Walter Hill

Walter Hill (born California 1942) is a prominent American film director. Hill broke into the film industry after working on The Getaway for Sam Peckinpah. His passion has been the Western and he is an admirer of the work of John Ford. However, the majority of his successes have been with thrillers and comedies.

Related Topics:
1942 - The Getaway - Sam Peckinpah - John Ford

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Hill's breakthrough film was The Driver, starring Ryan O'Neal as the laconic getaway driver and Bruce Dern as the driven cop hot on O'Neal's tail. In 1979, Hill directed the Warriors - a stylish and stylised fable of New York gangs.

Related Topics:
The Driver - Ryan O'Neal - Bruce Dern - The Warriors

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The 1980s were undoubtably Hill's Golden Era. Working at a pace of 1 film a year, he turned out some of the decade's finest action and comedy fare, including 48 Hours, the Long Riders, Brewster's Millions, Streets of Fire and Southern Comfort.

Related Topics:
48 Hours - The Long Riders - Brewster's Millions - Streets of Fire - Southern Comfort

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Hill enjoyed a major box office hit with the Eddie Murphy Nick Nolte film 48 Hours. The sequel, Another 48 Hours was thought by many critics to be merely a retread of the original and it fared poorly at the box office.

Related Topics:
Eddie Murphy - Nick Nolte - 48 Hours - Another 48 Hours

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In 1987, he directed Extreme Prejudice a contemporary Western with Nick Nolte, Powers Boothe, Michael Ironside and Clancy Brown. This tale of childhood friends who are on both sides of the law includes a showdown that lovingly pays homage to Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch. In itself this is no mean feat as the latter's bloody finale is one of cinema's most visceral climaxes ever.

Related Topics:
Extreme Prejudice - Nick Nolte - Powers Boothe - Michael Ironside - Clancy Brown - Sam Peckinpah's - The Wild Bunch

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The 1990s found Hill's brand of action and narrative on the wane, and his output bagan to become less and less frequent.Johnny Handsome, starring Mickey Rourke, and Lance Henriksen was a muted tale of redemption, harking back to the stylised crime-world of Streets Of Fire and The Warriors, but without the spark or driven narrative of those other films.

Related Topics:
Johnny Handsome - Mickey Rourke - Lance Henriksen

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Likewise, his film biography of Geronimo, with a screenplay written by John Milius, was well received by the critics but fared poorly at the box office.

Related Topics:
Geronimo - John Milius

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A biopic - Wild Bill, starring Jeff Bridges and Ellen Barkin disappeared without a trace. Only his 1997 retelling of Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo - Last Man Standing with Bruce Willis stood out as a reminder of the type of classic storytelling and visual panache he is capable of.

Related Topics:
Wild Bill - Jeff Bridges - Ellen Barkin - Akira Kurosawa's - Yojimbo - Last Man Standing - Bruce Willis

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The one curio in Walter Hill's filmography is 1997's Supernova a film which is credited to Thomas Lee - a pseudonym that reflected Hill's obvious desire not to be associated with the finished product.

Related Topics:
Supernova - Pseudonym

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He was co-producer and one of the originators of the Alien series of films and he wrote the story for Aliens, the second film in the series. He retained a producer credit for the other sequels Alien3 and Alien Resurrection.

Related Topics:
Alien - Aliens - Alien3 - Alien Resurrection

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More recently, Walter Hill has been working in TV, directing episodes of Deadwood - a Western miniseries.

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Hill, along with Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, John Milius, Martin Scorsese, Paul Schrader, and Francis Ford Coppola, can be regarded as part of a 1970s generation of directors who modernised american cinema.

Related Topics:
Steven Spielberg - George Lucas - John Milius - Martin Scorsese - Paul Schrader - Francis Ford Coppola

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