FANTASIA OBSCURA: Before the 2017 Oscars, There Was Warren Beatty’s Oscar-Nominated Directorial Debut
There are some fantasy, science fiction, and horror films that not every fan has caught. Not every film ever made has been seen by the audience that lives for such fare. Some of these deserve another look, because sometimes not every film should remain obscure.
Sometimes, if you’re looking to take on a tough project, it’s a really good idea to get some practice in first…
Heaven Can Wait (1978)
(Dist.: Paramount Pictures; Dirs.: Warren Beatty and Buck Henry)
Long before that whole Oscars mess, Warren Beatty was perceived a lot differently by the general public.
By the mid-1970s, Warren Beatty’s career was one long string of successes with each project allowing him more control over his output beyond just acting. TV performances in the 1960s ultimately lead to his producing and starring in Bonnie and Clyde in 1967 and to writing, as well as producing and starring in, Shampoo.
Beatty’s expanding experience mixed with his liberal activism during the 1960s, starting with his exposure to journalist and writer John Reed, who was responsible for Ten Days that Shook the World regarding the Bolshevik Revolution. Moved by the story, he envisaged a sweeping epic that he would not only produce and write, but also direct.
Having never been behind the camera before, however, he decided that for his first time, he’d try something a little less ambitious:
Derived from the 1941 film Here Comes Mr. Jordan (which itself was based on a Broadway play titled Heaven Can Wait) with a script written by Beatty and Elaine May, Beatty plays Joe Pendleton, a back-up quarterback for the Los Angeles Rams who’s trying to be a starter during the team’s winning season.
His trainer Max (Jack Warden) is pulling for him, acting as best friend and surrogate parent as Joe pushes himself to peak physical condition, which gets tested when he rides his bike into a long, dark tunnel while two trucks barrel down from the other end.
Or he should have been tested, at least; his escort to Heaven (Henry) assumes that Joe would be a goner in great pain and pulls him before the final moment. When Joe appeals to the escort’s boss, Mr. Jordan (James Mason), it’s revealed that Joe actually had 50 more years here before moving on, a mistake that can’t be quickly rectified as Joe’s body had been cremated before the error was discovered.
Mr. Jordan starts to make good, offering potential bodies of soon-to-be-deceased people before suggesting Leo Farnsworth, an eccentric, rich executive. Before he left this mortal coil, Farnsworth was involved in shady business deals, dressing up in ridiculous outfits suggesting that he did things like play golf and had served in the Navy, and telling fabulous lies to everyone about how great he was with nothing to back those words up.
Must. Resist. Obvious. Comment.
What killed Farnsworth was poison doled out by his greedy wife Julia (Dyan Cannon) and her lover, Farnsworth’s personal secretary Tony (Charles Grodin). What makes Joe choose Farnsworth is spying Betty Logan (Julie Christie), a petitioner asking him to divest himself from a project that would corrupt her home village in Scotland.
Joe as Farnsworth not only starts making up for mistakes the old executive made, but he also still wants that chance to lead the Rams into the finals. He buys the team and takes a few snaps in practice with the Rams (which in the film included former players Deacon Jones and Les Josephson) in order to win his starting spot as QB, while pursuing a relationship with Betty. However, the Greater Scheme of Things works against Joe, particularly though his wife and secretary, who still want him dead.
While Beatty is the lead and Christie is the love interest, the film clearly belongs to Cannon and Grodin. Their interplay with each other, their wild quirks that they have to overcome as they try to carry on their affair and other plots, just move things forward with such energy that you want to see more of them.
A first-time director who also acts in the film might not have had the patience or courage to let them go as far as they did, but Beatty gets the best from his entire cast. (And when he himself was on screen, he handed the chair to Henry, thus earning him the co-director credit.)
Beatty’s most difficult shooting sequence as director was the big game: the playoff between the Rams and the Steelers in the film. He and his crew took the field at the LA Coliseum during halftime at a Rams pre-season game, set up to shoot the fictitious game for 20 minutes, then left before the Rams lost to the Chargers, 26-25. The fact that he came in and got his shots, including sequences where Beatty was actually QB-ing his team (having played ball in high school and was recruited for college for his skills), shows a level of skill that surprised many then.
Beyond camera management and having confidence in his cast, Beatty’s first time in the directing chair also allowed him to demonstrate one more trick: an essential element to Joe’s character is his inability to play the saxophone, something he “demonstrates” as both himself and Farnsworth.
For his score, Beatty had his composer Dave Grusin build his score around the soprano sax as the main instrument. The result is one of the more memorable soundtracks from any comedy made in the 1970s.
The soundtrack did, in fact, merit the film an Academy Award nomination, among 10 the picture received, including four for Beatty as lead actor, director, writer of adapted screenplay, and producer for best picture.
While it lost out in all categories save for art direction in a year dominated by The Deer Hunter, the film was still enough of a critical and financial success that people still smiled when they recalled the film, a humorous and touching piece about making the best of what you’ve got and the value of keeping on to get what you want.
More important, it was enough of a success for Beatty as a director that it enabled him to finally pursue his John Reed project. Reds premiered in 1981, bringing him to the summit of his career.
And that much closer to that embarrassing Sunday night.
NEXT TIME: That new live action fairy-tale film must be good. I mean, no one’s seen David Frost near it, so…
