People latch on to certain filmmakers and hold them up to an incredibly high standard. Martin Scorsese, Stanley Kubrick, Alfred Hitchcock and many others are given the pedestal treatment. However, there are so many directors out there who never get their due diligence. For example, who talks about how great Victor Fleming is? Not many people, despite directing Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz… in the same year. One such filmmaker who I think has made some pretty fantastic films but is often overlooked in the film community is Robert Wise, who is the subject of a forty-five minute documentary you can watch below.
The man started off as an editor, editing films like Citizen Kane and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Moving into the director’s chair, he made films like The Day the Earth Stood Still, West Side Story, The Sound of Music, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, The Haunting, and many others. Why does no one hold this guy in such high regard as the previous people I have mentioned. That is one hell of a track record.
The documentary below showcases the varied and extremely high quality career of Wise. I hope many of you out there watch it to further your appreciation of not only Robert Wise but many other directors out there who are never mentioned with the greats.
