JOHN BOORMAN, (producer, director, and co-screenwriter), is an artist with a camera. He is a totally dedicated filmmaker who strives for perfection in every aspect of his craft.
It is no wonder Boorman's films often focus on discovery because he too is a continual student of the complex world around him, always searching for new meanings and new solutions. He exudes a fierce intelligence and, driven by his strong allegorical bent, delights in focusing on exotic visual metaphors for serious human concerns. Believing that his films must first entertain, he also makes sure they have an important message.
Of Dutch, Irish and Scottish ancestry, John Boorman was born on January 18th, 1933 in London, England. He was raised in Shepperton, a British filmmaking town. Young Boorman was an instant film buff, but like many youngsters, he had a series of undistinguished jobs in his youth, including a stint working at his parents' local pub. Soon enough, Boorman's fascination with the world of film led to his writing about the films he was seeing and filmmakers he admired. His perceptive observations began to appear in magazines, while he was also reviewing the newest films on local radio.
For Boorman, his entry position into the film industry came at the age of twenty-two, when he was hired as an assistant film editor at Shepperton Studio Center. Armed with the realization that filmmaking had its own language and rules, he continually sought to learn everything he could. By 1962, he had successfully worked his way through the ranks of provincial television to a coveted job with national broadcasting at the BBC.
Before long, Boorman's growing reputation as a young filmmaker of special merit led to his debut as a feature motion picture director on "Catch Us If You Can." Made in 1965, the film starred the Dave Clark Five, a then celebrated pop music group, and it further cemented Boorman's rising career.
He then returned to the BBC, where, among other projects, he produced a documentary on the American film pioneer, D.W. Griffith, as well as created "Day By Day," a popular series that aired many years on British television. Boorman, himself a film pioneer, introduced and then firmly established the "docu-drama" form of production at BBC, later becoming head of the documentary unit for the network.
Boorman's major breakthrough came in 1967 when American film producer Judd Bernard sent him a script starring Lee Marvin they wanted him to direct. Boorman accepted the assignment, travelling to California locations that included the notorious prison at Alcatraz. The result was "Point Blank," a film that because of its unusual use of the camera and startling subjective point of view, launched Boorman into the ranks of major international film directors.
Lee Marvin also starred in Boorman's next feature, ""Hell in the Pacific," a powerful allegory about two World War II adversaries who wind up marooned together on a remote Pacific island. Critics began to praise Boorman's work for its superb sense of dramatic construction and his sustained narrative pacing.
Boorman has always chosen his projects carefully, working for many months on a remote Palau archipelago, he longed to return to England, to direct a very personal project titled "Leo The Last." That unusual film, starring international film legend Marcello Mastroianni, went on to win the filmmaker the "Best Director" award at the 1970 Cannes Film Festival. Boorman followed this film with his powerful screen adaptation of the best-selling novel, ""Deliverance." a highly successful film that led to Oscar nominations for "Best Director" and "Best Picture" in 1972.
Boorman's 1974 film, the futuristic adventure, "Zardoz," starring Sean Connery, concerned a favorite Boorman theme -- the eventual triumph of magic over science. "Exorcist II: The Heretic," his next project, was unfairly devastated by the critics but, was still profitable.
After the success of ""Deliverance." Boorman again wanted to explore his own thoughts about man's lost oneness with nature. Based on Arthurian legend, "Excalibur" was set in a time when mankind was moving away from an absolute harmony with nature into a more modern era. Boorman found his perfect alter ego in the character of the magician, Merlin -- a man who longed for continued belief in sorcery but who was unable to stop man's evolution into the cold rationality of science.
In 1984, John Boorman realized the culmination of a long-held dream -- to explore the myths, magic and mystery of the great Amazon jungle. Inspired by a true account, "The Emerald Forest" concerned an American youth, abducted by jungle Indians as a seven-year-old boy, who has grown to manhood as a warrior of the rainforest. Then, after ten long years of searching for the boy, and against all hope, his father finds him deep in the mysterious emerald-hued jungle preparing to become chief of the legendary Invisible People.
Boorman next returned to his British roots for "Hope and Glory," a highly autobiographical account of an English family that pulls together to survive WWII. "Hope and Glory" was nominated for six Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay. Boorman's most recent film, "Where The Heart Is," is a comedy loosely based on "King Lear," about a father's attempts to cope with three rebellious daughters.
