Fred Zinnemann

Fred Zinnemann has had an outstanding career spanning six decades, during which he has directed 22 features, 19 short subjects and won three Oscars. Perhaps his best-known work is "High Noon" (1952), one of the first 25 American film classics chosen in 1989 for the National Film Registry. With its psychological and moral examinations of its lawman hero, played by Gary Cooper, its allegorical political commentary (on McCarthy-era witch-hunting) and its innovative chronology whereby screen time approximated the tense 80-minute countdown to the confrontational hour, "High Noon" shattered the mold of the formulaic shoot-em-up western.The director's other eminent films, all compelling dramas of lone and principled individuals tested by tragic events, include "From Here to Eternity" (1953); "The Nun's Story" (1959); "A Man For All Seasons" (1966); and "Julia" (1977). Regarded as a consummate craftsman, Zinnemann has traditionally endowed his work with meticulous attention to detail, an intuitive gift for brilliant casting and a preoccupation with the moral dilemmas of his characters.Zinnemann's penchant for realism and authenticity is evident in his first feature "Redes/The Wave "(1935), shot on location...

Fred Zinnemann has had an outstanding career spanning six decades, during which he has directed 22 features, 19 short subjects and won three Oscars. Perhaps his best-known work is "High Noon" (1952), one of the first 25 American film classics chosen in 1989 for the National Film Registry. With its psychological and moral examinations of its lawman hero, played by Gary Cooper, its allegorical political commentary (on McCarthy-era witch-hunting) and its innovative chronology whereby screen time approximated the tense 80-minute countdown to the confrontational hour, "High Noon" shattered the mold of the formulaic shoot-em-up western.

The director's other eminent films, all compelling dramas of lone and principled individuals tested by tragic events, include "From Here to Eternity" (1953); "The Nun's Story" (1959); "A Man For All Seasons" (1966); and "Julia" (1977). Regarded as a consummate craftsman, Zinnemann has traditionally endowed his work with meticulous attention to detail, an intuitive gift for brilliant casting and a preoccupation with the moral dilemmas of his characters.

Zinnemann's penchant for realism and authenticity is evident in his first feature "Redes/The Wave "(1935), shot on location in Mexico with mostly non-professional actors recruited among the locals, which is one of the earliest examples of realism in narrative film. Earlier in the decade, in fact, Zinnemann had worked with documentarian Robert Flaherty, an association he considered "the most important event of my professional life."

The filmmaker also used authentic locales and extras in "The Search" (1948), which won an Oscar for screenwriting and secured his position in the Hollywood establishment. Shot in war-ravaged Germany, the film stars Montgomery Clift in his screen debut as a G.I. who cares for a lost Czech boy traumatized by the war. In the critically acclaimed "The Men" (1950), starring newcomer Marlon Brando as a paraplegic vet, Zinnemann filmed many scenes in a California hospital where real patients served as extras.

Besides Clift and Brando, other Zinnemann discoveries included Pier Angeli and John Ericson, who co-starred in "Teresa" (1951), with Rod Steiger and Ralph Meeker debuting in secondary roles. And in "Oklahoma!" (1955), Zinnemann's version of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, the wide screen format Todd-AO made its debut, as did the film's young star Shirley Jones.

Zinnemann's casting choices were often as daring as they were judicious. For his screen adaptation of the play "The Member of the Wedding" (1952), Zinnemann chose the 26-year-old Julie Harris as the film's 12-year-old protagonist. In "From Here to Eternity" (1953), which brought Zinnemann his first Oscar for feature directing, he cast Frank Sinatra, who was at the lowest point of his popularity. As the likable loser Maggio, Sinatra won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. "From Here to Eternity" also featured Deborah Kerr, best known for prim and proper roles, as a philandering Army wife. And Audrey Hepburn, previously cast in delightful comedic roles, gave the performance of her career as the anguished Sister Luke in the highly acclaimed "The Nun's Story."

Throughout his career Zinnemann has favored a protagonist morally impelled to act heroically in defense of his or her beliefs. Hepburn in "The Nun's Story" and Cooper in "High Noon," determined to confront savage outlaws hungry for revenge, are two prominent examples. Paul Scofield as Sir Thomas More in "A Man For All Seasons" (1966), which earned Zinnemann his second Oscar for feature film direction, gave a brilliant portrayal of a man driven by conscience to his ultimate fate.

And in "Julia" (1977), another of Zinnemann's crowning achievements, Vanessa Redgrave is a doomed American heiress who forsakes the safety and comfort of great wealth to devote her life to the anti-Nazi cause in Germany. Perhaps the most unusual and perversely engaging loner in Zinnemann's films is Edward Fox as the cold-blooded anti-hero assassin in the taut thriller "Day of the Jackal" (1973), a man who is impelled by greed rather than politics to try to kill French president DeGaulle.

In spite of the many consistencies and high quality that characterize his work, Zinnemann has been perceived by some critics--citing the many different genres he has embraced--to be a director for all seasons rather than an "auteur." Even his less sure-footed forays into film noir, melodrama, musicals and panoramic romance cannot outweigh Zinnemann's major efforts, which assure his reputation as one of America's most reliable directors.

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