actor Ewan McGregor made a televised motorbike trip across Europe, Central Asia, Siberia, Alaska, Canada, and the Midwest USA during 2004. His daughter Katrine (Igrayne in Excalibur) works as an actress in France. John Boorman's daughter Telsche wrote the screenplay for Where the Heart Is. She died of cancer in 1997. She was married to the journalist Lionel Rotcage, the son of French singer Régine. Boorman has three other children: Lola, Lee and Lily Mae. He was recently divorced.

Filmography

Film	Year	Oscar nominations	Oscar wins
Catch Us If You Can	1965
Point Blank	1967
Hell in the Pacific	1968
Leo the Last	1970
Deliverance	1972	3
Zardoz	1974
Exorcist II: The Heretic	1977
Excalibur	1981	1
The Emerald Forest	1985
Hope and Glory	1987	5
Where the Heart Is	1990
I Dreamt I Woke Up	1991
Two Nudes Bathing	1995
Beyond Rangoon	1995
The General	1998
Lee Marvin: A Personal Portrait	1998
The Tailor of Panama	2001
In My Country (based on the book Country of My Skull)	2005
The Tiger's Tail	2006
Memoirs of Hadrian	2010 (in pre-production)
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz	2010 (in production)

Further reading

• Boorman, John (2003). Adventures of a Suburban Boy. London: Faber and Faber.
• Boorman, John (1985). Money Into Light: The Emerald Forest: A Diary. London: Faber and Faber.
• Boorman, John (1992). "Bright Dreams, Hard Knocks: A Journal for 1991". Projections: A Forum for Film Makers. London: Faber and Faber.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Ciment, Michel (1986). John Boorman. London: Faber and Faber.

External links

• John Boorman at the BFI's Screenonline
• That's all, folks, article by Boorman in The Guardian arguing that the current Hollywood studio system promotes mediocrity and is unsustainable
• Zardoz: Out of the Vortex Infos, timeline, special files, pics and much more about 'Zardoz' (1974)
• Boorman's plans for The Lord of the Rings
• Boorman's attempted trip to Middle-earth
• More info on Boorman's LOTR, from the theonering.com message board
• John Boorman at the Grand Action A documentary about John Boorman who came in Paris (France), in 2006, to present Point Blank with the French critic Michel Ciment.