Sydney Pollack: A Subliminal Existentialist
by Wes D. Gehring
Available now from Indiana Historical Society Press
“Gehring remains supreme in film comedy scholarship” - Choice
“Just about anything with film historian and media writer Wes D. Gehring’s name on it will be of quality.”
- Cinema Retro
"Gehring has a breezy and playful writing style. I found myself chucking aloud several times. His prose is also, at times, wickedly cynical...referring to the kidnapped Betty in the 1934 version of The Man Who Knew Too Much as a 'losable daughter.' " - The Hitchcock Annual
Filmmaker Sydney Pollack found his greatest success as the director of such celebrated pictures as They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, The Way We Were, Tootsie, and Out of Africa which won Pollack Oscars for both director and producer. Pollack found early success as an actor, an acting teacher, and later as a producer. In ensuing years, he would be praised as a character actor, from Dustin Hoffman's scene stealing agent in Tootsie to a sympathetic cynic in Eyes Wide Shut.
Forever curious, Pollack often used these films to see how other significant directors plied their trade. Trying to balance time for family and his many other soon-to-be-explored talents, Pollack's ability to recognize quality material also made him a producer of such memorable works as The Fabulous Baker Boys, Sense and Sensibility, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Iris, and Michael Clayton. This work weaves the story of Pollack's life and career through ten of his films and covers his relationship with two actors; teacher and mentor, Burt Lancaster, and Robert Redford, with whom he frequently collaborated
Peter Evans, Emeritus Professor of Film Studies, Queen Mary University of London, recently wrote the author, "You certainly make an excellent case for his [ Pollack's ]re-evaluation, [ while ] providing your characteristic mixture of scholarship and sharp analysis."
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