Book Review - Being Hal Ashby

I often read filmmaker biographies with the foolish hope of discovering elusive secrets of the masters. When I heard about "Being Hal Ashby" by Nick Dawson, I couldn't wait to read it. I'm a huge fan of Hal Ashby based on Being There and Harold and Maude alone, but his career and life story have been somewhat of an enigma. I want to thank Nick Dawson for filling in this major gap in film history.

While the book doesn't contain any elusive directorial secrets of Hal Ashby, there are some important lessons that aspiring filmmakers should acknowledge. In a nutshell, Ashby was a hippie workaholic who consistently sacrificed his personal life in favor of his films. All artists struggle with the balance between work, art and life, and I think Ashby's life is a cautionary tale. He went went through five wives and struggled with drug and alcohol abuse. He made some amazing work, but the personal toll in his life seems hardly worth it.

The narrative of Ashby's rise to director is a nice counterpoint to the "wonderkid director" phenomenon that has been so dominant for the last three decades. Ashby began as a 3rd assistant editor and slowly climbed up the ranks. He soon rose to primary editor and developed reputation in the industry as a dedicated and creative editor, winning an academy award 1n 1968 for In The Heat of the Night. During this time, he began a working relationship with director Norman Jewison. The partnership developed to the point where Ashby became associate producer on a number of projects, and ultimately resulted in Jewison stepping up the plate and producing Ashby's first directorial project, The Landlord.


This is one of those "fantasy scenarios" that editors with directorial aspirations drool over (myself included). The communal element of film production is one of my favorite parts of the process, and hearing stories of collaborators pulling each other up as they rise up the ranks is inspiring.

I was struck by the portrayal of Ashby's directorial style, which was laid back and calm. He let the actors do their thing and when an adjustment needed to be made, he would quietly offer some advice. Again, I appreciate this counterpoint example to the "screaming genius" model of directing.

After an amazing run of films; The Landlord, Harold and Maude, The Last Detail, Shampoo, and Being There, his career was derailed by an increasingly business oriented Hollywood and a new breed of executives. It is both sad and frightening that the career of such a talented and respected director could be destroyed like that. But it would be naive of me to think otherwise of the Hollywood machine.

Definitely check out "Being Hal Ashby" and if you haven't seen any of his films, shoot them up to the top of your Netflix cue. They're amazing. Enjoy.