Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel

source: Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel

(*Roger Corman quote*) - "In science-fiction films, the monster should always be bigger than the leading lady." In his heyday - Roger Corman was widely considered to be one of the most influential Hollywood filmmakers of American mainstream cinema. Looked upon as being much more than just a low-budget schlock-meister - Corman not only directed more than 50 feature films throughout his prolific career, but, he also produced well over 300 motion pictures, as well. And, when it came to promoting the careers of budding directors, producers, and actors - There's no telling how many hundreds of these people who Corman actually helped along the way. All-in-all - This engaging and informative bio-documentary offers the curios viewer a well-rounded profile of a man who is owed a helluva lot of thanks from countless many in the field of American film-making.

Great documentary about writer/producer/director Roger Corman who has been making low low LOW budget films since the 1950s..and always turned a profit. He also gave a lot of actors and directors their first big breaks. Mostly all of them are interviewed for this film--Peter Bogdanovich, Joe Dante, Jonathan Demme, Bruce Dern, Robert DeNiro, Peter Fonda, Pam Grier, Ron Howard, Jack Nicholson (who breaks down in tears at one point), Martin Scorsese and William Shatner. It also chronicles how his movie changed how movies were marketed, how he did risky films no one would touch and changed the face of independent filmmaking. There's also some humorous behind-the-scenes footage. My favorite parts had to him laughing while discussing "The Terror" and how his favorite film ("The Intruder") actually lost money. There's surprisingly not much footage from the films themselves. Most of it consists of interviews. It's fast and funny and I must-see for film lovers. A 10 all the way.

If nothing else, Roger Corman has been a blue collar filmmaker- a man who got things done. Sure, the Hits and the Misses were often indistinguishable from one another (at least, BEFORE the receipts were counted), but Corman keeps plugging away. CORMAN'S WORLD gives us a rare (nay, long overdue) look at The Man Himself and there ARE some interesting insights along the way. One of my first attempts to sell a script to someone in Hollywood was a monstrosity titled BEAST WORLD, which had a giant alien bat living in a cave on another world humans were trying to colonize. It was, to its CORE, a Corman-type of scenario; i.e.;one part Mario Bava's PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES, one part IT! THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE and one part Christian Nyby's THE THING (with, by default, a touch of ALIEN in the mix). The script never sold, but, man, what a Corman movie it could've been!

If anyone ever made a movie about you, you'd wish it was made like this. I'm pretty sure Roger Corman himself is happy about the end result. It's a mix, where you are treated to the past and the present (of course the present is the past, at the time you'll be able watch this, but you get what I mean) of Corman body of work. New and old collaborators are there to be interviewed. At the end there is a special treat, though I guess fans will know this (actually should know this), before watching the movie. But to newbies or people not as aware to Corman (like myself) this works wonders. You really start to respect the man. And while it is rose tinted most of the time, it also involves some controversial material in it too. Still this is here to celebrate a man and that is what it does

Roger Corman often told a story about how he was robbed by a cabdriver after getting out of the Navy and lost all his clothes. Then he became a film maker after getting a degree in engineering at Stanford. The story wasn't in the film. Another major omission was the film remake, Not of This Earth, that was Traci Lords' first non-pornographic film. I liked many of Corman's films from the fifties that were skimmed over in ten or fifteen minutes. First, losing a contract for Easy Rider became the root of Corman's sixties failures, then the success of Jaws and Star Wars became the blame for Corman's seventies failures. It's always easy to blame a competitor for your own shortcomings. After 400 films, maybe he just ran out of new material. I just grow tired of the dumbing down of documentaries into after 5 minutes--bang--five minutes--fight--five minutes--explosion--five minutes--crash--five minutes--* clip! I would like to learn something interesting beneath the shallowness of all that.

Believe it or not... I have watched the documentary feature on life and works of this man with smiles and tears throughout. Smiles at my realization how crazily, madly, and fiercely independent Mr. Roger Corman has proudly been and how fascinating his ups and downs in his film life must have been. The man's integrity and strength deserve admiration at all levels. It can never be easy to go against an establishment for decades and to remain self-fulfilled, commercially successful, and happily married. Worse, the very establishment or Hollywood itself has to succumb when it unanimously gives him an Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement. Tears at a life of man denied his rightful place for a very, very long time. He gives birth to the likes of Martin Scorsese, Ron Howard, Jonathan Demme, Jack Nicholson, and the almost endless list of names in the 285 films he makes, and yet the father has been treated almost as an embarrassment by the children because most of his works are of exploiting nature. I find it greatly unfair and very sad. It is true that Mr. Corman himself may never have craved for meaningless glory and praises, but can't we be a little stronger and award courage and human free spirits as opposed to those bricks in the wall? I think it is appropriate for Jack Nicholson to cry during the interview because, I believe, of such hard truth. In fact, this film shows several people who look back and rediscover, after all, their deep love and gratitude to Roger Corman. It is amusing to see many of these film celebrities cracking, smilingly while doing it, at a mere mention of Mr. Corman's name, as if they feel slightly ashamed of failing early on to realize his genuine values, personal goodness and morality code, and the real contribution of him to their very lives. They almost think of him now as a father whom they disgust, ridicule, and make fun of in their previous lives. Now they know all too well from whom they obtain their secrets of success. Roger Corman is a wonderful subject matter of this wonderful, and unpretentious, film about a man who is strictly his own among the devious crowd.

