Richard Attenborough

In the Jurassic park episode it was mentioned how much playing John Hammond as a twinkly old gent was a pivot for Richard Attenborough. Just to underline that point . Attenborough acting career in British cinema was largely as cowards, scoundrels Psychopathic killers, Conmen and Spivs. In the 60s he got some more heroic roles like the Great Escape but still I think his defining movies as an actor are In Which We Serve where he is a young sailor who deserts his post in the heat of battle, Brighton Rock where he is a unhinged sadistic teen gangster and 10 Rillington Place where he plays serial killer John Christie.

I think David suggested Attenborough as a so so director. In a certain sense he is. His films are uneven and especially latterly play it safe. However I would like to stick up for a few of his movies and his role as a producer.

As producer he helped set up both Allied Filmmakers and Beaver Pictures that were key independent production companies of the British kitchen sink realist new wave. Like Whistle Down The Wind, The L Shaped Room, Victim, Seance on a Wet afternoon, The Angry Silence.

As a director his debut- Oh What A Lovely War! Is an adaptation of a seemingly unadaptable brechtian anti war musical. Attenborough transposes it to Brightons West Pier. It’s an odd but deeply moving film whose ending is one of the great cinematic statements against war.

Gandhi has a reputation of being safe Oscar bait that stole the Best Picture from ET. I prefer ET to Gandhi but that film was not a safe bet. No one wanted to make a movie about an Indian revolutionaries fight for independence from the British colonial rule. He really had to fight to get that movie made. Ben Kingsley is amazing and the movie really is really very watchable. The Jallianwala Bagh massacre being especially well done.

Shadowlands is an understated beauty that always make me cry. Hopkins and Debra Winger are top of their game and it’s well observed and well written.