AP News

Arthur Penn has died.  He hadn't done anything major in a while, but there was a period in the late 60s/early 70s when he was one of the most interesting directors out there.

He made his name as a TV director in the early days of the medium, and then became a highly successful Broadway director in the late 50s, doing Two For The Seesaw, The Miracle Worker and Toys In The Attic.  Throughout his career, he'd return to the stage, directing works such as Wait Until Dark in the mid-60s and Sly Fox in the mid-70s.  But it's as a movie director where he had his greatest impact.

He made an odd (and to me, not great) Western in the 50s, starring Paul Newman, called The Left Handed Gun.  It got a lot of attention in certain critical circles, especially in France.  Then in the early 60s he adapted The Miracle Worker

(which he'd earlier worked on as a TV broadcast and Broadway hit) to the screen.  The film won Oscars for both Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke.

His next complete film really showed he could do more than tasteful adaptations--Mickey One (1965) starring Warren Beatty, is a surrealistic journey through one comedian's life.  I wouldn't call it an artistic success, and it certainly flopped at the box office, but that Penn would even attempt something so odd showed he was worth watching.

And working with Beatty paid off.  After a long history of looking for a director, producer/star Beatty got Penn to direct Bonnie And Clyde (1967).  Old studio moguls would have rejected it as too explicit, too violent and too eccentric--in both style and tone--but the film became a huge hit and taught Hollywood some new tricks, many of which are still being used.

I suppose he had his pick of projects after that, and went in an odd direction--Alice's Restaurant (1969), starring Arlo Guthrie, who wrote the song the film is based on.  It's a small film.  There's some satire, but it's mostly got a sweet tone, and, in its own way, probably show the world of hippies better, and with more understanding, than any other film of the day did.

Then he made Little Big Man in 1970, an historical pageant, with Dustin Hoffman living through the late 1800s with both the white and red man.  I find it a bit obvious, and overpraised, but at least Penn was trying new things.

The next fifteen years had Penn making films of interest, if not the same impact--Night Movies (a Gene Hackman thriller that has a cult), Missouri Breaks (a mistake, really--maybe he jumped at the chance to work with Brando), Four Friends, Target and Dead Of Winter.  His final theatrical release, Penn  & Teller Get Killed, in 1989, was not well-received, but it was more interesting than expected. I'd like to see it again to see how well it stands up.

His subjects may have changed, but he had a distinct voice.  You can't ask for much more than that.