definitely enjoyed the DVD however if you are looking at it to try and come up with some good ideas for which old school grindhouse movies to watch then it might not offer a whole lot of suggestions. What it does do however is offer a very informative view on how roger corman came to be. Its more of a biography concerning his film career opposed to concentrating on his filmography. I'd say i developed more of a respect for roger corman after seeing how he struggled and pulled all his resources together to slowly build up his huge body of work, especially after my respect for him seemed to be recently faltering do his garbage additions to the sci fi channel (im looking at you sharktopus). With that said i did come away with a few new movies to add to my watch list ie, wild angels, big bird cage(i know i know i should have seen this by now), bloody mama, and the trip. All in all it was very informative and entertaining and held my attention throughout. Nothing much in the way of special features though, i guess the whole movie is basically one big special feature.

Even while I truly enjoyed watching this documentary, I still felt somewhat disappointed by the end. Something was missing. I often love watching dumb, low-budget B-movies, no matter how bad they are. It's sort of relaxing to watch and helps to make you forget all your sorrows for a short while. Besides, the thing about B-movies is that it keeps reminding you about it how complex and painstaking the movie making process actually is. With good and big budgeted movies you can't really see how the movie got made but with B-movies you notice every little detail. Every piece of bad dialog becomes more notable, editing, camera-positioning, storytelling, acting is often so simplistic and lacking that it makes you appreciate the art, passion and talent that often goes into making a movie. When it's done right, you hardly pay attention to it but when it's done poorly, you all suddenly start to realize this and appreciate and respect the movie making business all the more. And Roger Corman is everywhere- and by everyone regarded as the king of B-movies. No wonder, since his movies are pretty much form the definition of a B-movie; cheap, simplistic and they got put together as fast as possible, even if there isn't a completely finished script to work with. And not only that, it is hard to find a film-maker with more movies behind his or her name. He has produced over 400 movies in the past 7 decades and directed over 50. And this is a documentary about the film-maker Roger Corman and his methods of filmmaking and about his views on the industry. So don't expect an insightful documentary about the man behind the film-maker. In that regard this really isn't a documentary that goes deep into things but that doesn't mean that it also doesn't have plenty of different stuff to offer. No doubt that you'll still learn a lot from this documentary and makes you realize what Corman has done for the industry and how his movies and his style of film-making have influenced the business and helped to give many film-makers a boost. Many people that normally wouldn't had been given a chance in the industry started out their careers with Corman's movies. I'm not just talking about actors but also lots of people involved with the work behind the cameras. Many of them actually grew out to become big names in the industry as well, such as James Cameron, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Peter Bogdanovich, Jonathan Demme, Joe Dante, Ron Howard, Jack Nicholson, Peter Fonda, Bruce Dern, Dennis Hopper, Talia Shire, Sandra Bullock, Robert De Niro, David Carradine and William Shatner. Some of them participate in this documentary as well, which makes you realize all the more what Corman and his movies must have meant for them. The whole documentary is presented as a light and fun one to watch. It never gets too serious and when it does, there is something to laugh about 5 seconds later again. This ensures that the entire documentary remains pleasant to watch but I surely wouldn't had minded some more depth and also some more focus on the negative aspects at times. You feel that this movie is mostly being a tribute to Corman and his work, over the many decades. Perhaps the documentary would had featured some more depth and feeling to it if it was about 30 minutes longer. Normally a documentary of movie can feel to long but in this case it could had truly benefited from a longer running time. I don't have the feeling that this documentary told the entire story and especially the ending, when Corman receives an honorary academy award feels very rushed, as if it got put into the documentary at the very last moment. It's still good and fun to watch, especially when you are a Roger Corman enthusiast but it's lacking a bit of depth and substance at time. 7/10 http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

Now 90 years old, Roger Corman (aka. King of the B-Movies) has been in the film-making business for close to 60 years now. Through film clips, stills, and interviews with colleagues, relatives, etc., etc., this 90-minute documentary gives the viewer a fairly realistic look at the overall history of Roger Corman's career, first as a low-budget film director, then as a low-budget film producer. Throughout his many years in the business Corman has given struggling, young actors (such as William Shatner and Robert De Niro) and budding, young directors (such as Martin Scorsese and James Cameron) a big, helping hand in their chosen field of work. Needless to say - Corman is one man who is certainly owed a helluva lot of thanks in gratitude from countless people who went on to notable success in the movie business as either actors, producers and directors. All-in-all - I think this documentary was quite entertaining, especially from the standpoint of getting to see some hilarious film clips from a number of Corman's cheesier horror movies and brutally bad, teen exploitation pictures which were all standard Drive-In fare from the 1950s and 60s.