Corman's World: Exploits
of a Hollywood Rebel
Director:
Alex Stapleton
Year: 2011
Rating: 6.0
A look back at the crazy world and career of Roger
Corman. One woman in the documentary says something to the effect that young
people today don't even know who Roger Corman is. I would hate to think that
is the truth, but perhaps. In his time - and he is still alive but getting
up there - he directed or produced hundreds of films. Now admittedly most
of them were low budget exploitation films but many of them are great fun.
In the ancient days of vhs video store rentals, it would feel like every
other film they had was in some way connected to Corman. He never really
wanted to go big time with big budgets because that would take away from
his independence. He wanted to make films the way he wanted to make films.
Beginning in the 1950's, his films were springboards to young actors and
directors to bigger things. Actors who he nurtured and gave jobs to (at the
lowest salary he could) are Jack Nicholson (who breaks down crying when he
talks about Corman), Peter Fonda, Bruce Dern, De Niro, David Carradine, Pam
Grier, William Shatner and so many others. Some famous directors got their
beginning working with him - Scorsese, Bogdanovich, Joe Dante, Ron Howard,
Francis Ford Coppola. He also directed those wonderful horror films based
on the Edgar Allan Poe stories. Those were the days of course when low budget
films like his were shown at Drive In theaters or on 42nd Street or theaters
that showed two to three films for the price of one. That all started going
away and his films began going straight to video. Blockbuster films pushed
him out of the theaters. He won some deserved recognition in 2009 when the
Academy gave him the Lifetime Achievement Award. This documentary is fine
- not particularly scholarly or perceptive - but it shows a lot of clips
and had interviews with some of my favorite stars and for me that was enough
to pass an easy 90 minutes.